Take Action

* Boreal Forest

* Nuisance Wildlife Photo Exhibit

* Hunt of Double-crested Cormorants

The Boreal Forest

The world’s boreal forest is the world's largest forest region, greater than the Amazon Basin, because it circles the Northern Hemisphere forming a ring across the top of the earth. It is circumpolar spanning across many northern countries such as Canada, Russia, Norway, Finland and Sweden.

Nearly one-third of the world’s boreal forest is located in Canada. This ancient forest and wetland ecosystem provides essential ecological services, such as cleaning our drinking water, filtering the air we breathe and absorbing and storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Its vast size regulates climate patterns on a global scale and its protection is imperative if we are to stop the impact of climate change and the extinction of numerous forest depended species.

Where you can make an immediate difference - as a consumer.

Make your home a paper-free environment - as best as you can.

Purchase ONLY 100% recycled paper products. Recycled paper always contains some original wood fibre to increase its strength but it is still the better choice than paper products from original resources.

Choose unbleached paper products - paper that is not brilliant white.

Here are some examples:

Staples carries 100% recycled paper for printers.

Cascade is a Canadian company from Quebec that was first to sell 100% recycled toilet paper. Their success has now be copied by other toilet paper companies but please remember Cascade was the first to offer consumers an alternative choice. They also make paper towels.

If you don't have a messy household, then please swap out paper towels for cloth towels.

Hundreds of millions of babies were raised with cloth diapers. Please limit the use of disposal diapers to only those times when travelling. Swap out throw away diapers with cloth diapers when at home.

Women's products made from soft cotton are as absorbent than any disposal product. Please consider switching to cotton products for home use instead of disposal feminine hygiene products.

Need Lumber?

There are several wood supply companies that offer salvaged wood, mostly salvaged from old barns and homes. This wood likely originates from old growth trees cut a long time ago and therefore offers a better wood quality. New wood is likely cut from fast growing commercial tree plantations and tends to be weaker and more brittle.

There are also natural alternatives to wood products such as flooring. Linoleum flooring is a natural flooring product made from Linseed Oil and is distinct from other synthetic products such as vinyl. Cork flooring is also a natural material that is harvested from the bark of the Cork Oak tree. This harvesting is a sustainable process – the tree is not cut down, and its bark regenerates itself after being harvested. Bamboo is also another choice. All these alternative products help alleviate pressure from the Boreal Forest and all forests.

For more research on restricted and endangered wood products, this website is very useful and current: https://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/restricted-and-endangered-wood-species/

Red Pine Plantation near Sudbury Ontario

Nuisance Wildlife Photo Exhibit

This exhibit is part of a broader campaign to foster a greater appreciation for common wildlife and promote a policy of peaceful co-existence.

White-tailed Deer, Double-crested Cormorants, Black Bear and the North American Coyote have been chosen to highlight the plight of ‘nuisance’ wildlife in Ontario. All have been negatively portrayed as 'nuisance' and have suffered from brutal lethal government management programs.

The photographic exhibit accompanies a speaker series on living with wildlife or it can be a stand alone exhibit.

The photographs are large, approximately 0.5 metre by 1 metre.

Please let us know of any public space, a restaurant, a yoga studio, a store, a school, anywhere, that you think will be open to hosting such an exhibit. Thank You.

Stop the Hunt of Double-crested Cormorants

Peaceful Parks is reaching out to residents living in rural Ontario, specifically in areas most impacted by the new hunt of Double-crested Cormorants. We know from travelling to these areas that there is not overwhelming support to hunt cormorants. The hunt of cormorants is political and caters to the Doug Ford base. With an upcoming election - sooner rather than later - we want to apply political pressure on key Conservative MPPs that have pushed for a hunt even though cormorants are not prominent in their area.

Below and attached is a postcard mailer we will be mailing through Canada Post. The first postcard will be mailed to the area of Big Rideau Lake where the cormorant hunt is controversial. If you are able, please consider contributing to this campaign with a financial donation to assist in covering production and mailing costs. Donations can be mailed or sent via e-transfer. Please note: because of our advocacy work, donations to PPC are not creditable for tax purposes.

Dear Neighbour,

With this notice we are asking that you please reconsider your vote for MPP Steve Clark. As Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs, Clark sponsored Bill 197 in July 2020 – its aim being to dismantle a series of provincial laws under the guise of a COVID-19 Economic Recovery Plan.

In reality it is just a power grab. Bill 197 is an insidious attack on the environmental assessment act, strips powers away from citizens and municipalities, weakens protection regulations for clean water and introduces a new unethical wildlife policy that has no scientific merit and not supported by wildlife experts.

And it was rammed through with little or no public consultation during the pandemic when people were mourning the loss of loved ones, sick themselves with Covid-19 or stressed financially and unable to push back. It is currently subject to legal action.

As wildlife protection advocates, we need your help to reverse one area of policy that can potentially exterminate a native species – Double-crested Cormorants. If enough people speak out, we can reverse this policy.

The hunt of Cormorants is unethical because hunters can legally waste the bird. Cormorants are not edible and therefore are nothing more than target practice. We believe they are in grave danger because sport hunters and the daily kill limit exceeds the number of cormorants province-wide. It is very possible that cormorants can be exterminated from Ontario quickly.

This change in policy intentionally caters to the 'slob hunter' because the Ford government changed the definition of sport hunting to permit hunters to waste wildlife in preparation for this hunt. A 'slob hunter’ is a type of hunter that does not hunt for sport or meat but rather callously kills wildlife for entertainment.

We are afraid for the birds. Even though opposition to this hunt is immense, Clark is only listening to his 'cronies'. So, it is time for some tough talk. No petitions, postcards or form letters. We need your personal voice. Your voice is the strongest.

Please tell Minister Clark that you are reconsidering your vote and tell him why. The hunt of cormorants is unethical and crosses a line. Stop the Hunt. Your message can be as simple as that. Please include your name and address so MPP Clark knows you are a constituent.

There is no point in explaining that this policy has no scientific merit or that the scientific community has condemned this hunt. Or that Cormorants are ecologically significant to the health of the Great Lakes. Clark knows this yet continues to spew misinformation to demonize cormorants. Staying in power is all he cares about.

And it is imperative that we reverse this policy before September 2021. Covid-19 stopped American sport hunters from entering Ontario to hunt in 2020. It is anticipated that they will reopen the border in 2021, and if this happens, American sport hunters will flood Ontario to kill cormorants with local hunters because hunting of cormorants is prohibited in the United States.

Vote Steve Clark OUT of office.

MPP Steve Clark: Suite 101, 100 Strowger Blvd. Brockville, ON

K6V 5J9 Tel. 1-800-267-4408 Email: steve.clark@pc.ola.org

Sources: Bill 197, COVID-19 Economic Recovery Act, 2020; Legal Action: Ontario Nature Media Release August 31, 2020 and November 30, 2020; 'slob hunter' Urban Dictionary.

For more information: ppc@peacefulparks.org toll free 1.877.785.8636