Oak Ridges Moraine Award Recipients Announced at 25th Anniversary

AURORA, Ontario - Oct. 1, 2015 - PRLog -- Nearly 150 people from across the province of Ontario joined Save The Oak Ridges Moraine Coalition (STORM) in Aurora on Sunday to celebrate 25 years of protecting and preserving Ontario’s environmentally sensitive Oak Ridges Moraine (ORM) including the Oak Ridges Moraine Partnership for 2015 (Earthroots, EcoSpark, Ontario Nature and STORM).

Master of Ceremony, Debbe Crandall and Graham Whitelaw presented the 25th Anniversary Oak Ridges Moraine Award to 29 award recipients for their contribution in creating the world-renowned legislation that protects the moraine. They honoured special moraine heroes who have passed, Kathy Guselle, Gretchen Harris, David McQueen, Niva Rowan and Lyn MacMillan.

“We were so delighted to host a celebration on the moraine to recognize and award those who have made this world renowned conservation planning a reality,” said Debbe Crandall, STORM’s policy director. “There are so many moraine stories and history to be shared by such committed people from across the province. It was truly a memorable day. “

Since 1989, STORM has worked collaboratively with a host of different organizations to raise awareness of the sensitivity of the moraine’s ecology to impacts from urban development and other land uses such as forest destruction, aggregate extraction and infrastructure projects (roads and pipes) which has lead to better planning and management governance for the ORM.

Most recently STORM has partnered with Earthroots, EcoSpark and Ontario Nature in the Oak Ridges Moraine Partnership for 2015, a Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation-supported project, to participate in and positively influence the 2015 coordinated review of the three conservation plans and growth management plan.

The Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan (ORMCP) is an ecologically based plan established in 2001 by the Ontario government to provide land use and resource management direction for the 190,000 hectares of land and water within the Oak Ridges Moraine Plan area. In 2005, the government created Greenbelt legislation that permanently protected close to 2 million acres within the Greater Golden Horseshoe.

To learn more about STORM Coalition and the Oak Ridges Moraine Partnership for 2015, please visit www.stormcoalition.org and www.marvellousmoraine.ca.

Editors Notes:

Quick Facts:

· The Oak Ridges Moraine extends 160 kilometres from the Niagara Escarpment in the west to the Trent River system in the east and is on average 13 kilometres wide and 150 metres deep.

· The ORM is a significant water recharge/discharge area, which directly provides drinking water to over 250,000 people and is the headwaters to over 65 watercourses flowing north into Georgian Bay, Lake Simcoe, Scugog, Rice Lake and south into Lake Ontario.

· The Greenbelt’s Oak Ridges Moraine, Niagara Escarpment and natural heritage system of the Protected Countryside, form the ecological backbone of the region’s natural heritage system, which connect major corridors in southern Ontario and eastern North America.

25^th Anniversary Award Recipients

Don Alexander

Jen Bedford

Lois Brown

David Burnett

Joyce Chau

David Crombie

Victor Doyle

Dave Farlow

John Fisher

Josh Garfinkel

Kim Gavine

Debbie Gordon

Dorothy Izzard

Frederick Johnson

Ene Leivo

Gloria Marsh

Dan McCarthy

Tom Meininger

Rob Messervey

Joseph O’Neill

Linda Pim

Gloria Reszler

John Riley

Christina Sharma

David Lewis Stein

Cindy Sutch

Steve Varga

Joshua Wise

Anna Tilman