ABOUT
OAK RIDGES MORAINE

1900

Square Kilometers

1760

Different Species

Rivers and Streams that begin in the Moraine

Unique Habitat for us to Protect

How the Oak Ridges Moraine Was Formed

Our Moraine is 12,000 years old, 160 km long and covers over 470,000 acres, and is part of Ontario’s Greenbelt. At almost 2 million acres, ours is the world’s largest permanently protected greenbelt, stretching over 325 km from Rice Lake in the Oak Ridges Moraine to Tobermory to the Niagara River. It keeps our farmlands, forests and wetlands safe and sustainable, and provides fresh air, clean water and healthy local food.

Thanks to our partners and friends, you can also check out publicly accessible hiking trails!

Explore the Moraine by watching this video about its historical formation and what services it provides to us every single day!

Quick Facts about the Oak Ridges Moraine

The Moraine stretches 160 kilometers from just east of Mono Mills at the Niagara Escarpment to Castleton, north east of Cobourg
North and south the Moraine is ‘narrowest’ ( < ½ km ) at Bewedley on the west end of Rice Lake and (just about ½ km) at Simcoe Street north of Oshawa. An area of major concern for connectivity of the Moraine occurs within Richmond Hill at Yonge Street where the only undeveloped ‘natural linkage area’ is considerably less than ½ km in the area currently referred to as Corridor Park
The Moraine covers a geographic area of 1,900 square kilometers (734 sq mi) approximately 1/3 of the size of Prince Edward Island!
64 rivers or streams begin on the Moraine and run either south directly into Lake Ontario, or north to Lakes Scugog, Simcoe or Georgian Bay (Lake Huron). Some of these watercourses include The Credit, Humber, Don, Rouge, Ganaraska, Pigeon, Nonquon, Beaverton, Black, Holland (East and West) and Nottawasaga Rivers; Etobicoke, Duffins, Lynde, Oshawa, Bowmanville, Burnley and Innisfil Creeks
90% of the Moraine is in private ownership
60% of the Moraine is in the Greater Toronto Area, (Peel, York and Durham Regions) 20% in Northumberland County, 7% in the City of Kawartha Lakes, 5% in Simcoe County, 3% in Peterborough County and 1% in Dufferin County
32% of the Moraine is covered in upland forests and is one of six recognized areas for forest bird diversity in southern Ontario
5% of the Moraine is wetlands – mostly smaller but very important in their function as headwaters and also as isolated habitat for waterfowl
There are 37 kettle lakes and 46 bogs/fens (noteworthy for northern plants and animals)
0.2% of the Moraine is covered with 161 remnant tall grass prairie, sand barrens and oak-pine savannah/woodlands

The Moraine has an enormous amount of biodiversity.

There are:

1,171 plant species
125 species of moss
166 breeding bird species (and more through migratory seasons)
30 species of reptiles and amphibians
51 mammal species
73 fish species
74 species of butterflies
70 dragonflies and damselfly species
88 species are provincial or national species at risk and 466 are moraine rare (Canada as a whole has 71,500 species of plants and animals, with approximately 422 species at risk)
There are 72 life and earth science Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI’s) covering 15% of the moraine and 82 Environmentally Significant Areas (ESAs) For more information on these, check out This Link

However, the Oak Ridges Moraine is more than just a beautiful landform feature with its breathtaking vistas, rolling hills, wooded valleys and ‘kettle’ lakes. Its most precious feature lies hidden below the grounds’ surface.

For more information, check out the Water and the Moraine Tab

Their Habitat:

Kirtland’s Warblers have evolved a unique and nomadic adaptation to pine-oak community habitats found in the Great Lakes area, in particular the Oak Ridges Moraine. Kirtland’s Warblers, along with a number of other species-at-risk are dependent on these pine oak communities. Once common across throughout the Kirtland’s Warblers range, these unique communities were some of the first areas lost to European settlement. Many of the plants in these communities are adapted to fire, and need fire to reproduce. Burns that were once a semi-regular natural occurrence, harnessed by Indigenous people to sustainably manage fire-adapted ecosystems, were banned by Europeans as part of their effort to suppress Indigenous culture, compounded by their lack of understanding of the important role fire played in North American ecosystems. The Jack Pine is typically the main tree species typically associated with Kirtland’s Warblers, however in Ontario and Wisconsin, Kirtland’s Warblers are also using Red Pine. Kirtland’s Warblers require communities with these tree species that are between 6 to 20 years in age for breeding.

