Ontario Nature is teaming with Trees In Trust, a web-based environmental fundraising organization, to encourage people to invest in the future of our native forests.

A new online donation system allows donors to buy a piece of the forest as a gift, memorial or carbon offset. This approach to forest conservation makes the most of online public awareness campaigns and fundraising and top-of-mind environmental concerns.

In exchange for an online donation (made at www.treesintrust.com), Trees In Trust provides a mapped piece of forest and a dedication certificate instantly, via the web. The donor's dedication is then placed against a specific plot of land and held in his or her name in perpetuity. Ontario Nature uses the funds to steward the land and acquire additional parcels of land of similar quality.

So far, Trees In Trust has partnerships with conservation organizations in three provinces including Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Ontario, and aims to expand by partnering with land trusts in every province.

Three of Ontario Nature's reserves are now on the Trees in Trust site: Altberg Wildlife Sanctuary Nature Reserve in Kawartha Lakes, Kinghurst Forest Nature Reserve south of Owen Sound and Cawthra Mulock Nature Reserve in York Region.

This efficient fundraising system allows conservation organizations like Ontario Nature to acquire more endangered forest and to concentrate on conservation and protection rather than spending time handling payments, producing maps and printing certificates.

Charitable tax receipts are issued for dedications of one-sixth acre and above. For more information, please visit the Trees In Trust website at www.treesintrust.com.