Conservation

"The chief purpose of such an organization would be to provide the means whereby naturalists throughout the province might be able, collectively, to formulate policies and provide the machinery for taking whatever action deemed necessary to support such policies.”

– J.R. Dymond, 1931 (Chairman of the Zoology Department, University of Toronto, and Director of Zoology, Royal Ontario Museum)

Red fox pup. Photo by Robert McCaw.

Over the last 150 years, the landscape of Ontario has been fundamentally altered. In the regions surrounding the Great Lakes, where vast expanses of pine and hardwood forests once flourished, factories, shopping malls and endless rows of houses stand. This change has been at the expense of our wildlife, wetlands and woodlands. The loss of natural areas, wildlife habitat and overall biodiversity is so widespread that it has become a matter of great concern. Ontario Nature works to protect and restore the species, spaces and landscapes that represent the full diversity of nature in Ontario.

Ontario Nature’s conservation work is focused in three main areas:

• Ontario Nature is helping to create new provincial parks and conservation reserves, and working to resolve mining and prospecting claims on candidate protected areas sites.
• Ontario Nature strives to protect wilderness and wildlife by campaigning for the protection of species at risk, partnering with other organizations on the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas and Important Bird Areas.
• Ontario Nature works to increase community capacity for environmental protection, by providing advice to communities on environmental policy and land use planning.