Thank you, Jim.
My name is Dan Gibson. I'm a senior environmental scientist with the hydro environment division of Ontario Power Generation.
As Jim alluded to, OPG's biodiversity programs demonstrate that industry has a clear role to play in conserving and restoring Canadian natural landscapes and ecosystems. OPG has invested in significant habitat conservation and restoration efforts in the communities where we operate, through our working landscapes, and in strategic locations across southern Ontario, which include some of the most biologically imperilled regions of Canada. I'll start by outlining for you some of our regional or off-site conservation work.
OPG's corporate environmental policy states that we will work with community partners “to support regional ecosystems and biodiversity through science-based habitat stewardship”. Our tree-planting initiative is a great example of this policy in action. Since 2000, OPG, through our conservation partners, has planted over five million native trees and shrubs on over 2,500 hectares of land. These plantings target the expansion of core forest habitat and regional landscape connectivity to promote the recovery of wildlife at risk as a result of habitat fragmentation.
Site identification is done collaboratively using regional-scale natural heritage systems, such as the Carolinian Canada Coalition's Big Picture, and is often supported by local refinement on the ground. However, the cumulative benefits of these programs extend well beyond conserving and restoring habitat for at-risk wildlife. They also serve to support climate change initiatives through natural sequestration of carbon dioxide and to strengthen the resiliency of woodland ecosystems to withstand the effects of climate change.
Another off-site initiative that we are very proud of is our sponsorship of Earth Rangers projects to bring back the wild American badger and the spotted turtle. These species are listed as endangered, both provincially and federally. The goal of the partnership among OPG, the Earth Rangers, and the Nature Conservancy of Canada is to not only restore and improve habitat, but to also conduct research studies to support recovery. Through these partnerships, we also engage the public through youth education programs that teach youth about the importance of biodiversity and protecting species and their habitats.
A third off-site initiative is our bring back the salmon campaign, a program designed to reintroduce and restore the extirpated Atlantic salmon into Lake Ontario by 2020. OPG is the lead corporate partner in this program that also includes the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, and many other partner organizations. The program has four primary components, all of which rely heavily on community involvement, volunteers, and corporate partners for its success.
The first, obviously, is fish production and stocking. The second is water quality and habitat enhancement, which includes our riparian tree- and shrub-planting programs. The third, which is a really fun one, is outreach and education for school kids and includes classroom rearing of juvenile Atlantic salmon. The fourth is research and monitoring.
These initiatives are examples of the on-the-ground conservation work that we are doing with partners, with our stakeholders, to conserve and restore habitat.
Now I'll turn to some of our on-site efforts and some of the programs that are ongoing on our locations. Our work with the Wildlife Habitat Council is a great example of these.
The Wildlife Habitat Council certification is an internationally recognized biodiversity standard that guides our ongoing commitment to biodiversity on our working landscapes. OPG has more than a dozen wildlife at work sites, and numerous corporate lands for learning sites, which I'll talk about in a moment. They're all certified under the Wildlife Habitat Council.
The wildlife at work program seeks to foster corporate-driven cooperative efforts among management, employees, and community members to create, conserve, and restore wildlife habitats on corporate lands. These working landscapes provide excellent opportunities for conservation, protection, restoration, and community engagement, while maintaining some economic benefits. OPG believes that the community engagement aspect of these efforts provides the greatest opportunity for building healthy, resilient ecosystems, which allow Ontarians to enjoy our natural spaces. We believe that our approaches are consistent with some of the proposals we're hearing about with regard to a national conservation plan.
Secondly, the corporate lands for learning certified sites also offer experiential, place-based learning opportunities that use habitat conservation as a tool for teaching Ontarians to explore ecological concepts and the human role in conservation.
In addition to certifications, I'll end with highlighting two additional awards that OPG has received in the last few years.
First, in 2012 OPG once again received recognition from the Wildlife Habitat Council when our Pickering nuclear generating station became the first Canadian organization to be recognized with the Pollinator Advocate Award. This award was in recognition of our efforts to improve habitat for pollinating insects on OPG lands and other community locations.
Second, also in 2012, our Lambton generating station received the Regional Corporate Habitat of the Year Award, which recognizes the station's biodiversity management plan, including work in managing its operations in a way that encourages the existence of native species and ecosystems.
Thank you for your time, and I'll pass it back to Jim.