Thank you Rosemary Speirs for your generous donation!
Altona Forest is a 53-hectare TRCA property located in the City of Pickering, Durham Region. The Forest provides essential habitat for a wide variety of plants and animals native to Southern Ontario including songbirds, foxes, coyotes, hawks and rare amphibians. Due to its ecological importance, Altona Forest has been designated as an Environmentally Significant Area.
Altona Forest is a 53-hectare TRCA property located in the City of Pickering, Durham Region. Altona Forest is part of TRCA’s Terrestrial Natural Heritage System as well as the City of Pickering’s Natural Heritage System. The Forest provides essential habitat for a wide variety of plants and animals native to Southern Ontario including songbirds, foxes, coyotes, hawks, and rare amphibians. Due to its ecological importance, Altona Forest has been designated as an Environmentally Significant Area.
Rosemary Speirs has been an environmental champion her entire life. She was a writer for the Toronto Star, where she wrote often about environmental concerns, both locally and nationally, contributing significantly to public awareness about environmental issues.
Rosemary has been a conservation steward of the TRCA Altona Forest Stewardship Committee since its inception in 2000 and was also on the Board of Directors and Chair of Ontario Nature for over a decade. Rosemary has been a dedicated land steward, protecting and restoring significant bird habitat of Altona Forest.
In 2019 Rosemary donated her Altona Forest property to TRCA adding 1.27 hectares of significant forest to TRCA’s protected greenspace portfolio within the Petticoat Creek watershed. The adjacent section of Altona Forest was previously donated to TRCA by Rosemary’s father, Dr. J. Murray Speirs, a prominent ornithologist who used the site for scientific study. Most of the forest is currently in public ownership and protected from development.