With gratitude to all
Beaver Valley Destination Stewardship always wants to look deeper, take longer, and reflect more, so that our actions are meaningful for ourselves and for those around us. Beginning each relationship with genuine care and appreciation will deepen our ties and allow us to support each other in caring for our home.
Peter Mitchell, A Sauntering Land Steward
Peter is a long-time supporter of ecological stewardship through his career and his personal interests. He has been downhill skiing his entire life at Beaver Valley Ski Club, where his family owned a chalet and a plot of riverside land. Together with his father, and now with his sons, he has planted and cared for trees on this land to support the diverse habitat of the Beaver River watershed.Â
He also enjoys cross country skiing in the Kimberley Forest. Peter supported this cherished pastime with many terms on the boards of the Beaver Valley Nordic Ski Club and the Friends of Kimberley Forest. He loves to explore the valley’s trails in all seasons.
As an academic, Peter spent ten years teaching in the Community Studies program at Humber College, eight years as director of recreation and community development for Bell Canada International in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and twenty years as a Research Associate at the University of Guelph in the Centre for Land and Water Stewardship. Working closely with Stewart Hilts, he gained a wealth of knowledge and connections across the province.Â
With Hilts, he co-wrote the Woodlot Management Handbook, a National Bestseller. The co-authors also compiled important stewardship resources in the Caring for Your Land series of books for landowners on the Niagara Escarpment, the Carolinian Canada Zone and the Oak Ridges Moraine.
Peter started the World Crops Program in 2007 at the University of Guelph and received the Premier’s Agri-Food Innovation Excellence award for this project in 2011-2012. More recently he managed a project called New Canadians Go Greenbelt and was a founder of the Young Conservation Professionals Program. He is a past Board Member of the Sustainability Network, Toronto Food Policy Council, Ontario Farm Land Trust and Humber Watershed Alliance.
Seeking more time with his family in the city and Beaver Valley, he has recently retired from the Board of Directors for the Carrot Cache, Montgomery’s Inn and the Etobicoke-Mimico Watershed Alliance. His volunteer work also included serving on the board of Elephant Thoughts and participating with the BVDS Core Team exploration of asset-based community-led development (ABCD) as taught through the Coady Institute and St.FX University with the Gros Morne Institute of Sustainable Tourism (GMIST).
Peter is currently enrolled in the Ontario Master Naturalist Course online with Lakehead University in Orillia. He is enjoying connecting this work to his land-based efforts on his own riparian area in Beaver Valley. He hopes to lead environmental citizen science training through hands-on work with naturalist instructor Bob Bowles in 2026.
Peter’s Personal Intentions:
Respect and learn from Indigenous and Western perspectives
