This year again, local leaders gathered their neighbours, built connections, and restored nature in projects big and small. The movement continues to expand, and we're pleased to share just some of these impacts in our 2025 Impact Report.
Ready to rally your crew and make a visible difference in your local park? This guide walks you through everything you need to host a successful community clean-up in Toronto
Discover ways to help you host events in your local parks during extreme heat events.
Explore key findings from five years of the Canadian City Parks Report, highlighting significant trends, issues, and practices shaping urban parks across the country.
A guidance and resources to measure the impact of your park work on community health and wellbeing, integrating a social equity lens.
The 6th Montreal Park People Forum is back on September 17 under the theme “Remembering, Looking Forward, and Taking Action for Urban Parks".
By donating to Park People, you’ll support vibrant parks for everyone.
Park People
Jul 23, 2026 Canada-wide
In 2026, 34 organizations across the country are receiving the Park People Nature Connect Fund. Through nature-based activities, hands-on ecological stewardship and restoration and other forms of landcare, they will help people and nature thrive together.
The Fund includes two streams: the emerging stream (up to $5,000) and the scaling stream (up to $20,000).
Scaling stream
Decolonizing and restoring a 1.5-hectare site (The Listen Garden in Fish Creek Provincial Park) by healing soil, reintroducing native plants, creating diverse habitat gardens, and amplifying Indigenous voices via education workshops, audio site tours, interpretive signage, and more.
www.friendsoffishcreek.org
Emerging stream
Connecting residents through hands-on restoration and stewardship education and community care of local native plant habitat and gardens in North Glenora, Edmonton.
www.northglenora.org
Root for Trees – Ongoing forest restoration, more than doubling the size of their initial forest restoration project, plus the formal designation of a 100 km stretch of the river valley as a Bird Friendly Corridor alongside the Edmonton Valley Zoo.
www.ervcc.com
Hike the Greenbelt – A public recreation, environmental education and stewardship engagement series across vital green spaces and parks in the Halifax Regional Municipality.
www.ecologyaction.ca
Green Labs Environmental Education – Guiding participants through an exploration of Earth’s biomes, local biodiversity, and waste reduction strategies, including hands-on activities like vermicomposting and environmental field trips.
www.hopeblooms.ca
Hosting youth engagement events with Friends of Parc Jarry to engage high school age students in environmental learning and stewardship.
Community garden and urban farm community engagement and gardening education events.
www.facebook.com/fermettepointesaintcharles
Pollinator Week and Monarch Butterfly BioBlitz – An interactive awareness booth and community observation activity on pollinators, and a citizen science “census” of butterflies.
www.vertcite.ca/en
Rehabilitation of a degraded wetland through community-led invasive species removal and planting natives to improve water filtration and support local wildlife.
www.ecopap.ca
Completion of an ecological corridor in Montreal through garden beds, edible planters and activation through tours, seed collection events.
www.instagram.com/ruelle_esperanza_verde
Controlling invasive species and planting native trees and shrubs via multiple volunteer programs; plus citizen science initiatives (including The Great Backyard Bird Count, Global Big Day spring bird count, Mission Monarch butterfly survey, Project FeederWatch bird count, and others).
www.lemontroyal.qc.ca/en
Scaling community stewardship in the eco corridor at the base of Mount Royal via volunteer land stewardship, interpretive signs on local biodiversity, guided walks, and planting of native trees, shrubs, perennials, and wildflowers across multiple sites (schoolyard and community gardens, food forests, and “adoptable” boulevard planters).
www.corridorecologiquedarlington.org/en
Supporting the creation of a Miyawaki-style Miniforest. This project includes community involvement and education, soil preparation and planting.
www.urbanature.org
Scaling Meewasin’s targeted grazing and community stewardship program across three new urban/peri-urban conservation sites, representing a significant expansion of their reintroduction of grazing to natural grasslands in over 20 years.
www.meewasin.com
Emerging Stream
A stewardship circle for 2SLGBTQIA+ and BIPOC youth to cultivate native perennials and pollinator plants along the Humber River watershed while strengthening connections to community, culture, and land.
