Our Nature Legacy

In 1965, concerns over the lack of planning and protection of parks in Ontario, in particular Algonquin Provincial Park, resulted in a clarion call to preserve wilderness as natural areas in Ontario.

Penned by Doug Pimlott, Preservation of Natural Areas in Ontario was published in The Ontario Naturalist, triggering “preservationist upsurge”. Over the next three years, multiple discussions were conducted about the creation of an environmental group that would reignite the conversation on preserving parks in Ontario. That environmental group would be Algonquin Wildlands League.

On June 1st, 1968, Algonquin Wildlands League held its inaugural meeting as an official non-profit environmental group, consisting of 11 members. Environmental historian George Warecki wrote in 1989:

“Naturalists, scientists, recreationists, and environmentalists joined forces to publicize the need for preservation.  The awakening spawns a new pressure group – the Algonquin Wildlands League”.

— Protecting Ontario’s Wilderness: A history of changing ideas and preservation politics, 1927 – 1973. The Canadian Historical Review, University of Toronto Press.

Wildlands champions a “wilderness free of interference with ecological processes especially resource extraction and recreational overuse”. With the emergence of the Wildlands League, there is a shift from ‘quiet diplomacy” to ‘mass media techniques’ with the latter being the foundation of “Ontario’s modern wilderness preservation movement”.

Our Vision for the Future

Wildlands has a vision for the future. A future you and the members of The Nature Legacy Circle can help deliver.

If Wildlands League is successful, the beautiful Belugas of Hudson Bay will swim freely forever and the bird nursery for the continent will thrive. Caribou habitat scarred by seismic exploration and logging roads will be healed. Children and families will be able to navigate from Georgian Bay to Algonquin travelling rewilded pathways. In this new world Canadians will connect to nature and nature will be closer to home.

This is our dream. A world of hope for our children and the natural world.

The time you are taking to consider a legacy gift in support of our mission is part of your life mission. Your abundance can protect abundance for all, while still providing for your family.

Thank you for standing guard with us.