Scarborough Bluffs, 2017 (TFN Archives)
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
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
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
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
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
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
The Ontario government plans to open habitat of endangered and threatened species to destructive aggregate extractions in the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GCH). Ontario Nature has uncovered this change (hidden in dry technical text) and has stated in a letter to the ministry: “Your ministry is now proposing to undermine this higher level of protection by Read More
The Toronto Field Naturalists have recently submitted comments to an online survey hosted by the Ontario Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) about the role of our province’s conservation authorities (CAs). But with numerous developer-sponsored lobbying groups pushing to limit the scope and mandate of conservation authorities, it is vital that individual Ontarians speak Read More
On February 4, 2018, heritage tree advocates Edith George and Peter Wynnyczuk delivered their popular lecture What makes a Heritage Tree? The Case of Toronto’s Red Oak to TFN members (see page 6 of our March 2018 newsletter). At the heart of this talk was an amazing 250-year-old heritage tree located on Coral Gable Dr. Read More
Ontario Place has an iconic location on Toronto’s lakeshore, almost downtown. We have 155 acres of publicly owned land, with huge potential to be restored. Ontario Place could become a wonderful public space with many uses – with room for nature and natural habitats and corridors, right on the lake. But the future of Ontario 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.