Ontario Nature Blog

The Auditor General of Ontario’s report, Protecting and Recovering Species at Risk, is not reading for the faint of heart. Released on November 22, 2021 the audit sets out in excruciating detail the Government of Ontario’s abject failure to exercise its duty to protect the province’s most vulnerable plants and animals. The review spans the ...

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Oftentimes when we talk about species at risk, we think about mammals, birds or reptiles and we forget about the many plants that are at risk in our province. That’s why we’re dedicating this week’s blog to learning more about plants at risk in Ontario. Blue Ash Have you heard of the emerald ash borer? ...

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The provincial government is proposing a new approach to getting species off the Species at Risk in Ontario (SARO) list. And it’s not by addressing threats, preventing further declines or implementing recovery measures. Nothing that involves real, on-the-ground improvements. Rather, it would simply require basing species assessments on how our most vulnerable plants and animals ...

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In February 2019, we sounded the alarm about the provincial government’s plans to amend the Endangered Species Act, 2007 (ESA). Well, their proposed amendments are in and it’s worse than we predicted. On April 18, 2019, Ontario’s Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) posted an overview of its proposed changes to Ontario’s ESA. These changes ...

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Data shows that the MNRF must be more diligent in protecting species at risk Throughout childhood, understanding what conditions classify species at risk and how to help endangered species is something that I have always been passionate about and is something that drives me throughout my work, both as a researcher and as an environmental ...

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