The Bird-Friendly Halton Hills Story
On December 26th, 2021 Julie Power shared a link to Nature Canada’s Bird Friendly City Certification in our community Facebook group “Let’s nurture nature Halton Hills” asking, “Who's on board with this program taking flight in Halton Hills?”
The response to it was overwhelmingly positive. Chantal Garneau set up an initial Zoom meeting for Friday, January 7th, 2022 to gauge interest and identify the next steps. The group had some questions about how the process works so POWER’s high school co-op student Reyden reached out to Nature Canada and set up a meeting.
Reyden and I met with Autumn Jordan, a Bird Friendly City Organizer, on January 13th, 2022 and she explained the program in more detail.
After the meeting, we were sold on the brilliance of this certification process. It unified complex issues that many local community groups, ENGO’s, churches, schools, the Town, and the Region had been working on into a simple, easy-to-say “yes” to, umbrella of “Bird Friendly”.
Bird Friendly Certification presents a beautiful opportunity to unite and empower the good work of civil society and government and to frame it through a positive lens.
Being bird friendly includes many identified priorities of our community including:
restoring, protecting, and enhancing ecosystems,
reducing/eliminating pesticides,
applying nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation and mitigation,
increasing and protecting urban tree canopies and biodiversity,
ensuring the ecological integrity of wetlands, streams, and rivers, as well as
engaging, educating, and celebrating with the public
On March 14th, 2022 we submitted a baseline application to Nature Canada. This application was then updated with their suggestions and resubmitted on April 21st, 2022. On May 24th, 2022 Nature Canada announced that Halton Hills was the 14th municipality in Canada to earn a Bird Friendly designation.
Certification can be awarded at three levels, entry, intermediate, and high based on points received in three categories.
Threat Reduction:
Key threats (roaming cats, window collisions, light pollution) are effectively mitigated
Habitat Protection, Restoration, and Climate Resiliency:
Nature is restored so that native bird populations can thrive.
Community Outreach/ Education:
Residents are involved in celebrating and helping birds, as well as monitoring their populations.
We received entry-level certification and were only a few points away from intermediate certification. This speaks volumes to the values, policies, and actions of our community.
Our certification highlights and celebrates years of collaborative community efforts to preserve, protect, and restore the natural heritage and ecosystems in Halton Hills. From the policies, directions, and actions of the Town of Halton Hills, to the efforts of grassroots community groups and volunteers, we have all contributed.
We now have an opportunity to celebrate our successes and continue to do better. From engaging more businesses, community groups, schools, and churches, to strengthening our local policies and procedures, there are concrete steps we can all take.
Being bird friendly is positive and actionable. Maybe we can’t do everything, but each of us can do something. And right now positive actions that make a difference are really needed.
— Chantal Garneau