2023 – Year In Review

By Joana Carreira

This year has flown by and as we near the end of 2023, we find ourselves reflecting on the many highlights, opportunities, and achievements from this past year. After a successful tenure of 21 years with Forests Ontario, Rob Keen, Registered Professional Forester (RPF), stepped down as CEO in May, and was succeeded by Jess Kaknevicius. Forests Ontario is grateful for all of Rob’s impressive achievements on behalf of the organization and we are looking forward to continuing our mission under Jess’ leadership.

We were able to get back to our roots this year and started off the year by hosting the Forests Ontario Annual Conference in person for the first time in two years with more than 800 virtual and in-person registrants from across the country and beyond! The Honourable Graydon Smith, Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry and MPP for Parry–Sound Muskoka, joined us at our conference to announce that the Ontario government was investing $2.1 million in tree planting through Forests Ontario.

But that’s not all!

Restoration and Stewardship

We had a tremendous year of tree planting, planting approximately 2.5 million trees across the province as part of our 50 Million Tree Program thanks in large part to our network of partners and funders. This brings the program’s total to almost 40 million trees planted, creating more than 18,000 hectares of new forest on nearly 8,000 projects. We also joined the Greenbelt Foundation in commemorating the planting of half a million trees with Forests Ontario, and this fall celebrated signing an agreement with Natural Resources Canada’s 2 Billion Trees (2BT) program to plant 31 million trees across the country by March 31, 2031 through our national division Forest Recovery Canada.

We also saw increased interest in our Grasslands Stewardship Initiative that supports the creation, maintenance, and enhancement of Ontario’s grasslands. In 2023, this program supported roughly 83 hectares of grasslands across Ontario, bringing the total of enhanced and restored grassland habitats to more than 1,200 hectares of land since 2018.

Forest Education

Fostering and engaging our future stewards’ environmental knowledge through our various educational programs and activities is imperative to ensuring a greener and healthier tomorrow.

This year’s Ontario Envirothon returned to in-person regional programming for the first time since 2018 with workshops, training, and competitions in regions across Ontario. The current issue was Species at Risk, and we saw seven regional Envirothon competitions (six in-person, one virtual) with 240 students compete. Markville Secondary School won the provincial competition for the first time and advanced to the NCF-Envirothon competition held in New Brunswick, where they represented Ontario against other state/provincial winners and placed 3rd overall!

Our longest running education program, Tree Bee, also had a phenomenal year! Two events ran this year in Durham and York Region, and between these events, more than 300 students (grades 4, 5 & 6) and educators registered. Forestry In the Classroom also successfully coordinated the delivery of 27 presentations across both virtually and in-person, reaching 1,425 students and educators.

Forests Ontario also partnered with Maple Leaves Forever to produce a new lesson plan celebrating native Ontario maple trees, developed and delivered Community Science hikes in York Region and piloted a SHSM (Specialist High Skills Major) workshop, with Career Education Council, for high school students focused on mapping/navigation/compass certification.

Community Engagement

2023 brought the launch of Take Root in Guelph, a partnership between the City of Guelph, Trees for Guelph, and Forests Ontario that held eight events to distribute native trees to residents for backyard planting in spring and fall of 2023. A total of 1,757 trees/shrubs were distributed to 1,002 Guelph households! We look forward to growing this program in 2024.

Forests Ontario’s Reconciliation Community Tree Plant program continued through 2023, bringing us together with Beausoleil First Nation to plant two beautiful sites on Christian Island. Forests Ontario also saw developments made in the design phase for our ongoing Healing Place community development projects at Cape Chin and Smokey Hollow. We are grateful to our past and present sponsors and partners, and it is because of their support that we can continue to offer platforms to share truths and highlight the importance of reconciliation and ecological restoration through these programs.

Forests Ontario would like to thank all our donors, corporate and small business contributors, supporters, members, partners, volunteers, and staff, for making 2023 a truly remarkable year. We can’t wait to continue working with all of you and see what 2024 has in store!