Finalizing recovery strategies for eight species at risk and initiating engagement on government response statements

Species at risk in Ontario

In Ontario, once a species is listed as endangered or threatened, there is a process for gathering information and developing policy to support the protection and recovery of each species.

First, we engage individuals and organizations outside of government with expertise on the species to write recovery strategies. These documents form the foundation of scientific advice to government and can include knowledge from the public, stakeholders and Indigenous communities and organizations.

Once recovery strategies are finalized, we develop a government response statement for each recovery strategy. Each government response statement is a species-specific policy that includes the provincial goal for the recovery of the species and a summary of the prioritized actions we intend to lead and support in response to the associated recovery strategy.

Finalized recovery strategies

We finalized recovery strategies for the following eight species:

• American Ginseng
• Butler’s Gartersnake
• Eastern Banded Tigersnail
• Golden-eye Lichen (Great Lakes population)
• Gray Fox
• Purple Twayblade
• Small-flowered Lipocarpha
• Transverse Lady Beetle

Early engagement on government response statements

We invite you to review the advice in the final recovery strategies and provide early input to inform draft government response statements. Between July 22, 2019 and August 20, 2019, you can complete these surveys or email us with your input.

• Survey for American Ginseng
• Survey for Butler’s Gartersnake
• Survey for Eastern Banded Tigersnail
• Survey for Golden-eye Lichen (Great Lakes population)
• Survey for Gray Fox
• Survey for Purple Twayblade
• Survey for Small-flowered Lipocarpha
• Survey for Transverse Lady Beetle

We will use your feedback, along with the recovery strategies, to develop draft government response statements.  We anticipate posting the draft government response statements on the Environmental Registry for consultation in December 2019.