Ontario Trillium Foundation makes significant investment in environmental conservation on farms and ranches

LAMBTON COUNTY, ON, Sept. 19, 2017 /CNW Telbec/ - Agricultural producers in Ontario will soon have more opportunities to establish ALUS conservation projects on their farms, thanks to a $695,900 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF).

Ontario Nature's Executive Director Caroline Schultz and ALUS Canada's CEO Bryan Gilvesy announced the grant on Tuesday.

"We are so pleased that OTF has reaffirmed their commitment to ALUS as an excellent way to protect and restore ecosystems on agricultural land in Ontario," said Gilvesy, speaking at a restored wetland on a farm in Lambton County.

The OTF funds will help establish five new ALUS communities in Ontario?ALUS Lambton, Peterborough, Middlesex, Niagara, and Chatham-Kent?involving 750 participants and nearly 2,500 acres, and will also help transform three existing pilot communities?ALUS Elgin, Grey Bruce and Ontario East?into permanent ALUS programs.  

"I am pleased that Ontario Trillium Foundation has chosen to support this very important project in the heart of Lambton County," said Monte McNaughton, MPP for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex. "The planning and management partnership of Ontario Nature and ALUS Canada, combined with the local operational expertise of Ontario NativeScape, will together make possible the success of this project, part of a broader design to restore and safeguard Ontario's native ecosystem."

"Ontario Nature is dedicated to helping ALUS Canada grow the program in Ontario," says Ontario Nature's Executive Director Caroline Schultz. "Through its incentives, ALUS is an incredible model to support the leadership role farmers play stewarding their land for the greater good."

This is the not the first time OTF has generously supported ALUS in Ontario: In 2012, OTF provided more than $400,000 to assist ALUS in establishing these three communities in Ontario, and in 2016, OTF provided more than $300,000 to ALUS Norfolk.

ALUS is expanding rapidly in Ontario, but also in other Canadian provinces. In total, it is already stewarding more than 18,000 acres, an area the size of 45,000 hockey rinks, dispersed among 21 ALUS communities in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and PEI. By 2025, ALUS aims to reach 150,000 acres in 75 communities across the nation.

ABOUT OTF
An agency of the Government of Ontario, the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) is one of Canada's largest granting foundations. With a budget of over $136 million, OTF awards grants to some 1,000 projects every year to build healthy and vibrant Ontario communities. www.otf.ca 

ABOUT ONTARIO NATURE
Ontario Nature protects wild species and wild spaces through conservation, education and public engagement. Ontario Nature is a charitable organization representing more than 30,000 members and supporters, and 150 member groups across Ontario. www.ontarionature.org

ABOUT ALUS
ALUS Canada, A Weston Family Initiative, is a national program dedicated to supporting farmers and ranchers who produce cleaner air, cleaner water, more biodiversity and other ecosystem services in their communities. As an Alberta Emerald and Clean16 award-winner, ALUS is a recognized leader in sustainability that is rapidly expanding across the nation. ALUS.ca

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SOURCE ALUS Canada