DONATEAt Sierra Club Ontario, our work mainly focuses on protecting the Great Lakes ecosystem, increasing awareness about air pollution, and promoting Green Energy adoption in Ontario. Sierra Club Ontario also works on very local issues, in coordination with smaller communities in Ontario.
Thank you to everyone who came out and joined us in planting 185 native trees and shrubs in Hickory Wood Park this past weekend!
We also want to thank our partners Credit Valley Conservation & Sheridan College - Mission Zero!
It was a beautiful autumn day and we were so happy to connect with so many people.
Join us as we plant 200 native trees and shrubs in Hickory Wood Park (Brampton) on October 1!
Whether this is your first time or you've planted thousands of trees, all ages and abilities are welcome. High school students can get service hours by volunteering.
Join us this Saturday, August 27 in Brampton for a free, fun, social, event to promote waste clean up and reduction!
As part of the Back 2 School BBQ we will be painting City of Brampton garbage cans using designs provided by local artists. Sierra Club Peel will also be demonstrating what gets recycled and what gets tossed through a waste sorting game.
When: Saturday August 27 from 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm.
Where: In the greenspace behind 4 & 10 Knightsbridge Road, Brampton.
On July 23, Sierra Club Ontario had a walk on the tranquil, beautiful Seaton Trail which forms the battle line between the Rouge National Urban Park and the Pickering Airport Study Area. The walk went from the charming Victorian Gothic village of Whitevale, up to the Oak Ridges Moraine. Here, we turned back after seeing an indicator of good ecosystem health — a Pileated Woodpecker. We were also entertained by a soaring Red Tail Hawk and the sounds of Cardinals, Chickadees, and Wood Frogs.
Join us on Sunday August 21 for the first ever joint water & land cleanup in Toronto.
Where? Tommy Thompson Park, Toronto. Meet at the TTP Entrance.
When? Sunday, August 21 at 9AM.
What should you bring? Supplies will be provided on-site. We encourage you to bring your own refillable water bottles and gloves (gardening gloves would be great!).
There is a narrow green wedge of 1.5 kilometers south of the Niagara Escarpment in the City of Niagara Falls. It is a thin refuge for wildlife between a concrete maze of an expressway, quarries, the Welland Canal and a rock dump. It is now under attack.
North of the green wedge is the Greenbelt, which stretches from Lake Ontario to the Niagara Escarpment. South is the most intact area of Carolinian Canada outside of designated Indian Reservations stretching to Lake Erie. It is dominated by the wetland forests created by the heavy clays of the vanished Lake Tonawanda.
In January 2020, a month after the Local Planning Appeals Tribunal (LPAT) rejected my appeal of the amendment to the City of Niagara Falls Official Plan to facilitate the Riverfront development, extensive mowing took place in a Grey Hawthorn dominated savanna. In addition to Hawthorns being mowed, some small trees were cut down and turned into sawdust — which in some places, buried existing vegetation by mounds three feet deep.
Our third annual Plastic free July has finished and I want to thank everyone who joined us in the challenge. Whether you had a plastic free picnic, joined us for the Twitterstorm, hosted a clean up in your community or made some changes to plastic use in your household — we appreciate your hard work!
We ended off the month with a beach clean up at Cherry Beach in Toronto. We had a great turnout and beautiful weather! Thank you to everyone who came out!
The top items we found during the clean up were cigarette butts and plastic bottle caps.
As part of Plastic Free July, we'll be hosting a clean-up. Come join us!
Where? Cherry Beach, Toronto
When? Thursday, July 28 at 7PM
What should you bring? Supplies will be provided on-site. We encourage you to bring your own refillable water bottles as well as masks and gloves (gardening gloves would be great!).
Where: Pickering, ON
Area: Seaton Trail (RSVP for trail location)
When: Saturday, July 23 from 10 AM to Noon
Description: Easy to moderate 2-hour hike
Pay What You Can (PWYC) suggested donation. Proceeds from the hike support the Ontario Chapter! Learn more about our Hiking Hero campaign here.
In its 17th year, the Ontario Biodiversity Council (OBC), came together to achieve the actions set by the Ontario Biodiversity Strategy 2005. In 2011, with support from the Ontario government, Ontario’s Biodiversity Strategy was renewed as a 10-year strategy, aligning with the Convention on Biological Diversity’s global Strategic Plan and its 20 targets, collectively known as Aichi targets. The 10-year strategy is a blueprint, championed by OBC, for an ecologically sustainable future for Ontario, its biodiversity and its people — something well worth pursuing.
Our National Hike for Nature is coming up at the beginning of July.
This is Sierra Club Canada Foundation's annual peer-to-peer fundraiser where you can raise funds for our Ontario Chapter, just by taking a hike!
The Ontario chaper will be hosting hikes in Pickering and Toronto! Interested in joining or want to learn more? Let us know at ontario[at]sierraclub.ca
In Memory of Alicja Rozanska.
From John Bacher:
Recently when I was reviewing the decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Bacher V. GR CAN Investments, I received grim news of brutal events in the Amazonian rainforest. This showed the similarity of the assaults of the woodlands of the Carolinian life zone, Canada’s most biologically diverse biome, with another critical cradle of species diversity on our planet.
Take the Plastic Free July Challenge with Sierra Club Canada!
Interested? Sign up here!
We all know how big a problem plastic pollution is – unfortunately we haven’t solved that one yet. But we have seen some big changes for plastic.
By joining the Plastic Free Challenge, you will be joining others in pushing for solutions to plastic pollution.
Members of our Peel Group were out at Bike the Creek this past weekend to support sustainability in the Peel region and talk about their work with the Sierra Club.
Bike the Creek is an annual Peel-based cycling event to promote a culture of active transportation in the community.
Peel members supported the event's Eco Station to make the event as waste-free as possible. Members also provided guidance to the public on recycling and composting best practices.
The Sierra Club (both in the U.S. and Canada) is part of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), winner of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.
In Memory of Alicja Rozanska.
From John Bacher:
The health of the great lake of Ontario, which is a Seneca translation of the words Beautiful Clear Lake, is one of the significant issues facing the province for which it is named. In the watershed of the Great Lakes live most of Ontario’s people. The health of the Great Lakes and its tributaries are threatened by the curses of urban sprawl and expressways.