Conservation Resources

Books

A Pocket Guide to Ontario Trees
Learn to identify the most common Ontario trees and some common woodland plants with this handy guide to simple tree identification. Ideal for beginners.

A Smart Future for Ontario: How to Protect Nature and Curb Urban Sprawl in Your Community
If you want to understand why urban sprawl happens and how we can curb sprawl by creating smarter communities that protect woodlands, wetlands, wildlife and farmlands, please read our book A Smart Future for Ontario: How to Protect Nature and Curb Urban Sprawl in Your Community.

Atlas of the Mammals of Ontario

• Introduction (PDF 926k)
• Bats (PDF 314k)
• Carnivores (PDF 789k)
• Deer and bison, exotics (PDF 230k)
• Opossums (PDF 191k)
• Rabbits and hares (PDF 261k)
• Rodents (PDF 994k)
• Shrews and moles (PDF 442k)
• Whales (PDF 106k)
• Acknowledgements, references, index (PDF 652k)

Creative Conservation: A Handbook for Ontario Land Trusts
Creative Conservation offers down-to-earth advice on establishing and managing a land trust in Ontario.

Forest Management Planning in Ontario: A Citizen's Guide
This informative guide shows how you can play an active role in ensuring that Ontario's forests are managed on an ecological basis.

Ontario Birds at Risk
Based on the Ontario Breeding Bird program, this comprehensive resource features detailed species accounts that examine history, recommended provincial status, and conservation needs.

For a downloadable bird checklist from the Ontario Field Ornithologists, click below

• O.F.O. Ontario Bird Checklist (PDF 1.4M)

Ontario Nature's Greenway Vision (PDF 119k)
A Greenway for Ontario is Ontario Nature's vision for the future of land conservation in Ontario.

Plants of Carolinian Canada
Discover the unique plants of the Carolinian forest zone. This user-friendly handbook contains accurate descriptions and illustrations for 40 herbaceous (non-woody) plants, such as lizard’s tail, pokeweed, coneflower, wild lupine, and prickly pear cactus.

Voices for the Watershed: Environmental Issues in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Drainage Basin
Voices for the Watershed is a unique look at the singular and ecologically inter-connected region of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence watershed, including the headwater and upland regions.

Watersheds: A Practical Handbook for Healthy Water
Water is our most vital resource. Yet few understand even the basics of watershed ecology. This fascinating introduction to ecology, environmental issues, and conservation has an emphasis on practical ways that people can help.

Wetlands
Whether you call it a swamp, a bog, a fen, a marsh, a slough, or a quagmire, a wetland is a remarkable world where land and water meet. Many plants and animals depend upon this unique ecosystem for survival.

Crayfish of Ontario ID guides

Did you know that Ontario has nine species of crayfish? Elusive and all too often overlooked, these fascinating creatures can tell us a lot about what is happening in our aquatic ecosystems. A new identification guide to Ontario’s crayfish, produced collaboratively by the Bishop’s Mills Natural History Centre, the Toronto Zoo and other expert crayfish-ers from across the province, is now available for free from Ontario Nature. These beautiful laminated guides are designed to assist the study of crayfish in the field, highlighting the unique characteristics of each species. Copies of the guide can be obtained from Ontario Nature’s head office and a downloadable pdf is available at www.crayfishontario.ca.

If you are interested in participating in some hands-on crayfish study this summer, join our St. Lawrence Crayfish Crawl on August 8-10. For more information on the crayfish crawl and how you can register, pick up a copy of our Volunteer for Nature brochure or visit the Volunteer for Nature page on our website at www.ontarionature.org.