Fox pups © Carolina K Smith
Stop Sprawl and Grow the Greenbelt
Across the Greater Golden Horseshoe developers and land speculators are lobbying local governments to allow sprawl-style development on precious natural areas and farmland. They’re using COVID-19 as a smoke screen saying these developments are necessary to get us through the crisis. We need to stop this assault on our natural heritage.
Local governments must focus on protecting the natural spaces, farmland and precious water sources that we all depend on. They need to hear from you, and thousands of others, that you want a COVID-19 Recovery Plan that stops sprawl, grows the Greenbelt and resists the misuse of Minister’s Zoning Orders.
Halton
Conservation Authorities Under Fire
On November 5, 2020, the Government of Ontario revealed its plans to severely curtail the role of Conservation Authorities in watershed planning and management. Schedule 6 of omnibus Budget Bill 229 proposes numerous changes to the Conservation Authorities Act that will undermine efforts to conserve biodiversity and build community resilience to climate change.
Please join Ontario Nature in asking the government to withdraw Schedule 6 in its entirety from Bill 229.
© Ryan McGilchrist CC BY-SA 2.0
Provincially Significant Wetlands no longer safe from development
The Government of Ontario is showing its true colours with recent moves to ride roughshod over protections for Provincially Significant Wetlands.
Please join Ontario Nature in urging the Government of Ontario to respect and uphold protections for Provincially Significant Wetlands and to stop its misuse of Minister’s Zoning Orders.
North Gwillimbury wetland © Tim Hagen
Minister’s Zoning Orders
While we all grapple with the social and economic impacts of a global pandemic, the Government of Ontario is quietly setting the stage for development projects to proceed without public consultation or the right to appeal. The recent flurry of Minister’s Zoning Orders is fast-tracking development on farmland and greenspace. Expediting this sort of short-sighted development while keeping Ontarians in the dark does not serve the public interest.
Our focus should be on enhancing community resilience to climate change and potential future pandemics. To do so we must enable and support public participation in determining the future of our farmlands, forests, wetlands and other natural areas. Please join us in demanding greater public accountability and enhanced community resilience to climate change.
Markham © Joe Mabel CC BY-SA 2.0
Protected Places Declaration
Sign the declaration to show you care about protected places and ask the governments of Ontario and Canada to meet the commitment to protect at least 17 percent of lands and inland waters by 2020.
© Pinar Özgen
Procter & Gamble
American paper product companies must be more responsible with their use of Ontario’s forests.
Call on Procter & Gamble to protect the habitat of species at risk, purchase from companies that obtain Free, Prior and Informed Consent from Indigenous people, increase the amount of post-consumer recycled content, and source from FSC-certified forests.
© Pinar Özgen
Protect Boreal Caribou
Please use your voice to support caribou – the grey ghosts of the boreal forest – at: protectcaribou.ca.
Tell the Government of Canada that caribou denial myths must be dispelled, and action must be taken with provinces to plan for caribou recovery and sustainable prosperity. Your voice matters.
Boreal caribou © Mati Kurg
Impact
You can make an enormous difference and it’s free!
Ontario Nature’s advocates helped with campaigns that led to a conservation plan for the Oak Ridges Moraine, an 80 percent reduction in neonicotinoid pesticides, wetland and woodlot protection, establishment of 2.4 million hectares of new protected areas, and much more.
Oak Ridges Moraine © Jason Kalmbach
Recent Action Alerts
- Say No to More Sprawl, Less Nature and Less Farmland(2020-07-31)
- Sauble’s piping plovers need you now! (2020-06-25)
- Protect species at risk while strengthening the forest industry (2020-06-18)
- Share Ontario’s Forests (2020-02-05)
- Put nature first in Rondeau Provincial Park (2019-12-18)
- Pits and quarries (2019-10-21)
- Wolves and coyotes wrongly accused (2019-09-26)
- SOS: Save Ontario Species 2019-06-06
- Oppose the senseless slaughter of cormorants 2019-01-03
- Stop Bill 66: Privileging big business over the people of Ontario 2018-12-14
- We the people are for the environment 2018-16-11
Monarch butterfly © Robert J. Beyers II
Previous Action Alerts Continued
- Caribou can’t survive without a place to live 2018-01-10
- Help secure a historic investment for nature protection in Canada 2018-01-18
- Protect our water 2017-12-08
- Guide stronger protection for nature across the Greater Golden Horseshoe 2017-08-22
- Help at risk caribou persist in the Caribou Forest 2017-05-08
- Stand up for the Greenbelt and stop sprawl for good! 2017-03-20
Prothonotary warbler © Bill McDonald