Room change: This event is now taking place in the Main Hall at 1 Spadina.

This event is open to the public and registration is not required.

Wild, connected, diverse! Can these works really describe North America's fourth largest city? That is the aim of the City of Toronto's first Draft Biodiversity Strategy released for public review in July 2018.  The Strategy aims to make Toronto more wild, connected and diverse by increasing the quality and quantity of natural habitat; designing the built environment to be more bio-diverse and have less impacts on the natural environment; and increasing access to and awareness of nature in the city. The Strategy arises from the City's highly successful Biodiversity Booklet Series which was developed by a broad range of experts and citizen scientists to create awareness about the remarkable variety of plants and animals that also make their home in Toronto. It also arises from the Toronto Official Plan which recognizes the importance of a healthy natural environment to strong communities and a competitive economy and directs that the built environment 'will support bio-diversity'. The draft Biodiversity Strategy will be undergoing review throughout the fall and winter and the final Biodiversity Strategy will be considered by City Council in spring 2019. The Strategy supports other City initiatives such as the Toronto Ravine Strategy and Pollinator Strategy.

The Biodiversity Panel Discussion, taking place on the evening of October 23rd, has been planned to launch the review of the draft Biodiversity Strategy by providing an opportunity for city building professionals, faculty and students, and interested citizens to hear a range of perspectives on the role and importance of biodiversity in urban areas and new ideas for the draft Strategy. The Biodiversity Panel Discussion is a collaboration partnership Toronto City Planning and the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.   

Panelists: 

Dr. Peter Del Tredici is a botanist specializing in the growth and development of trees. He retired from the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University in 2014 after working there for 35 years as Plant Propagator, Curator of the Larz Anderson Bonsai Collection, Editor of Arnoldia, Director of Living Collections and Senior Research Scientist. He was an Associate Professor in Practice in the Landscape Architecture Department at the Harvard Graduate School of Design from 1992 through 2016 and is currently teaching in the Urban Planning Department at MIT. In 2013, he was awarded the Veitch Gold Medal by The Royal Horticultural Society (England) “in recognition of services given in the advancement of the science and practice of horticulture.” Dr. Del Tredici's interests are wide ranging and include such subjects as plant exploration in China, the root systems of woody plants, the botany and horticulture of magnolias, stewartias and hemlocks, and the natural and cultural history of the Ginkgo tree which he has been studying since 1989. His recent work is focused on urban ecology and climate change and resulted in the publication of the widely acclaimed “Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast: A Field Guide” (Cornell University Press, 2010).

Dr. Marc Johnson is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM), the Canadian Research Chair for Urban Environmental Science, and the Director of the Centre for Urban Environments (CUE), a transdisciplinary research centre based at the UTM to discover how to make cities healthier for the environment and humans. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 2007, after which he conducted an NSERC Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Duke University, and was an Assistant Professor at North Carolina State University before returning to U of T in 2011. His EvoEco Lab takes an interdisciplinary approach to address a broad array of problems in evolution and ecology, including coevolutionary biology, eco-evolutionary dynamics, the evolution of sex, and how urban environments affect the evolution of life around us. He has published over 80 papers and he has received numerous awards for his research, including the American Society of Naturalists Young Investigator Prize, the Canadian Society of Ecology and Evolution Early Career Award and the Governor General’s Gold Medal among others. 

Dr. Deborah McGregor joined York University’s Osgoode Hall law faculty in 2015 as a cross-appointee with the Faculty of Environmental Studies. Her research has focused on Indigenous knowledge systems and their various applications in diverse contexts including water and environmental governance, environmental justice, forest policy and management, and sustainable development. She co-edited Indigenous Peoples and Autonomy: Insights for a Global Age (2010), and Indigenous Research: Theories, Practices, and Relationships (2018). She is the co-editor of the Anishinaabewin conference proceedings series and recently launched an Indigenous Environmental Justice Project website. Prior to joining Osgoode, Professor McGregor was an associate professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Toronto and served as Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Initiatives and the Aboriginal Studies program. She has also served as Senior Policy Advisor, Aboriginal Relations at Environment Canada-Ontario Region. She remains actively involved in a variety of Indigenous communities, serving as an advisor and continuing to engage in community-based research and initiatives. Professor McGregor, who is Anishinaabe from Whitefish River First Nation, Birch Island, Ontario, is the Primary Investigator on two current SSHRC-funded projects: Indigenous Environmental (In)Justice: theory and practice, and Indigenizing the First Nations Land Management Regime; and a co-applicant in two other SSHRC projects: Indigenous Knowledge Transfer in Urban Aboriginal Communities, and Exploring Distinct Indigenous Knowledge Systems to Inform Fisheries Governance and Management on Canada’s Coasts. 

Dr. Sandy Smith is a Professor in the Faculty of Forestry at the University of Toronto, serving as Interim Dean (2010-2012). She specializes in forest health, urban forestry, and is a leading expert in the ecology and biological management of invasive forest species. She is cross-appointed to the School of the Environment, UTSC, and Dept of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (EEB), University of Waterloo, and Algoma University. Sandy has published over 140 journal articles and book chapters in the area of forest health and urban forestry, served as a reviewer for international journals, and on national science committees (NSERC) and provincial scientific panels for managing invasive insects including Asian long-horned beetle (ALHB) and emerald ash borer (EAB). Her research addresses ecosystem resilience and the natural control of forest pest species, including invasive insects, earthworms, and plants. She has taught 30+ graduate and undergraduate courses, including professional online training, and supervised over 65 graduate theses in forest conservation. She is a Minjiang Scholar (China), a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society (UK), Past-President of the Entomological Societies of Canada and Ontario, a strategic advisor for LEAF (Local Enhancement & Appreciation of Forests) and Ontario’s Invasive Species Centre. Sandy currently serves on the boards of the Forestry Futures Trust, Toronto Parks and Trees Foundation, Tree Canada, and the Ontario Invasive Plant Council. 

Moderator:

Dr. Scott MacIvor is a community ecologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Toronto Scarborough. He is interested in plants and pollinators (especially bees) in cities, and more broadly, biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service delivery of green infrastructure and other urban green spaces, including public and private gardens, parks, and green roofs. He publishes widely in national and international journals, and more about his research can be found at www.macivorlab.ca. Professor MacIvor has taught urban ecology to science and non-science students at York, Ryerson, and in three Departments at the University of Toronto. He has active collaborations with numerous NGOs including the David Suzuki Foundation, Ontario Nature, and Wildlife Preservation Canada, as well as landscape architects and engineers at the Green Roof Innovation Testing (GRIT) lab at the University of Toronto, and the City of Toronto. With the City, he has co-authored a number of projects, included the 'Guidelines for Biodiverse Green Roofs', the 'Bees of Toronto' Biodiversity Series book, and the newly adopted ‘Pollinator Protection Strategy’.

Image: Spontaneous Plants, Stacey Zonnenveld, MLA '18