Big impact on the ground: Restoration’s Top 10 projects from 2025
From restoring rivers and streambanks to planting new forests and rethinking how our communities manage stormwater, 2025 was a big year for restoration.
Our team supported more than 100 projects across the Lake Simcoe watershed, working with municipalities, landowners, community groups, and developers to strengthen natural systems and protect water quality. Choosing just 10 wasn’t easy, but these projects rose to the top for their scale, creativity, and long-term impact.
Introducing our Top 10 Restoration projects of 2025.
1. Community Action: Restoration powered by you
In 2025, Community Action delivered another strong year of hands-on restoration. Through 27 community-led projects, more than 900 volunteers came together to plant trees, restore habitat, and make a tangible difference in their local environments.
Together, these efforts resulted in 3,265 trees and 3,180 shrubs planted, restoring 3.59 hectares of land. This included 1,190 metres of riparian buffer, helping protect waterways, stabilize shorelines, and improve habitat along streams and wetlands. When mature, these plantings will reduce phosphorus entering the watershed by an estimated 2.93 kilograms and sequester 34.09 tonnes of carbon annually. That’s more than 1,020 tonnes of carbon stored over the lifetime of the plantings, the equivalent to taking about 220 cars off the road for a year.
Mini forests are a growing area of interest, with the watershed’s first planted in 2024 by the Rotary Club of Uxbridge. In 2025, groups in Aurora and Uxbridge planted four more mini forests (small but densely planted areas prioritizing the number of trees over total area). While taking less land than traditional plantings, their dense approach gets more plants in the ground and sparks strong community interest — helping conservation reach new audiences.
Community Action projects represented a total investment of $107,321.32, proving that small, local actions can add up to meaningful watershed-wide impact.
2. Henderson Eco Passage: A safer crossing for wildlife
In 2024, the Town of Aurora replaced a culvert beneath Henderson Drive, restoring the connection between Salamander Pond and the headwaters of Tannery Creek. The upgrade helps manage high flows during heavy rain events and protects the slopes of Henderson Drive, which had been eroding.
Beyond protecting infrastructure, the new culvert now functions as an ecological passage, allowing wildlife to move safely along the ground and through the water between Salamander Pond and the downstream ravine. This area is well known for its turtle population, which nests nearby and regularly attempts to cross Henderson Drive during warmer months — often with fatal results. The project added turtle exclusion fencing and nesting mounds to guide wildlife safely toward the passage and provide secure nesting areas away from the roadway.
In 2025, local community group Turtle Tias worked with a consultant to monitor how wildlife used the new crossing. Drawing on years of local knowledge and new field data, the first-year monitoring report documented strong early success:
- 14 snapping turtles, six racoons, six rabbits, three mink, and one fox, muskrat and painted turtle were recorded using the culvert;
- Wildlife road mortality in this area has dropped to almost zero; and,
- The constructed nesting mounds are already being used successfully.
The Conservation Authority supported the project with in-kind staff time and funding from the Restoration Assistance Program.
3. Vivian Creek Park: Keeping trails open when the water rises
In 2022, the Town of East Gwillimbury and the Conservation Authority explored ways to reduce frequent flooding along the Vivian Creek Park trail system. Portions of the park lie within the floodplain, and high-water levels during wetter months were frequently flooding trails and restricting public access. Early investigations showed that some naturalized areas were supporting little wildlife, and the project could enhance them to help move water away from trails while improving habitat.
In 2023, a consultant developed a design that used natural features to manage water more effectively. The plan focused on creating wetlands and improving drainage through naturalized areas surrounding trails and sports fields, while also addressing an eroding section of streambank that posed a future risk to the trail system.
