Our Approach

The W. Garfield Weston Foundation is a leader in private land conservation in Canada. The Foundation’s contributions to leading conservation organizations have resulted in the preservation of more than 100,000 acres of ecologically significant land from coast to coast.

With a focus on biodiversity and stewardship of sensitive lands, the Foundation’s support for scientific research has helped to ensure the long term viability of important landscapes.

The Weston family is proud of its significant role in preserving Canada’s natural legacy. This work in land conservation demonstrates what private individuals, family foundations, and non-governmental organizations can achieve.

Goal: To protect critical habitats and the endangered species which call them home.

Strategies:

• Protecting ecologically significant land and ensuring proper stewardship.
  
  
• Enabling environmentally sound and sustainable practices.
  
  
• Supporting outreach and education initiatives that promote transformative attitudes and behaviours.

Since the early 1980's, The W. Garfield Weston Foundation has been a strong supporter of conservation organizations contributing to land securement, stewardship and education projects across Canada.

In partnership with the Nature Conservancy of Canada, support for high-level Canadian scientists and graduate students has allowed for the creation of a digital public library of stewardship and planning materials which have informed many conservation actions. These, along with the completion of conservation blueprints, help to set conservation priorities from coast to coast.

Major achievements in land conservation have included the protection of over 4,300 acres in Norfolk County in Southwestern Ontario, work at the Old Man on His Back Prairie and Heritage Conservation Area in southwest Saskatchewan, and 20 km of walking trails at Musquash Estuary in New Brunswick. To date more than 18,000 students have participated in the Manitoba Tall Grass Prairie studies program. The Foundation’s leadership support of the Waterton Park Front has resulted in the protection of over 35,000 acres – one of the largest private conservation efforts in Canada.

Protecting and stewarding the land is a first step. It is important to raise awareness of the importance of ecologically significant land through interpretation and outreach initiatives. Environmental education is therefore, a fundamental part of the Foundation’s conservation work. For example, through a partnership with Waterton Lakes National Park, 660 students each year will visit Waterton Park Front to learn of the ecological issues facing Southern Alberta. School groups from the Helen Schuler Nature Centre in Lethbridge also travel to Waterton to participate in an outdoor experience that increases environmental awareness. Visitors of all ages are engaged at the Weston Family Conservation Centre at Waterton Park Front, Alberta.

For more than a decade, the Foundation has supported Alternative Land Use Services (ALUS) engaging farmers in an initiative to restore sensitive lands. This ecological good and services program provides farmers the opportunity to have up to 20 per cent of their farm land revitalized and reclaimed by nature. Through ALUS’s integrated and targeted approach to stewardship and conservation, unproductive land is restored to healthy, functioning ecosystems. The Norfolk ALUS Project in Ontario’s Carolinian Region is the preeminent example of farmer’s contributions to sustainable lands. The Foundation’s support for ALUS underlines our confidence in the program and its impact on agricultural lands across Canada.

The Weston Family Environmental Leaders of Tomorrow program is an initiative that enables the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority to take inner city children on an overnight trip to a local conservation area. More than 1,200 children each year engage in a two-day outdoor experience and learn about the importance of biodiversity and how to reduce their carbon footprint. By combining the residential field centre visit with in-school programming, a groundbreaking format for environmental programs has emerged. Lessons and activities that were designed for one field centre have now been adopted by other regions. The “Weston Model” has emerged as a vehicle for enabling students to experience nature and then take responsibility in their own communities for sustainable practices. As one Grade 6 student stated, “We have changed our habits!”

The W. Garfield Weston Foundation helps to preserve biodiversity and educate youth to protect landscapes that inspire and inform.