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Funding from the Ontario Wildlife Foundation has supported key components of the Lake Ontario Atlantic Salmon Restoration Program, including fish production and education/outreach. This has enabled us to ensure that eggs for classroom hatcheries and fish for tributary stocking were available.

Program staff also traveled to our schools to provide grade-appropriate presentations about the program, providing hands-on science opportunities and inspiring the next generation of environmental stewards. We appreciate the support from OWF!

The Ontario Wildlife Foundation’s support for EcoSpark’s School Watch and Science in the City programs has transformed the lives of students and community members in the Greater Toronto Area. Participants learn the skills to become citizen science sleuths. They learned to engage with the world as scientists, monitoring for problems and engaging in stewardship projects to improve local environmental sustainability.

A big thanks to OWF for all their support. For more information, go to: https://www.ecospark.ca/school-watch

The early and generous funding support from the Ontario Wildlife Foundation was a catalyst that helped make our shoreline naturalization project possible.  The design and installation of over 1,600 native plants – shrubs, trees, and pollinator plants – has stabilized two sections of our waterfront.  These plants will hold the soil and lessen nutrient runoff into Clear Lake, enhance habitats and help to improve watershed health.  We use these areas to teach students, campers as well as residents of our lake system, the importance of naturalizing shorelines as a way to increase biodiversity and create nature-rich spaces for both people and wildlife. We are grateful to the OWF for their leadership and engagement. 

To find out more about Camp Kawartha’s shoreline naturalization project, visit www.campkawartha.ca/shoreline-garden. 

Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre (OTCC) is a fully integrated turtle hospital, conservation and education centre dedicated to conserving our at-risk turtle populations and their wetland habitats. In 2019, the Ontario Wildlife Foundation supported our Hatchling and Head-start Project. Support of this project helped us to mitigate the reproductive loss from injured at-risk adult female turtles, and replenish declining populations. It also enabled us to head-start hatchlings over the winter to reduce the risk of predation when they are released back into the wild. The funding provided by the OWF has been integral to our success, particularly given the increasing demands being placed on OTCC for turtle rehabilitation, and as a result, the accompanying increase in eggs and hatchlings.

In 2019, over 4000 eggs were incubated, with 1965 hatchlings being released back to their source wetlands. Education and outreach is an essential companion project to the Hatchling/Head-start project, with 10,000 program participants taking part in interactive workshops in 2019. Thanks to OWF for their continued support in conserving Ontario’s at-risk turtle species and their wetland ecosystems.

For further information visit https://ontarioturtle.ca.

The Ontario Wildlife Foundation has been an enduring backer of the Environ-Mentoring program at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Guelph since it launched in 2014. This program is a group initiative whereby our ‘Bigs’ (volunteer mentors) and ‘Littles’ (at-risk child mentees) attend a series of organized outings to provide opportunities to learn about nature, wildlife, and their surroundings, while fostering the mentor relationship that the Bigs and Littles have built. The goal of the program is to nurture an understanding of environmental and conservation issues in the youth participating in the program. In the time that the program has been running, OWF has helped us to provide environmental stewardship education to 504 Bigs and Littles.

Learn more about the program and how you can help at https://guelph.bigbrothersbigsisters.ca/what-we-do/our-programs/#env.