Opportunities for Nature-Loving Youth aged 13-18yrs

Many kids cultivate a love of nature through their childhood, maybe by participating in a Junior Naturalist program, or Guides/Scouts, or visiting Provincial Parks on family camping trips. As they enter the teen years, their school might have an Eco-Club, which encourages environmental initiatives.

Some youths will want to keep growing in their knowledge and skills in a favorite area like birds, or amphibians and reptiles, or rocks and minerals.

Below are some opportunities that families can look into and take advantage of:

Young Toronto Mineralogists Club

  • Mineralogy club at the ROM for kids up to 15yrs. Meets weekly.
  • Focus: Rock and Mineral ID.

TRCA Camp: “Girls Can Too”

  • Girls spend a week at a TRCA Conservation area volunteering outdoors.
  • Focus: Using tools, working outdoors, completing projects.

Young Ornithologists’ Workshop

  • Birds Canada offers two week-long camps. 
  • Focus:  Bird banding and Bird ID skills. 

Youth Ornithology Career Orientation

  • Three day bird camps for youth 13-18 yrs offered by Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory.
  • Offered in the spring, summer and fall.
  • Focus:  Bird-banding and Bird ID.

Camp for Young Birders and Naturalists

  • Ontario Field Ornithologists offer a week long summer birding camp in Algonquin,
  • Registration closed for 2025.

Project Canoe

  • Canoe-tripping and wilderness adventures, inclusive for those with mental health challenges.

Rouge Valley Conservation Summer Day Camp

  • Ecologist in Training program offered by Rouge National Park for kids aged 13-16yrs.
  • Offered through May and June over six Saturdays.
  • Focus: Spring phenomena like Salamanders, Migrating Songbirds, Reptiles, Macro-Invertebrates.

Anne Purvis and Marina Sokol

Toronto Field Naturalists wishes to acknowledge this Land through which we walk. For thousands of years, the Land has been shared by the Wendat, the Haudenosaunee, and the Anishinaabe. Toronto is situated on the Land within the Toronto Purchase, Treaty 13, the traditional and treaty Lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. This territory is also part of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum, a covenant agreement between Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Wendat peoples and allied nations to peaceably share the land and all its resources. Today, the Land is home to peoples of numerous nations. We are all grateful to have the opportunity to continue to care for and share the beauty of this Land.