Construction began in September 2024 and included improved drainage around trails and sports fields, the creation of two wetlands totalling 0.29 hectares, micro-wetland features, multiple pit-and-mound habitats, and 35 metres of streambank protection using a vegetated buttress. The project also added 375 trees and shrubs, 3,000 wetland plants, and native seed across 1.8 hectares of the site. Crews reused excavated soil on-site, reducing truck traffic, limiting neighbourhood disruption, and lowering the project’s carbon footprint.
The trail system is now more accessible during all seasons Wildlife including deer, foxes, frogs, and great blue herons are already returning to the area — a sign that the park is functioning better for both people and nature.
4. Permeable pavement: When a parking lot protects the environment
The Conservation Authority’s head office parking lot has been a testing ground for Low Impact Development for more than a decade. A 2015 project saw a 245 square metre of paved area retrofitted with permeable concrete pavers to let rainwater soak into the ground instead of running off into nearby waterways. However, over time the concrete blocks needed replacing due to deterioration.
In 2025, we partnered with Dream Pave to pilot a polymer-based permeable pavement alternative. Dream Pave supplied and installed the new surface at no cost, while Conservation Authority staff removed the existing blocks and prepared the base material. Crews installed the pavement over the existing underdrain system in August.
Estimated to last 30 years, it only needs winter plowing and simple annual maintenance such as spring sweeping and rinsing. Because the surface remains permeable year-round, the Conservation Authority no longer applies winter salt, preventing chloride from washing into waterways that flow to Lake Simcoe. The surface allows for an estimated 173 cubic metres of precipitation to infiltrate each year — meaning 173,000 cubic litres (or more than 17 dump truck loads) of water is prevented from going directly into the stream system annually.
5. Hamilton Park: Bringing the wetland back to life
In 2022, Restoration began working with the Town of Aurora to explore wetland improvements in a low-lying area of Hamilton Park. While the area was seasonally wet, it supported limited biodiversity due to a monoculture of reed canary grass. Invasive phragmites also overtook another nearby area.
Following further studies, a consultant developed a design to create and enhance wetland habitat while protecting areas of existing ecological value. The plan included restoring natural wetland function, improving habitat diversity, and developing a management approach to treat and remove invasive phragmites and re-naturalize the site.
Construction began in March 2025, creating three wetland pockets along Marsh Creek in the East Holland subwatershed. To minimize disturbance, crews installed a temporary matting route across the site so heavy equipment could move through without damaging the ground. This protected the surrounding habitat during construction and allowed native vegetation to recover quickly once work was complete. Throughout 2025, crews treated the invasive phragmites patch twice, then cut and removed it from the site.
In total, the project created 0.57 hectares of new and improved seasonal wetlands, removed 0.2 hectares of invasive phragmites, and added eight habitat structures. The site was planted with 95 trees and shrubs, and 2,040 wetland plugs across the three wetland pockets. Together, these improvements help capture and store stormwater during localized flooding while providing valuable habitat for birds, amphibians, and pollinators within the park.
6. Lover’s Creek: Making room for the river
Along a tributary of Lover’s Creek near Mapleview Drive, years of erosion and altered flows had left the stream and its banks in poor condition. Heavy rain events caused flashy flows, the bank was eroding toward the roadway, and invasive phragmites were beginning to take hold along the corridor.
City of Barrie led this project and used natural channel design and bioengineering techniques. The project shifted this section of Lover’s Creek farther from the road and reshaped it to function like a healthy stream. It also enhanced instream habitat, helped rainwater move more naturally through the creek with less chance of flooding, and reintroduced a natural riffle-and-pool pattern. Installing root wads and a vegetated riverstone buttress provide long-term streambank stability while also creating habitat within the channel.
This work included planting 1,752 trees and shrubs, restoring 160 metres of streambank, constructing nine pools and riffles and three root wads for added bank protection and aquatic habitat, and treating and removing a large patch of invasive phragmites. Together, these improvements manage erosion and sediment naturally and will keep an estimated 3.2 kilograms of phosphorus out of Lake Simcoe each year.
