• Protecting Water and Farmland in Simcoe County

Caroline Mulroney announces creation of giant nature reserve in the North Gwillimbury Forest

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Jun 16th, 2021
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Caroline Mulroney (speaking), Steve Clark and Georgina Mayor Margaret Quirk announce nature reserve creation.

By Jack Gibbons, Chair of the North Gwillimbury Forest Alliance

Today Minister of Transportation Caroline Mulroney and Minister of Municipal Affairs Steve Clark announced the creation of an 890-acre publicly-owned nature reserve in the North Gwillimbury Forest in the Town of Georgina.

The new nature reserve will be a priceless ecological asset for the Town of Georgina, the Lake Simcoe watershed and the Province of Ontario. It includes all the lands that were owned by the DG Group between Boyers Road, Metro Road and Woodbine Ave, including their Maple Lake Estates property.

The new nature reserve is adjacent to the Arnold Matthews Nature Reserve, which was created by local residents in 2008.

Please contact Caroline Mulroney and thank her for persuading the Government of Ontario to create this wonderful nature reserve in the North Gwillimbury Forest: Caroline.Mulroneyco@pc.ola.org.

Background

The North Gwillimbury Forest Alliance was created by local citizens, in 2011, when we learned that the DG Group wanted to build a 1,073 unit Maple Lake Estates subdivision on the Paradise Beach-Island Grove Provincially Significant Wetland in the North Gwillimbury Forest.

Our campaign to save the Forest was strongly supported by our local Councillor, Dave Neeson, and thousands of Georgina residents and our generous financial supporters.

In 2019 thanks to the brilliant assistance of our lawyer, Leo Longo, and our planning expert, Tony Usher, the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal amended the Town of Georgina’s Official Plan by designating more than 99% of the Maple Lake Estates lands as an “Environmental Protection Area” and hence off-limits to development.

A special thanks to our board members: Jim Keenan, Erin Kemp, Mary Lovett, Dan Merrill, Mike Sanderson, Sandra Villiers and Linda Wells.

Read the Ontario News Release here

3 Responses to “Caroline Mulroney announces creation of giant nature reserve in the North Gwillimbury Forest”

  1. Holly Levinter says:

    It’s hard to imagine how that got through considering Ford’s lust for development for his friends but thank you to all those people who managed to pull this off and help save our watershed.

  2. Mj says:

    Wonderful. Great accomplishment as we hike in that area at the other reserve especially during Covid. Nature is so much more important and we must protect it!

  3. Susan Hirst says:

    Good news for a change! Thanks to all who worked hard to make this happen.

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