Engaging the community through weekly stewardship sessions focused on building raised beds, managing invasive species, cultivating native perennials, and supporting seasonal seedling and seed swaps.
A series of workshops and guided walks with Indigenous Knowledge Keepers focused on water stewardship, wetland protection, and strengthening relationships with local ecosystems.
Enhancing local biodiversity through invasive species removal, native and pollinator plantings, and the creation of an Indigenous Three Sisters garden, alongside educational walks and workshops on composting and watershed conservation.
www.gnntoronto.ca/groups/prairie-drive-park-group
Expanding community stewardship through a native plant giveaway and educational event that helps residents create and support pollinator-friendly habitats across Toronto.
www.friendsofguildpark.com
Restoring park ecosystems through tree planting, native garden creation, and guided nature walks that provide multilingual environmental education in English, Tagalog, and Farsi.
Scaling Stream
Expanding turtle conservation efforts into three additional Toronto parks while applying Two-Eyed Seeing (Etuaptmumk) to support urban biodiversity and strengthen community stewardship.
www.turtleprotectors.com
Strengthening ecological and community resilience across multiple park sites through invasive species removal, Indigenous plant restoration, and expanded opportunities for residents to participate in stewardship activities.
www.torontonaturestewards.org
Expanding inclusive nature education, stewardship, and community science programs that protect High Park’s rare ecosystems while engaging nearly 1,000 volunteers in hands-on restoration activities.
www.highparknaturecentre.com
Connecting participants with the environment and fostering community leadership through youth-led activities like nature walks and collaborative stewardship projects.
www.ctsyouthsociety.com
Supporting youth to plan and implement small-scale ecological restoration projects and document outcomes to ensure replicability and scalability for the future.
www.unya.bc.ca
Restoration of the trail system (formerly a landfill site) in an equity-deserving neighbourhood through free educational workshops, hands-on invasive species removal events, 2 mass planting days, and 6 youth education and planting days, among other activities.
www.freethefern.ca
A community planting event to invite new stewards and create a new ephemeral wetland along Still Creek, helping reduce flooding, replenish groundwater, and increase biodiversity.
www.stillmoonarts.ca
A series of guided walks with Indigenous Elders at Stanley Park, bringing diverse community members together to learn, connect, and strengthen relationships with the land and with one another.
www.southvan.org
A one-day BioBlitz bringing together experts and the public to catalogue local biodiversity and identify at-risk or invasive species.
www.entsocbc.ca
Collaborative restoration with community partners and Indigenous groups focused on removing at least 2,000 pounds of waste and invasive species from urban forests, wetlands, and shorelines across Metro Vancouver.
www.weboflifesociety.ca
Volunteer Park Naturalist program offering interpretation on intertidal ecology, wetland ecosystems, and heron colonies, alongside monthly stewardship sessions including invasive species removal, native planting, mapping, and habitat maintenance across multiple sites.
www.stanleyparkecology.ca
Ongoing community-based restoration through invasive species removal and planting events, accessible nature and species-specific walks, Indigenous “Reconciliation Through Restoration” workshops, and Green Guardians training.
www.ecpcstewards.ca
Development of a replicable model for Indigenous-led land conservation through co-created curriculum, a teach-the-teacher program, an Adopt-A-Patch initiative for lightly supervised restoration, and ongoing stewardship meetups.
www.swanlake.bc.ca
Engaging youth to cultivate and distribute native plants and seedlings to transform landscapes around Grant Park High School and other Winnipeg schools.
www.winnipegtrails.ca
Nature Connect Fund
Explore the impacts of large urban parks on communities’ connectedness to nature and–by extension–their health and happiness.
In East Vancouver’s Champlain Heights, we sat down with two organizations leading a grassroots effort to restore native forests and build community.
Can different types of parks – with varying sizes, histories, descriptions, and designs – offer the same benefits as Canada’s historic “destination parks?