Challenger Cities EP25: How Nature Can Make Our Cities Thrive with Jan Sumner

When we think about building better cities, nature rarely gets top billing. Jan Sumner wants to fix that.

As Executive Director of the Wildlands League, Jan makes a powerful case that urban nature isn’t just nice to have — it’s critical infrastructure. From wetlands that reduce flood risk to green corridors that support biodiversity and mental health, she’s helping cities across Canada reconnect with the natural world, one park, prairie, and paddling trip at a time.

In this episode, we explore how National Urban Parks are becoming a unifying thread for a fragmented country — and why we should stop seeing development and nature as being at odds. We dig into what went wrong at Ontario Place, what went right at the Rouge, and how to build momentum with both legislation and joy.

Jan explains why:

• Nature is infrastructure. Trees, wetlands and green corridors are as vital as roads and pipes.
• Biodiversity loss is an urban problem — because that’s where species are disappearing fastest.
• Public joy can be a powerful policy lever (“700 people paddling the Rouge can do more than a white paper.”)
• Rewilding cities isn't anti-growth — it’s a smarter way to grow.
• Developers don’t have to be the enemy — they can be part of the solution.

KEY QUOTES:

“You can't halt biodiversity loss if you're not prepared to go where we’re losing the most species — and that’s in our urban and rural areas.”

“Windsor is the flood capital of Canada. You can’t get flood insurance in many places anymore — but green infrastructure acts like a sponge.”

“Not every bird makes it to the end of the migration. Cities have to be part of that journey.”

“If we connected all of this — cities wouldn’t feel isolated. And this would explode.”

“Nature is not the opposite of progress. It’s what makes progress possible.”

MENTIONS & CASE STUDIES: 🌳 Rouge National Urban Park 🚣 Paddle the Rouge initiative 🏞️ Green Infrastructure Ontario 🌊 Marine protected area on Ontario’s north coast 🏙️ 25+ cities now asking for their own National Urban Parks

LISTEN IF YOU’RE INTO: 🌿 Urban nature and rewilding 🌆 Climate resilience in cities 📣 Environmental advocacy that builds public support 🛠️ Smart, green development 🦅 Turning forgotten parks into national assets