Turtley Awesome! Youth Lead the Way at Second Annual TurtleFest

By Riley Murphy

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Last weekend, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) hosted TurtleFest 2025 at Heart Lake Conservation Park.

The TRCA Youth Council ran the event, which marked the second annual edition of the event.

The Youth Council is comprised of youth between the ages of 16 and 30 living within TRCA's jurisdiction. Through the TRCA Youth Council, youth are supported and empowered to plan and lead various events and initiatives throughout each one-year term.

This year marked the seventh year of the Council, with over 700 members and 10 active Youth Council executive members.

Last year, one of the Youth Council executive members, Malhar Patel, conceived a turtle awareness project to bring to the community level as part of their Canadian Conservation Corps program. 

Ontario native turtles face many threats, including habitat loss, road mortality, predation, and even poaching.

The Turtle Fest event is organized to educate and inspire people about the significance of freshwater turtle species in Ontario. This year, it was hosted in partnership with groups ranging from turtle protection organizations such as Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre, Heartlake Turtle Troopers, and Scales Nature Park, to many youth organizations.

It also included the Toronto Youth Environmental Council, the Brampton Environmental Alliance Youth Group, and the Headwaters Wilderness Program. 

People could meet and greet real, live educational turtles from Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre and Scales Nature Park at this event. 

There was storytelling and drumming by Indigenous elders from the Four Colours Drum Circle, who are the stewards of the Heart Lake Conservation Park Medicine Wheel Garden.

The storytelling emphasized the importance of the Blanding's turtle in Indigenous culture, and Heartlake Turtle Troopers were also on site, teaching about their Nest Protector program. 

“This quickly became a lot bigger than they imagined,” said Jessica MacDonald, Coordinator, Government and Community Relations, TRCA.

“It was a great day for learning and to bring awareness to Ontario native turtle species, all of which are considered species at risk with some being designated as endangered. We had over 400 people come to the event,” shared MacDonald. “Why TurtleFest is so important and so special is that we're bringing community members to a place in their own community where it's also the turtles' community.”

MacDonald shared that most of the turtles at the event, if not all, had come in as injured turtles and could not be released back.

“We're showing community members this is a real turtle whose life changed because of habitat loss and road mortality; this is what we're working to protect,” shared MacDonald.

Evelyn Widner, TRCA Youth Council Executive 2nd Year Member and Turtle Enthusiast, is one of the 10 executives on the Youth Council this year, and spoke on how she first joined.

“I wanted to find something that I could make a local impact on the environment around me, as well as the communities around me that was tangible,” said Widner. “What attracted me to the TRCA Youth Council Executive was this broad range of events that we can do. When I talk about tangible impacts, even seeing the attendance grow for TurtleFest from the first year to this year, it was like an exponential number. That was really amazing to see kind of more people becoming aware of turtles and issues that they're facing.”

Widner shared that she worked at a booth at the event where kids could come up and interact with things such as animal pelts and skulls. 

“I found it really rewarding to just engage with the kids. They had so many questions about something that they could touch,” said Widner. “Just helping spark this curiosity for young kids who maybe have never seen a deer before, but they're able to see the deer skull and see how big it is.”

Widner shared that one of the significant parts of the TRCA Youth Council is the area of training and mentorship. TRCA staff members support the council, who are knowledgeable and experienced.

“With their guidance, we're given leadership opportunities, we're given agency over the initiatives that we want to focus on throughout the term, and sometimes unique access to events,” she shared.

“The staff members have a guiding hand, but ultimately it's up to us to see how we want the term to take shape. This involves a lot of brainstorming. Since the TRCA has such a wide network, we're able to hear about other events that are happening and get invited to them, which is awesome, because this helps us learn new things and meet new people.”

Speaking on leadership opportunities, Widner shared that many of the youth involved wish to be in environmental planning and policy leadership roles.

“Any way that we can be involved, we want to be because we want to keep having these conversations and…keep spreading awareness,” shared Widner.

Widner spoke on why youth-led initiatives like Turtle Fest are so vital.

“Involving youth early helps spread this awareness and also fuels our passions. Before I talked about inspiring young kids at TurtleFest, it starts from an early age. Hopefully, they will feel encouraged in the future to be on the youth council or take more leadership roles where it relates to the environment. It's important because we're able to improve our professional skills.”

“Things like leadership, communication, advocacy, which will help us in the long run with whatever we plan to do for the future,” said Widner. “It's a really good space to learn together and learn from each other.”