Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to pay tribute to Project Preservation, an environmental youth group in my riding of Parry Sound-Muskoka.
Recently the group was honoured with the Ward Smith environmental youth award. This award is presented by the North Bay-Mattawa Conservation Authority for outstanding youth contributions to the local environment through awareness and action.
Project Preservation was established in the fall of 1986 as a response to the growing need for an active environmental group dedicated to education.
Within the past eight years, the need to protect our environment has grown and Project Preservation has evolved with it. Project Preservation's main focus is the publication of a bimonthly newsletter called "Nature's Plea". "Nature's Plea"
covers a wide range of environmental issues and provides an optimistic outlook to the problems we face.
Within the past year Project Preservation has organized numerous tree plants, litter clean-ups, benefit music festivals and campaigns such as the bad mail campaign, a project to combat junk mail.
My congratulations and best wishes are extended to Project Preservation and to-