The Natural Heritage League 
Don Cuddy 
I recently attended the fourth annual meeting of the Natur¬ 
al Heritage League at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington. 
While impressed by the achievements of the League and the gener¬ 
al enthusiasm expressed at the meeting, I was surprised to see 
that of more than a hundred participants, I seemed to be the 
only one from eastern Ontario. This confirmed my suspicion that 
the League is not well known in this part of the province. This 
note is intended to give Trail & Landscape readers a brief 
overview of this organization. 
The origins of the Natural Heritage League stem from a 
conference on Natural Heritage Protection in Ontario hosted in 
November 1982 by the Ontario Heritage Foundation. A recurring 
theme at this conference was the lack of coordination between 
the various groups working to protect our natural heritage. A 
follow-up meeting of about 20 representatives of private and 
government agencies resulted in the formation of the Natural 
Heritage League on December 16, 1982. 
The Natural Heritage League is a coalition of conservation 
organizations interested in the protection and management of 
natural areas in Ontario. It acts as an umbrella agency to 
coordinate the efforts of member organizations, especially for 
projects which might be too large or too complicated for any one 
group to undertake. As of November 1986, the League had 26 
member agencies. (The Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club is repre¬ 
sented by the Federation of Ontario Naturalists, with which it 
is affiliated.) The League meets annually but has a coordin¬ 
ating committee which meets several times a year. There are 
also subcommittees which work on specific projects. 
So, you may ask, what does it really do? In its four years 
of existence, the League has accomplished a great deal, initiat¬ 
ing several projects on its own and participating in others. It 
maintains an "action list" of privately-owned, provincially- 
significant natural areas on which cooperative protection ef¬ 
forts are concentrated. These efforts include the funding of 
research and an extensive program of landowner contact. A 
"Natural Heritage Stewardship Award" has been developed for 
presentation to landowners who agree to protect the natural 
features on their property. 
Recently, the League has become the coordinating body for 
the Carolinian Canada project. Initiated by the World Wildlife 
Fund and supported by other League members (the Nature Conserv¬ 
ancy of Canada, Wildlife Habitat Canada, the Ministry of Natural 
Resources and the Ontario Heritage Foundation), this project has 
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