Your membership protects Ontario's wild species and wild spaces.

Dear Individual first name ,

We would like to wish you and your loved ones a very happy holidays from everyone at Ontario Nature. We hope you get a chance to curl up by the fire with the latest issue of ON Nature magazine or read the digital version of our winter issue on the go. As we wrap up 2020, we look forward to what next year will bring and will continue to defend nature across our beautiful province. Read on to check out the latest holiday nature news!

Squire's Beach Provincially Significant Wetland

Legal Action Against the Destruction of Wetlands

This past fall, we announced that we are moving forward with legal action against the provincial government for pushing through Bill 197 without public consultation. That’s not the only legal action we are taking! We are joining with Ecojustice and Environmental Defence for legal action to stop the destruction of Lower Duffins Creek, a provincially significant wetland in Pickering on Lake Ontario. You can read more about this upcoming legal action in our press release.

Pandering to Developers at Our Expense

The government betrayed the citizens of Ontario by passing Schedule 6, which rewards the worst developers and land speculators by incapacitating the system that protects source water and guards Ontarians against flooding, landslides and other environmental disasters. The government ignored a deafening chorus of expert warnings – and nearly 21,000 of our members and supporters who signed our Action Alert – to retain the mandate of the province’s 36 Conservation Authorities. These changes will let developers dump, build and excavate largely unchecked in high-risk areas, risking impaired water quality, property damage, and environmental degradation. But we are not going anywhere and will continue the fight. Stay tuned.

Ontario Nature’s Virtual AGM

We welcomed Ontario Nature members from across the country last month for our first virtual Annual General Meeting (AGM). If you weren’t able to attend, you can still watch Kurt Kroesen present our Treasurer’s Report and Caroline Schultz present our Year in Review. Read our financial statements and enjoy recordings on our YouTube channel.

Make your Year-End Gift to Nature

When you make a year-end gift to Ontario Nature, you are speaking up for strengthening environmental protections for our watersheds, wetlands, the Greenbelt, boreal forest, and threatened habitat across our province. We hope you will choose to make a gift or become a monthly donor and protect nature every day of the year. Thank you for all you do for nature.

Stone Road Alvar Nature Reserve butterfly identification workshop group photo

Watch Recordings of Our 2020 Webinars

Did you catch the latest webinar about our Ontario Reptile and Amphibian Atlas? After 10 years of data collection, the atlas is wrapping up with a final database consisting of over 480,000 records. This represents the cumulative efforts of more than 12,000 researchers, naturalists, and citizen scientists from across the province. You can watch a recording of the Ontario Reptile and Amphibian Atlas webinar on our YouTube channel along with previously recorded webinars exploring our Stone Road Alvar Nature Reserve, reserves along the Saugeen-Bruce Peninsula, our new Gananoque Lake Nature Reserve, and more!

Order your Gift of Nature before December 15th

It’s your last chance to order the gift of nature for the nature lover on your list this holiday season. Order before the December 15th deadline for delivery by Christmas! Your gift of membership includes a pound of Birds and Beans coffee and a 2021 Ontario Nature membership with a subscription to the award-winning magazine, ON Nature. It’s a wonderful way to share the joy of nature while supporting the conservation of wild species and habitat in Ontario.

Become an Advocate for Nature

This has been a particularly devastating year for environmental protections in our province. The provincial government has been pushing through damaging legislation and we are fighting back by contacting our local decision makers and taking legal action. We hope you’ll sign our Stop Sprawl and Grow the Greenbelt Action Alert and join 6,000 others in signing our Provincially Significant Wetlands Action Alert. If you are not yet an Advocate for Nature, please sign up to receive notifications when you can act for nature. If you are an Advocate for Nature, thank you. We hope you will continue to sign and share our Action Alerts among your networks.

Thank You for Supporting Us in 2020!

We hope you’ve had a chance to read our 2020 Gratitude Report in the centre of your winter magazine. Your generosity makes our work possible and we are excited to report back to you on your gifts in action this year. We couldn’t do it without you!