The Ontario Kirtland’s Warbler Recovery Project

The Kirtland’s Warbler is a globally rare bird, endangered in Ontario and Canada, that breeds only in young pine-oak communities in Michigan, Wisconsin and Ontario and overwinters in the Bahamas. Although always rare, the Kirtland’s Warbler was reduced to less than 500 individuals in the 1970-80’s due to a loss of suitable habitat. After 60 years of conservation programs in the United States, the population has increased to over 5,000. In the US, conservation projects helped to recover populations from 500 in the 1970s to over 5,000 individuals. Despite the success seen in the US, the Kirtland’s Warbler remains in jeopardy in Ontario, and it is the only through the active restoration of their specialized habitat that their populations can be recovered.

The Kirtland’s Warbler and the Oak Ridges Moraine:

Data from a tracking using MOTUS Wildlife Tracking System (a Birds Canada initiative) showed that Kirtland’s Warblers are moving through Ontario during their breeding season searching for suitable new breeding grounds for subsequent years. Pilot projects to create habitat for Kirtland’s Warbler in southern Ontario were started in 2017 in Simcoe County. In 2022, six male Kirtland’s Warblers established territories at the restoration site near the moraine. This is seen as an early success and “proof of concept” for this type of restoration initiative. This and other evidence suggest that Ontario is suitable for establishing more breeding populations of Kirtland’s Warbler if more habitat was available through restoration. This is particularly the case in the Oak Ridges Moraine and Greenbelt where there are areas with many suitable sand deposits.

The Kirtland’s Warbler Habitat Restoration:

While the long-term goal requires a large area, much can be achieved in the short-term with smaller areas, especially if those smaller areas are linked to other conservation lands. Most conservation is focused on protecting existing areas, but in some cases, habitats need to be recreated. There is now ample evidence that most species return to restored areas provided the correct complement of plant species and habitat structure has been provided. Restoring these communities begins by reestablishing between 80 to 120 different native grass, forb and shrub species. This is the first step in restoring the complex characteristics of pine-oak communities and the soils that support them. Once the native plant community is established and soils improve, insects, birds, and other animals begin to return.

The Partners and Supporters:

Many of the areas with potential habitat features suitable for Kirtland’s Warblers occur within the Land Trust’s existing priority areas for land securement. The Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust has partnered with the bi-national group working together on the recovery of the endangered Kirtland’s Warbler in Ontario which includes the following members and advisors: GEI Consultants Ltd, Sir Sanford Fleming College, School of Environmental and Natural Resources Sciences, American Bird Conservancy, Simcoe County Forestry Division County of Simcoe and the Nature Conservancy of Canada, working in coordination with the U.S. Kirtland’s Warbler Conservation Team.

Often referred to as the ‘rainbarrel’ of Southern Ontario, over 6 million Ontarians depend on the Oak Ridges Moraine for clean water

Moraine waters sustain countless green spaces and a large number of diverse species who call the Moraine and related landscapes home.

Scoured off the rocky earth’s crust by giant glaciers, the irregular shaped mounds of sand and gravel that compose most of the Oak Ridges Moraine absorbs water quickly. Instead of running off into streams and ponds as it would on some other soils, water that falls on the Moraine often seeps straight down, into the Moraine’s sandy core. The clean water that bubbles up from this aquifer feeds 65 river systems.

In the diagram (courtesy of GEOSCAPES; Natural Resources Canada), you can see how the precipitation that falls on the Oak Ridges Moraine is absorbed into a sandy layer that is actually hundreds of meters deep. Here, it is filtered and stored eventually draining out via the many streams and rivers that originate from the Moraine. Clean and cold, the rivers begin here.

Further Reading: Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan Technical Paper#12: Hydrological Evaluations for Hydrologically Sensitive Features

Groundwater Study

The Oak Ridges Moraine is a 160-km long ridge of sand, silt and gravel deposits that is oriented approximately east-west, and lies north of Lake Ontario. The site encompasses and extends north, east and west from the City of Toronto within the province of Ontario in Canada.

In order to understand and characterize the hydrogeology of the ORM, the York-Peel-Durham-Toronto (YPDT) coalition and the Conservation Authorities Moraine Coalition (CAMC) have initiated regional and local-scale groundwater studies.

For more information, visit the YPTD CAMC Oak Ridges Moraine Groundwater Study Website.

