Juniors Program

Junior Naturalists gives kids a chance to enjoy the outdoors and learn something new about the nature that surrounds them every day! Raising awareness and appreciation for the natural world will help to foster the kind of leaders and environmental stewards we hope for in the future!

Meetings occur weekly from September-November and April-June, at various locations around the city. A family membership is required to participate.

Upcoming spring session themes:

  • The Great Return (Migratory birds and their adaptations)
  • We Go Round and Round (Animal life cycles)
  • Six-legged Creatures of the Deep (Pond study and aquatic invertebrate investigation)
  • Six-legged Creatures of the Not-so-deep (Terrestrial invertebrate investigation)
  • Roots, Shoots, Fruits (plants and their adaptations)

The Junior Naturalists participants will also take part in a tree-planting extravaganza at the Pine Bay Nature Reserve in the spring of 2011.

For more details on the program or to sign up your Junior Naturalist today please email tbfn(dot)jr(dot)nats(at)gmail(dot)comEmily Kerton.

Ontario Nature has launched a program called Nature Guardians, which consists of a group of youth from across the province who will bring their perspective to current environmental issues and take action on them.  In November of 2010, four youth from the Junior Naturalists program travelled to the Toronto Zoo to join in on the first gathering of the Ontario Nature Youth Council which will take the lead in the Nature Guardians program.  These four youth spent a whirlwind weekend learning about taking initiative on environmental concerns and partnering with adults to achieve desired results.  This group of dynamic youth also learned about their own leadership styles and the most effective ways to get their message heard. This trip was made possible thanks to generous support from the Thunder Bay Field Naturalists and Ontario Nature.   

Ontario Nature Youth Council

Youth Council members from Junior Naturalists