Local Matters

My autumn issue of Ontario Nature's magazine just arrived today. For folks who aren't Ontario Nature (formerly the Federation of Ontario Naturalists) members & don't receive the magazine, I want to share these excerpts from the "Last Word" column:

LOCAL MATTERS

CONSERVATION MATTERS AT HOME REALLY DO HELP TO SAVE THE PLANET
BY CAROLINE SHULTZ

With every passing year, the environmental maxim"think globally, act locally" takes on added meaning. ...But I wonder how many Ontarians consider the global implications of our actions when it comes to conserving native habitats and species. ..some of these actions are, in fact, a significant contribution to global biodiversity. ...Ontario's some 250,000 lakes contain an astonishing one-third of the world's fresh water. ...Ontarians are stewards to tall-grass prairie and black oak savannah, two of the world's more endangered ecosystems. Less than 1% of North America's pre-settlement old-growth eastern white pine is left today and almost two-thirds of that is in Ontario. We have a substantial global responsibility to protect and steward our native wildlife and habitats. We must continue to protect what is familiar and immediately around us, but we must also keep in mind the contribution we can make to conserving the diversity of life on earth too. - Caroline Schultz is the executive director of Ontario Nature