Moraine Water Importance

One of the Moraine’s most important functions is as a water recharge/discharge area- sustaining the health of the many watersheds, which originate in the Moraine and directly providing drinking water to over 250,000 people. It has been described as southern Ontario’s rain barrel – its permeable sands and gravels absorb and collect precipitation, which slowly recharge the deep aquifers below the ground.
These sand and gravel aquifers store, filter and release this groundwater to over 65 watercourses flowing north and south into Georgian Bay, Lakes Simcoe, Scugog, Rice and Ontario. At the same time, unprecedented human exploitation of this groundwater places the Moraine in a precarious ecological position.

The 1991 Oak Ridges Moraine Planning Study, which began as a tightly focused land use planning exercise, became a catalyst for innovative water resource studies. The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, through the planning study, undertook a broad hydrogeological review of the Oak Ridges Moraine. This led to the involvement of the Ontario Geological Survey and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Parks and Conservation in developing detailed geological and hydrogeological mapping. In 1993, the Geological Survey of Canada initiated an extensive five-year Oak Ridges Moraine study. The result of this collaborative work is an extensive ‘regional scale’ understanding of the Oak Ridges Moraine, exceptional by Canadian standards.

Despite the focus of the Geological Survey of Canada and its call for integration of land-use planning and groundwater management, municipalities and the provincial government continued to carry on with business as usual – processing applications for development and official plan amendments in the absence of a comprehensive groundwater management strategy. Land-use changes, primarily the building of residential subdivisions, the construction of roads and the paving of parking lots increase the imperviousness of the ground surface, stopping water from entering the hydrologic cycle. Consequently, this surface runoff results in dramatic increases in wet weather flows of the headwater streams on the moraine causing erosion and degradation of these fragile systems. Urban and rural contaminants entering the ground today can remain undetected for many decades given the excruciatingly slow movement of water through the ground. Water-taking, associated with these new land uses, further exacerbates the pressure on the resource. Not only is precipitation blocked from entering the ground but more water is being removed. Municipal water supplies, golf courses and commercial water-bottling companies have, by necessity, begun to ‘go deeper’ into the Moraine to find adequate quantities of drinkable and usable water.

The Beeton Heritage Forest was donated by the Town of New Tecumseth to the Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust in 2019 and provides great value to our environment and users.

We ask all users to review our User Guide prior to visiting to ensure a safe experience for you and the forest.

Access and Parking to the Beeton Heritage Forest: 5927 7th Line, New Tecumseth, ON.

The Beeton Heritage Forest is a Recreational trail that is owned and managed for conservation. Hiking only, all other activities are prohibited.

Please, Be a Friend to the Heritage Forest

While enjoying the forest, please minimize your impact on the natural environment. Designated trails help users avoid getting lost, keep you safe from areas of high natural hazards, and protect sensitive areas. Staying on trails keeps you and the forest safe so that future generations can appreciate both.

Stay on marked trails at all times.
Leave only footprints. Take only photographs. Please, no foraging, nature needs it more than we do.
Give wildlife space and enjoy being an observer from afar and with respect.
Dogs are not permitted.

Users assume all risks as per Occupiers Liability Act RSO 1990

Maintaining the Forest with Your Help

Since 2000, the Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust has worked across the Moraine, Greenbelt, and Simcoe County to conserve environmentally significant land. With the donation of this Heritage Forest, the Land Trust is providing a protected trail for the public to use and enjoy.

Donations to support the stewardship and maintenance of the property can be made to the Land Trust, directed to the “Beeton Heritage Forest Fund” through various options listed on our Give Page.

We are currently looking for volunteers for the Beeton Heritage Forest in different roles.. If you are interested in volunteering for the Beeton Heritage Forest, please see the job descriptions below and complete our online volunteer form and note the position you are interested in in the comments section.

Please, No Dogs in the Forest

There is an off-leash dog area located 3km from the forest at

10th line & Stewart St E in Beeton.

Unfortunately, dogs are no longer permitted due to the

disregard of leash laws in the forest by some owners

and the highly sensitive ecosystem of the forest.

Off-leash dogs harm the natural ecosystem of the forest and its users, and are prohibited in the Town of New Tecumseth. (Bylaw #2017-77).
There have been recorded instances of wildlife and other dog fatalities due to off-leash dogs. Your dogs may also be injured or even killed by the wildlife that live here.
Wild animals see dogs as a threat. Domestic dogs are in much higher concentrations than natural predators, and native species cannot continually handle this level of predator avoidance and stress.
Rare and Species at Risk ground-nesting birds inhabit this forest, and disturbances by off-leash dogs can damage the nests.
This trail is meant for the use of people, and we would like to ensure that everyone can use it safely, without worrying about off-leash dogs.

