The last old-growth white pine forest on Lake Ontario's north shore is protected — all 75 rare species of it

Thickson's Woods, in Whitby, Ontario, is the last remaining old-growth white pine forest on the north shore of Lake Ontario — and as of this week it belongs to a nature reserve. Ontario Nature has acquired 24.86 acres across five parcels, adding mature mixed forest, coastal wetland, regenerating meadow and 400 metres of Lake Ontario shoreline to its reserve network. The woods sit where two major bird migration flyways cross, and shelter 75 rare species, including 20 at-risk in the province: prothonotary warblers, wood thrushes, monarch butterflies and endangered butternut trees. The purchase was carried by the Estate of Hazel May Broker, foundations and the Thickson's Woods Land Trust — decades of local stubbornness, finally written into ownership.

SDG 15 · Life on land — Mechanism: institutional program