Greetings from Ontario Nature

A warm welcome to our 76^th annual general meeting and conference. Our hosts, the Peterborough Field Naturalists, have planned a terrific program, which they are calling Landscapes of Transition.

We are delighted at the opportunity to greet old friends from the naturalist community, listen and learn, join early morning bird walks, and settle our annual business. We hope the conference sessions on Saturday will inspire more of you to return to your communities to map out local Greenways links in the province-wide Greenway we envision as necessary to preserve species, protect clean air and water, and help humans and wildlife adapt to climate change.

We also hope that many of you will bring children, and that this weekend will help imbue them with a love of nature. Our executive-director Caroline Schultz, mother of two young girls, is a firm believer that children need experiences in nature. Certainly we need a next generation of environmental stewards.

Again this year, we will debate and pass resolutions coming from our local clubs about burning issues they want conveyed to the government. We’ll be electing some of our Board, and taking a peak at the financial record. So please come to our Friday AGM!

Some of you attended our 75^th anniversary gala at the Royal Ontario Museum, and heard publisher Michael de Pencier talk about the challenge of raising dollars for environmental organizations. He said only 5 per cent of charitable donations go to green causes, which is shockingly low when you consider the immensity of the challenge ahead.

We need our friends - Nature needs friends - more than ever.

That means digging deeper in our pockets; and working even harder to protect local woodlands or wetlands and their wildlife. Together, we must bring pressure on municipal planners; and take the time to send off that letter to the Premier telling him we need greenways across Ontario.

I want to thank all those, particularly the Peterborough Field Naturalists’ organizing committee and Ontario Nature staff, who worked so hard to put this weekend together. We want you to come away inspired.

~ Rosemary Speirs, President, Ontario Nature