With urban sprawl currently stretching from Oshawa to Hamilton and Niagara, and with growth estimates projecting approximately 4 million additional Ontarians for the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH) in the next 25 years, healthy watersheds, intact wildlife habitat, and prime near-urban agricultural land are all being threatened by on-going urban sprawl.

While there is a common myth that environmentalists are opposed to growth, Earthroots recognizes that this growth is happening. The challenge is not to stop it, but to affect where and how it will occur in order to minimize its effects on the environment. For this reason, Earthroots' Southern Ontario Campaign centres on the promotion and implementation of Smart Growth principles in the GGH.

In contrast to urban sprawl, Smart Growth is aimed at creating compact, complete, people-friendly communities, where everything a person requires can be reached either by foot, bike, or public transportation. Smart Growth aims to focus growth in areas that have already been developed, intensifying, improving, and revitalizing our current communities while preserving and protecting the green space and natural resources that surround them. With this framework for development in mind, Earthroots is working on a number of different objectives to ensure that future development in the GGH will not be business as usual.

Integral to implementing Smart Growth is adequate protection for green space surrounding urban areas. Our first priority is working to improve Ontario’s current Greenbelt legislation, focusing on stricter protection and expansion of the Greenbelt to key environmental features in outer-circle communities. Other objectives include the addition of the North Pickering Airport and Seaton Lands to the Greenbelt, the promotion of local agriculture and food systems, and encouraging public transportation improvements by placing a moratorium on highway expansion in the GGH. Earthroots is also engaged in an education campaign, raising awareness about urban sprawl, Smart Growth, and Ontario's Greenbelt in classrooms across the GGH. More information about these campaigns can be accessed through the links below.

Specific campaigns and areas of focus:

Ontario's Greenbelt

Pickering Airport and Seaton Developments

Highway Expansion in the Greater Golden Horseshoe

Earthroots Joins the Local Food Movement!

Ontario's Greenbelt in the Classroom

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