Southern Ontario’s rural heartland features bucolic farm country and a growing suburban footprint. It is also home to at least 133 species of vertebrates, insects and plants that are at risk of elimination. That presents a conservation conundrum: How best to protect so many species at risk in one of the country’s most populated and productive landscapes? Researchers have provided a study of what it would cost to rescue a significant fraction of Southern Ontario’s threatened wildlife. The answer – about $113-million a year for 27 years – illustrates the magnitude of the challenge and offers a strategic roadmap. The study aims to provide guidance on how best to address species declines in Southern Ontario. The task is especially complex because most of the land in the region is privately owned and, barring some exceptions, outside the jurisdiction of the federal Species at Risk Act. …The study was conducted in collaboration with WWF Canada. [to access the full story a Globe & Mail subscription is required]

Additional coverage from the University of British Columbia: 130 species in Southern Ontario at risk of local extinction by 2050 if no new actions taken