Photo generously donated by Lisa Mason
In the Zone, a collaboration of WWF-Canada and Carolinian Canada, is helping Southern Ontario residents and businesses transform their properties into vital habitat for wildlife in one of the most biologically diverse and threatened regions of Canada.
Native plants are essential for food and shelter for monarch butterflies, frogs, turtles, owls, bees and other native wildlife, especially as pressures from climate change and human development intensify. By filling in habitat gaps, private green spaces growing native plants can play a critical role in restoring habitat at the backyard, neighbourhood and ecosystem level.
The In The Zone Tracker
The In the Zone Tracker is a citizen science tool designed to ‘crowd-source’ healthy habitat on diverse, settled landscapes. The Tracker can be used by anyone in rural or urban landscapes, on any property. It tracks natural, aquatic and cultural habitat.
Cultural habitat is not currently counted as a significant part of our natural systems but in the Carolinian Zone, upgrading cultural habitat is needed to help reverse habitat loss.
over 1500 Healthy Gardeners
Signed up with In The Zone
over 450 Gardens Tracked
Completed garden trackers
over 100,000 reached
In The Zone garden participants are influencers, sharing their healthy garden stories with thousands across the Zone
In The Zone Participants are Leading the Way with an average of 132 Healthy Garden Points! Healthy Garden Points highlight healthy gardening choices for wild and human communities. They are relative measures linked to the science of healthy ecosystems and include ecological, social and green economic indicators that have positive impacts on biodiversity.
In The Zone Outreach
A large part of the In The Zone program is being responsive to queries sent in by participants, and getting involved in the community and in the garden. Participants can submit their questions through our Ask an Expert webform - Carolinian Zone Ecologist and gardening guru Ben Porchuck gave advice to on gardening approaches, finding native plants, design, and other questions regarding urban ecology . Ben visited 7 sites personally, giving on the ground-in person attention to participants.
A total of 11 talks on In The Zone and other issues relating to Urban Ecology and native plants were given all across the zone, from Toronto to Windsor. Talks were delivered at the University of Toronto, the Urban Ecology Group, Park People at Toronto Botanical Gardens, the High Park Stewards, the World Wildlife Fund and Native Plant Experts of Toronto, the Masters of Environmental and Sustainability program at Western University, the London Garden Club, the Tilbury and Greater Area Horticultural Society, the Go Wild Grow Wild Green Expo, and the Friends of Ojibway Prairie.
Photo generously donated by Bruce Manning
About In the Zone
Makes it easy for wildlife lovers to be part of the solution with:
- In the Zone Tracker, an online citizen-science tool that lets gardeners measure their individual impact while making a valuable contribution to our understanding of biodiversity across the Carolinian Zone.
- Comprehensive gardening guides for wildflower, woodland and wetland habitats.
- Access to gardening and wildlife experts to answer questions about which native plants to grow to benefit wildlife.
Partnering to Promote Climate-Smart Yards
Carolinian Canada has partnered with organizations across the zone to deliver the In The Zone vision for connected climate-smart yards
