Category: Announcements

Help us Restore Toronto’s Ravines and Natural Areas

As a Lead Steward, you will be able to lead your own site or co-Lead with another Lead Steward.  Preference will be given to those who are current TNS stewards, or have relevant stewardship experience. To Request to be a Lead Steward please use this form.

More information can be found on this page Become a Lead Steward. Here are 2 posters to share poster 1 and poster 2. Join with a friend and it will be even more rewarding.

Are You…?

• Passionate about nature
• A community builder
• A problem solver
• Organized

What’s Involved:

• Form a team
• Plan events
• 10 hours of free online training (Winter 2023)
• Hands-on stewardship
  (approx 3 hours/week)

What you do in the Field:

• Remove invasive plants
• Nurture native plants
• Build micro habitats

My Experience as a First Year Lead Steward by Laura Muntean (Betty Sutherland Trail Park)

Join the Team!

A Celebration of Stewardship and Volunteering is taking place on October 1 at Middle Mill from 10am to 1pm. 44 Beechwood Drive, Toronto, ON M4K 3H8

Join the Toronto Nature Stewards, Toronto Field Naturalists, A Park of All and many more. This will be a fun filled day with lots of nature and kid friendly programming. This is our opportunity to thank and recognize every steward, volunteer and all those that give their time and energy to make Toronto a world class city. More information from the Toronto Field Naturalists.

If you are a volunteer steward and would like to help TNS with our table please fill out this form.

EventBrite info on all participating groups (Registration not required)

Here is a pdf version of this poster. Please share.

TNS has over 30 sites in 2023 and around 100 trained Lead Stewards (in 2023) but there is much more to do. There are 6,600 hectares of public ravine land and we are stewarding approximately 74 hectares on 23 sites (2022).  Each hectare needs active regular stewardship to improve biodiversity and ecosystem health.  Each site has one primary Lead and other co-Leads as needed to keep our ratio of 1 Lead to 10 volunteers at any one time. We’ve had from 2 to 145 people at each session and they occur every day of the week and at different times so there are lots of opportunities for everyone. Each group has (or will have) a dedicated team but there are also pop-up sessions organized by the site Leads. 

Each site works independently and organizes itself based on the needs of the Leads and the Volunteer Stewards but all following the same city approved protocols. You can view the sites, schedules and register to join on our Get Involved page (if you want to be an ongoing Steward) . Once you register for a site, the Lead Steward will contact you with details. People wanting to join a pop-up should contact torontonaturestewards@gmail.com for more info.

Currently there are 10 specific invasive plants that we can remove on approved sites on public land. If you want more info on them you can find it on our website.

Incredibly excited for Lead Steward training to start on January 12th, 2022! We have a big group this year – over fifty Lead Stewards are registered. We cannot wait to virtually meet everyone and start talking all things ecological restoration. Ravines here we come!

A friendly reminder that registration for 2022 Lead Steward training is CLOSED. Keep an eye out for a site near you to become a steward in the spring!