I’m proud to introduce the Humber Arboretum’s 2017-18 Annual Report. This report outlines our successes from an exciting year, including accomplishing 96% of the goals set forth in our 2017-18 Business Plan. To recap, our top priorities for the year were to:
- Enhance and maintain our outdoor learning, recreation, and natural spaces for the wellbeing of our community.
- Provide valuable, meaningful learning opportunities for Humber College students.
- Provide quality education programs, outreach activities, and camps to enhance our community’s knowledge about sustainability and strengthen their connection with our natural environment.
We had many significant accomplishments this year related to these priorities – we envisioned and built the Humber Food Learning Garden, contributed to the education of more than 4,000 Humber College students, and debuted our popular Sustainable Urban Beekeeping Certificate. A highlight of the year was being part of the leadership team that created Toronto’s new Ravine Strategy. The Arboretum is looking forward to bringing the strategy to life through our Humber Pond Project in the years to come.
This year saw an increase in the scope of our public events, educational programming being made available to a wider audience, and growing involvement with far-reaching environmental initiatives. We were pleased to expand our partnerships, host more than 14,000 visitors for our educational events and activities, and to provide curriculum-connected educational programs for 8,300 schoolchildren from across the GTA. The cumulative impact of this work is immeasurable, both for our local community and for the sustainability of our planet.
As always, we do this work to support the priorities of our three founding partners: Humber College, City of Toronto, and Toronto and Region Conservation (TRCA). I thank them for believing in and for championing us. I also thank our staff for their hard work, resourcefulness, and collaboration this year.
To view our Annual Report in its entirety, please see here.
Sincerely,
Alexandra (Alix) Link
Director, Humber Arboretum and Centre for Urban Ecology
