Take the Survey about Feeding Wildlife in Toronto

The City of Toronto is reviewing its Animal Bylaw, and would like your feedback.  You can take action by completing The City’s online survey before midnight on December 17, 2021. Many aspects of the Animal Bylaw are included in the survey, and the TFN specifically supports changes to the rules for feeding of wildlife. Feeding Read More

High Park Movement Survey

The City wants to hear about your experiences getting to, from and around High Park. Results will help fuel the upcoming High Park Movement Strategy. While most of the survey is about transportation, roads, and trails, there are opportunities to let the City know that many of us visit High Park to enjoy nature, and Read More

Come to a Workshop about the future of the Toronto Islands!

The City is inviting us to a workshop on the future of the Toronto Islands; Wednesday, July 21st, 6:00 pm. As friends of nature, let’s take this chance to speak up for nature at the Toronto Islands. Every voice matters, so please register for the workshop here. City staff are developing a long-term Master Plan Read More

View of the Don Valley and downtown from Leaside bridge

Golf lands to nature? Please say yes

The City of Toronto wants your feedback on future use of Toronto’s five City-operated golf courses: Tam O’Shanter, Scarlett Woods, Humber Valley, Don Valley, and Dentonia. Your responses will help inform Parks, Forestry, and Recreation’s 2021 Golf Course Operations Sourcing Strategy, destined for City Council later this year. This survey will close on July 12, Read More

Toronto Island’s nature needs your Big Idea

City planners want our thoughts on the Toronto Islands. They are asking for our “big ideas” on shaping a Master Plan for Toronto’s beloved Islands – by June 20.  As friends of nature, let’s take this chance to speak up for nature on the Toronto Islands.  What’s special about the Toronto Islands? The Toronto Islands Read More

Natural Garden Exemptions – Have Your Say!

When Nina-Marie Lister’s garden blew up the media in 2020, many TFNers shook their heads in dismay. The City of Toronto had just spent years drafting and passing its official Pollinator, Ravine, and Biodiversity Strategies, and yet Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 489, an antiquated bylaw meant to wag a scolding finger at those Torontonians who Read More

Wait, this again? Bill 229 threatens to undermine conservation in the province

In what may seem much like a scene from the movie Groundhog Day to many Ontarians, Nov 5th’s provincial omnibus budget Bill 229 includes schedules that once again work to diminish the effectiveness of our Conservation Authorities and threaten protections for endangered species. According to Ontario Nature “Schedule 6 of omnibus Budget Bill 229 proposes Read More

Urgent: Protect the Lower Duffins Creek Wetland Complex

On Friday, October 30, the provincial Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs announced a Minister’s Zoning Order (MZO) fast-tracking a warehouse development proposal that would essentially pave over part of the Lower Duffins Creek Wetland Complex, bringing significant damage and destruction to this provincially significant habitat. While the board of the Toronto and Region Conservation Read More

View of the Don Valley and downtown from Leaside bridge

Golf Courses or Parklands?

City-owned golf courses should be opened to public parkland use during COVID-19. Let’s ask the City to slow down and consult the public before renewing multi-year contracts with the golf course operators. Council is on the brink of quietly renewing these contracts at the Sept. 30 Council meeting. Meanwhile, cities across North America are exploring Read More

The great red oak on Coral Gable Dr

Coral Gable Red Oak still needs our help

Back in January we posted that the City had agreed to help protect what may well be the oldest and most historically-important tree in Toronto by purchasing a residential property on Coral Gable Dr., with the intention of converting the land in to a parkette. The catch? By Council’s direction, completion of the sale is Read More

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.