About Us

The Urban Forest Stewardship Network is an online resource for organizations, community groups and individuals working on urban forest initiatives across Ontario. It is a platform for sharing experiences and resources, and for capacity building.

Big or small, one person or one hundred, the UFSN is where we all come together and work to enhance our living green infrastructure. Get inspired and connect with the people behind these great projects. Share your own success stories and help us build our library of resources and ideas.

Goals 

•build capacity within communities
•create and sustain volunteer urban tree maintenance and care programs
•increased tree survival rates
•improved health of the urban trees across Ontario

History 

The Urban Forest Stewardship Network was initiated by LEAF (Local Enhancement and Appreciation of Forests) in an effort to bring together community based urban forest groups from across the province.

The process started with LEAF organizing a retreat with five other groups in order to establish priorities for the network.  The Founding Team includes groups from Toronto, London, Hamilton, Elora, Peterborough, and Ottawa.   All members of the team identified a clear need to share ideas, resources and success stories so that our work could benefit from the experience others had gained and lessons they had learned.  We decided that a website would offer the most interactive and dynamic way to achieve our networking goals.  Two retreats and many conference calls later, our website was established and we began to share our resources and learn from others.  We continue to work to ensure that the UFSN website is a place where we can all interact and stay informed about the wonderful projects being undertaken across the province.  Our hope is that it will also be a starting place for those individuals and groups that are considering getting involved in urban forest issues in their community.

Our efforts would not be possible without the support of Ontario Power Generation through their Biodiversity Program. OPG has supported our vision of the UFSN from the beginning and understands the importance of healthy and well maintained urban forests in communities across the province.