​The Swan Lake Outdoor Education Centre (SLOEC) is located near the Oak Ridges Community Centre and Lake Wilcox, and sits on the beautiful Oak Ridges Moraine. The Centre is operated in conjunction with the Toronto Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) and through our agreement with the TRCA, students are able to use the adjacent property.

This site provides a first-hand experience with the mixed uses of the lands on the Oak Ridges Moraine. The main feature of the site is a natural Kettle Lake. Kettles are fluvioglacial landforms occurring as the result of blocks of ice calving from the front of a receding glacier and becoming partially to wholly buried by glacial outwash, generated when streams of meltwater flow away from the glacier and deposit sediment to form broad outwash plains called sandurs. When the ice blocks melt, kettle holes are left in the sandur. Kettle holes can also occur in ridge shaped deposits of loose rock fragments called till. If the kettle is fed by surface or underground rivers or streams, it becomes a kettle lake. The balance of the property is home to pine plantations, mixed forest and fields.

At SLOEC students can walk under the canopy of red and jack pine plantations and imagine students of an earlier time, reforesting the Moraine. The range of habitats and the adjacent properties provides an outdoor classroom for students to experience well-designed educational programs.

Contact Us

1229 Bethesda Side Road
Richmond Hill, ON
L4E 1A2

Phone: (905) 888-7024
Email: swanlake.edctr​@yrdsb.ca