Between 1984 and 2001, WHC funded over 40 projects in the Canadian urban landscape, totaling just over $1.1 million. In June 1998, WHC and the Province of Manitoba co-hosted the National Workshop on Backyard Stewardship, to facilitate the cooperation and information-sharing of groups across Canada that deliver urban habitat stewardship programs, in order to develop a national vision for urban stewardship. The launch of the Urban Habitat Stewardship Awards demonstrates WHC's ongoing commitment to urban stewardship in Canada and the need to recognize and honour these proactive initiatives.

Evergreen is a national non-profit environmental organization with a mandate to bring nature to our cities through naturalization projects. Evergreen motivates people to create and sustain healthy, natural outdoor spaces and gives them the practical tools to be successful through its three core programs: Learning Grounds (transforming school grounds), Common Grounds (working on publicly accessible land) and Home Grounds (for the home landscape).

Recognizing that volunteers form the backbone of community and school greening efforts, Evergreen is working together with Sudbury Better Beginnings Better Futures and EcoSuperior on a three-year project to strengthen how volunteers contribute to, and are recognized within, Ontario's environmental movement. Called Hands for Nature, the project's core goals are twofold: to improve how groups leading greening projects involve volunteers; and to strengthen the skills of volunteers who participate in greening projects. This project is made possible by a grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation in recognition of the United Nations International Year of Volunteers.

The Regional Municipality of York (York Region), includes 9 area municipalities. It is the fastest growing regional municipality in the Greater Toronto Region. Despite this rapid development, York Region is fortunate to have an enviable natural environment. Its natural areas include valley and stream corridors, kettle lakes, wetlands, woodlands and wildlife habitat throughout the urban and rural areas of the Region. York Region is committed to preserving the natural environment through implementation of the Official Plan and Greening Strategy.

The Greening Strategy is an innovative program that provides a context for Regional decision-making that affects the natural environment. The Greening Strategy is also a platform to implement and monitor a great variety of greening initiatives and partnerships. It identifies opportunities to achieve policy objectives and implement on-the-ground action relating to forests, greenlands, natural heritage features, community education and land securement. Through this program the Region is able to contribute to and support the Urban Stewardship Awards of Excellence - which we hope will encourage the preservation and restoration of our natural legacy.