Conservation Authority staff supported this project with funding from the Lake Simcoe Phosphorus Offsetting Program and the Restoration Assistance Program.
7. Victoria Green: From a pond to a water quality solution
In 2024, the Town of Innisfil and the Conservation Authority partnered to upgrade the Victoria Green stormwater pond in Stroud. The existing pond was aging and built to hold water, with limited ability to clean it before it flowed downstream.
The redesigned pond now manages more than volume. The upgraded system slows water down and filters it using a mix of traditional stormwater infrastructure, Low Impact Development features, and newly created wetland areas.
Finished last summer, the project created 169 square metres of wetland area and 7,800 square metres of Natural Heritage Restoration. The project installed 587 shrubs and 1,927 aquatic and perennial plants, along with bioretention cells that help absorb and treat stormwater. Together, these improvements will keep an estimated 2.77 kilograms of phosphorus out of Lake Simcoe each year. The Ecological Offsetting and Phosphorus Offsetting programs provided partial project funding.
8. Cover crops: Keeping soil where it belongs
When farmland is bare, wind and water can carry soil — and the nutrients crops need to thrive — away. In 2025, nine farmers received funding for their cover crop projects, helping protect over 588 hectares of farmland across the Lake Simcoe watershed.
By planting cover crops like barley, oats, oilseed radish, and tillage radish, farmers create a living layer that holds soil in place, improves how water soaks into the ground, and builds healthier soil over time. These crops reduce erosion, limit compaction, and support the microbial life that keeps fields productive.
In the Holland Marsh, where fields are especially vulnerable at planting time, inter-seeding barley has helped stabilize seedbeds and protect young vegetable crops from wind and water damage. The result is healthier soils, more resilient farms, and fewer nutrients washing into nearby waterways.
9. Sunderland tree planting project: Growing the forest back
A new forest took root near Sunderland last spring, with 3,250 trees planted across 1.4 hectares of private land beside the Beaverton River Wetlands — an area of natural scientific interest (ANSI). The team carefully selected bareroot seedlings (including white pine, white spruce, European larch, and red oak) to match local soil and site conditions, giving the new forest the best chance to thrive.
By linking this planting to an existing forested swamp, the project helps create early successional forest and new wildlife habitat, strengthening the surrounding natural system. As the trees mature, they will provide food (such as acorns), improve air quality, store carbon, and support biodiversity across the landscape.
Funded through Restoration Funding, the Lake Simcoe Conservation Foundation, and Canada, this project shows how targeted tree planting on private land can deliver long-term environmental benefits far beyond the property line.
10. Queensway North natural corridor: Building nature into the neighbourhood
At the Queensway North development near Old Homestead Road (Georgina), Ballymore Development and the Conservation Authority partnered to build natural heritage directly into the project from the start. It aimed to restore valley land while supporting a growing community by integrating natural heritage features alongside a creek realignment
Rather than treating natural areas as an afterthought, the project focused on creating a connected corridor of wetlands, plantings, and restored stream features across 5.9 hectares. Supported by $735,540 in Ecological Offsetting funding, the work expanded wetland habitat, strengthened biodiversity, and increased natural cover throughout the valley.
This included 1.094 hectares of wetland, 4.806 hectares of new planting, 160 habitat structures, and 32 stream pools and riffles to support both aquatic and terrestrial species. Thousands of added native plants — including 756 trees, 2,332 shrubs, 10,465 herbaceous plants, and 3,420 live stakes (native cuttings planted to take root and stabilize soil) — bringing the corridor to life.
This first-of-its-kind partnership shows what’s possible when development goes beyond minimum requirements. By planning for nature from day one, the project delivers long-term environmental benefits while helping create a more resilient, sustainable community.
For more information on the Conservation Authority’s annual accomplishments, check out our Year in Review video.
Contact Restoration:
Phone: 905-895-1281
Toll Free: 1-800-465-0437
Email: 
restoration@LSRCA.on.ca