Stewardship on Private Land

How to help

Stewardship is the act of caring for and enhancing natural land.

Start stewarding!

By stewarding your ravine property, you can:1

  • Help fight climate change
  • Improve biodiversity
  • Provide food and shelter for important wildlife
  • Reduce temperature and humidity
  • Add beauty to your property

Use this action plan

For most properties, a great place to start is by following the 3-step process: manage invasive plants, replace them with native plants, & monitor your invasives & natives on an ongoing basis.

Three step cycle: Remove invasives, plant natives, and monitor

This cycle will evolve – the more you manage invasive plants, the easier it will be to establish native plants and maintain an invasive-free property.

When it comes to ravine stewardship, what works for your property might not work for another. In fact, different stewardship activities might be required for different parts of the same property. Each property is unique; local surroundings play a critical role in what can or cannot grow on your land.

Evaluate your land and figure out a stewardship plan that works best for you. A very large property might require a more detailed, long-term stewardship plan involving more steps.

There are many other stewardship activities such as light control and erosion management that help create healthy ravines. Learn more ways you can protect nature.

Your property and the bigger picture

There are approximately 30,000 private addresses on ravine land spread over 4,400 hectares.2 Just imagine if every private ravine landowner removed their invasive plant species and replaced them with native ones – that is a huge step forward for ravine health! Your participation in ravine stewardship is not insignificant. As a private ravine landowner you play a vital role in restoring and protecting our ravines.

Need more support?

Professional help in restoring your ravine is available.

Footnotes

1 – City of Toronto. (n.d.). A property owners guide to healthy ravines. Retrieved from: https://www.toronto.ca/data/parks/pdf/property-owners-guide-to-healthy-ravines.pdf

2 – City of Toronto. (2017).Toronto ravine strategy. Retrieved from: https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/9183-TorontoRavineStrategy.pdf