Birds and natural areas are…

Birds and natural areas are a vital part of my life and the identity of Ontarians.

I love to watch the birds in my neighbourhood and learn about them. Plus, it reminds me of my Grandpa (who is long dead). He loved to share his love of birds and, as a young child, I would sit on his lap and we would look at the Audubon Bird Books and he would make bird song sounds and show us the birds at our cottage and let us look through the binoculars.

I can’t afford exotic vacations so I love to go camping, and hiking and watching the birds in my yard – birds that we name & love. Natural areas provide sanctuary from terrible times & detrimental government decisions that makes us need the sanctuary of nature, but there will soon be no sanctuary in nature and we will all be terribly depressed and angry.

I strongly believe Ontario should protect habitat for migratory birds, and it saddens and dismays me that I don’t see any plan for this in the proposed legislation and the new Species Conservation Program.

It concerns me when I don’t see plans to provide protection to these species that we share our home, our land with. When we muck with ecosystems, things tend to go poorly for all creatures, including us.
We need to listen to the indigenous teachings as they know that we ARE Earth and Earth is us.