Teamwork at play for natural areas protection in the Lake Simcoe watershed

Strong and strategic protections needed in the Lake Simcoe watershed Aurora, Ontario

News release from Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition and Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust

Next week, two conservation organizations share their strategies and mapping research for protecting natural areas in the Lake Simcoe watershed and nearby Oak Ridges Moraine and Greenbelt areas.

The free event is on November 28th, from 7 – 9 pm in the Temperance Hall at the Sharon Temple in Sharon. The Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition will unveil the results of their policy mapping report developed to inform the review of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan, which is anticipated to start by the end of 2019.

The Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition worked with cartographers from the University of Guelph to map the current policy protections that are applicable to natural areas in the watershed. They found that despite having great deal of natural cover in the watershed, only 21% of the watershed is protected by policies strong enough to provide assurance that they will be well-protected from land use changes and development.

“The Lake Simcoe Protection Plan provides an opportunity to “get it right” by protecting the natural cover that the ecosystem needs to be healthy for the long term,” says the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition’s Executive Director, Claire Malcolmson, who also authored the report. “Fully implementing the policies of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan is important, but so is permanent protection of ecologically sensitive lands through Land Trusts.”

Land Trusts are part of the solution, because the properties they protect are protected for ever. The Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust permanently protects land of healthy ecosystems and natural environments that thrive forever, on and near the Oak Ridges Moraine. In 2018, the Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust expanded their land protection work into Simcoe County. To date, the Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust permanently protects 4,408 acres of ecologically sensitive lands on 59 properties.

Event information is available on the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition and the Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust Facebook pages and at this link

About: The Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust is a not for profit environmental organization dedicated to protecting the natural features and ecologically sensitive lands on and near the Oak Ridges Moraine, Greenbelt and Simcoe County. www.oakridgesmoraine.org

About: The Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition is a lake-wide member-based organization that provides leadership and inspires people to take action to protect Lake Simcoe. www.rescuelakesimcoe.org