Catherine Labelle
News Reporter

The city’s proposed expansion of southern Ontario’s Greenbelt may include Humber’s North Campus arboretum.
“Humber needs to engage students to a greater and greater extent around environmental initiatives and the inclusion of the Humber River Valley in the southern Ontario Greenbelt will certainly give us an increased number of ways to do that,” said academic vice -president, Michael Hatton.
Since the majority of the arboretum is a conservation area, the bulk of the land, particularly waterways and flood plains, is protected against development, said the arboretum director, Melanie Sifton.
Outside of these areas, development may be possible, the expansion of the Greenbelt would add an extra layer of protection against potential development, she said.
The Greenbelt will not only keep developers away, but it will raise awareness of nature as an interconnected system, said Sifton.
The west branch of the Humber River travels through the arboretum, running essentially in the college’s backyard, she said.
From Humber, students can walk or bike many kilometres along the river, connecting to a multitude of amazing natural areas where they can catch a glimpse of a wide array of birds, plants and mammals.
“The Greenbelt is 728,000 hectares of protected land, both environmentally sensitive and agricultural land, that wraps around the greater Golden Horseshoe,” said Jennifer Story, from the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation.
The expansion would add 90 kilometres of waterways, from where the waters begin all the way down to Lake Ontario, Story said.
“The Greenbelt legislation is extremely significant and important for the city of Toronto and builds on our tremendous legacy of environmentalism,” said Mayor David Miller.