OPG’s biodiversity efforts recognized with Nature Inspiration Award nomination

In recognition of OPG’s long history of protecting the environment at its sites and throughout the province, the company has been nominated for a Nature Inspiration Award from the Canadian Museum of Nature.

The Ottawa-based museum’s 7^th annual Nature Inspiration Awards recognize organizations and people that have taken an interest in natural history while contributing to the preservation of nature.

Over the years, OPG has worked with its partners to protect and nurture the natural environment around its operations and across the province. Through the company’s on-site and regional biodiversity programs, OPG has helped support restoration work on wetlands, tallgrass prairie, and aquatic ecosystems with local Indigenous communities and partners. OPG has also helped plant more than seven million native trees and shrubs and helped stock more than five million Atlantic salmon.

“OPG is very proud and excited to be nominated for a Nature Inspiration Award,” said John Beauchamp, Director of Environment, Health and Safety at OPG. “We continue to be dedicated to engaging communities across Ontario on both a regional and local scale to help support biodiversity and conservation efforts. And we are proud to support our many conservation partners, whose invaluable work is helping to preserve nature for all Ontarians.”

The nomination specifically recognizes some of OPG’s recent on-site biodiversity efforts, including the study of the ecological effects of water-level fluctuations on amphibians and reptiles in the Grassy Bay wetland at Calabogie Lake.

Also recognized is OPG’s innovative use of technology to determine the overall health of significant wetlands on OPG-owned lands. In 2019, the company deployed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or drones, to obtain high-resolution photos and videos at the Western Waste Management Facility in Kincardine, Ont., to map the spread of invasive phragmites in Baie du Doré, a provincially significant coastal wetland.

The company also deployed Motus Wildlife Tracking Systems at its R.H. Saunders Generating Station and Nanticoke and Pickering sites between 2016 and 2018. The system, managed by Bird Studies Canada, detects and logs electronically tagged birds, insects, and bats, as part of a scientific effort to track migratory species across North America.

In recent years, OPG’s conservation efforts have been recognized by organizations like the Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC), an international group that promotes and certifies habitat conservation and management.

In 2019, the company’s Niagara Operations and Wesleyville site were certified Gold by the WHC for their conservation efforts.