We appreciate your understanding. Our priority is protecting this wonderful forest’s natural and cultural heritage features.

More information on the impact of dogs on natural ecosystems:

Impacts of Dogs on Wildlife.

Here’s a great article on the ecological impact of dog waste on ecosystems:

The scoop on dog poop: why all scat is not the same

Habitats of the Oak Ridges Moraine

From the towering old-growth forests of Happy Valley, to the globally threatened ecosystems of savannah and tall-grass prairie, the Oak Ridges Moraine boasts many amazing habitats. The Moraine is 30% forested, has 130 wetlands, many kettle lakes and centuries-old wood lots. All these green spaces create spectacular hiking and rejuvenating natural encounters for thousands of people, all year round.

However, what makes the Moraine even more unique is the green oasis it provides to wildlife in the most densely populated region in Canada. The continuous green corridor of the Moraine allows wildlife species and ecosystems to remain connected in a way that is vital to the health of each, and that makes the whole of the Moraine a very special place. What will you explore on our Moraine?

The landscape of the Oak Ridges Moraine is peppered with various bodies of water including many ponds, lakes and wetlands. Kettle lakes, peculiar to the glacially-impacted landscape, form when huge blocks of ice remain, half buried in sand and gravel, after a glacier’s retreat. When the ice block melts, a hollow is left that eventually fills with ground water, becoming a kettle lake or wetland.
Sometimes lakes develop into bogs—unique vegetation communities dominated by sphagnum moss. The moss grows into the lake from the edge and forms a floating mat of vegetation. Trees such as Tamarack and shrubs like Labrador tea colonize these mats over time. A mature bog ecosystem can cover an entire lake, often sheltering rare and ecologically unique species that are adapted to the acidic conditions of the bog.

The Oak Ridges Moraine forms the most continuous region of forest cover surrounding the GTA. The forests lining the river valleys that flow north and south are critical migration routes for birds and mammals. Forests are essential for clean air and water, preventing floods, sustainable wood production, habitat for species at risk and they are a major contributor to climate change mitigation. Forests provide us with so much, the least we can do is protect them… for everyone’s future.

Grasslands, Meadows, Prairies, Savannahs and Old Fields

Grassland and meadow habitats exist on the Oak Ridges Moraine for two reasons—either they have become established on old fields no longer used for farming, or they are part of an original ‘prairie’ or ‘savannah’ habitat. You may be surprised that high quality examples of this precious habitat are now rare, covering under 1% of the Moraine. Grasslands are the most threatened habitat on the planet. Many of the species that are part of this ecosystem are threatened or endangered. It is essential to protect and restore these important habitats across the Oak Ridges Moraine. With generous supporters, the Land Trust is working to restore 2,4 hectares of grassland habitat at our MapleCross Nature Reserve in Schomberg. Watch our prescribed burn video to learn more.

Wetlands are seasonally or permanently covered by shallow water, as well as lands where the water table is close to or at the surface. The four major types of wetlands are swamps, marshes, bogs and fens. Most wetlands in the Oak Ridges Moraine region are swamps, with trees and shrubs in standing water. Swamp areas are wooded wetlands consisting of deciduous and coniferous trees such as White Elm, Red and Silver Maple, Black Ash, Hemlock, Tamarack, White Cedar and a variety of shrubs. Marshes are the most productive type of wetland and can be recognized by the presence of cattails, grasses and sedges and by the absence of trees. Wetlands provide enormous diversity to the natural landscape, conserving water flow to maintain streams and the groundwater table. Their ability to store water can reduce the frequency and severity of flooding as well as drought. They are used as important habitat by hundreds of species of wildlife and provide critical nesting habitat for many of these.

As the environmental ‘circulatory system’, streams are one of the most vulnerable natural features of the rural landscape. Too often, stream banks, springs and small tributaries that provide summer-long flow of water are cleared of vegetation. This severely degrades aquatic habitat by removing shade and thereby increasing water temperature. For example, the removal of plants and trees from stream banks has destroyed many trout habitats, since the salmonid family of fish species require cool water and overhanging vegetation for shelter. In addition, plant roots hold stream banks in place and their removal often causes erosion, which can seriously impact the aquatic habitats downstream.

ABOUT OAK RIDGES MORAINE