Don Path Reroute

Bank erosion

Just south of the forks of the Don, the river runs through a relatively deserted section of the valley. Apart from a hydro corridor and the Leaside bridge there is not much to see other than the path and the river. This actually makes it a good place to view the river because there is nothing else to distract your attention. The path parallels the river and at times is right beside it. Unfortunately this causes problems when the river decides to do something like move its banks.


Erosion starting to cut into path

Last summer the river started cutting into the bank near a willow tree which was anchoring the bank. This cut became enlarged during a heavy rainstorm. The city put up a fence but it was obvious that the path would start to collapse into the river.


New path is to the left, the old path ran along the fencing. The asphalt has already been removed.

So early this spring a crew came in to close down the path next to the river and move it about 10m away. The detour is very smooth riding but you can't see the river as much in this section.



I took a short video while riding along the new section. Since the audio is not very interesting (wind and traffic noises) I found some 'riding' music and used that instead. The track is from SomaFM, an internet radio station that streams a variety of techno music. This track is from the stream called Groove Salad, one of my favourites.

Don River Documentary

Rescuing a River, directed by Jeff Fish

I watched a newly posted video on YouTube called Rescuing a River. It is about 12 minutes long so it's divided into two parts to fit YouTube's 8 minute maximum. When I watched it I got a vague impression that I had entered a timewarp. In the video are interviews of Jack Layton, Glenn Harrington and Deborah Martin-Downs all of whom were active with the Don in the early years of the Task Force to Bring Back the Don. Layton for one looked considerably younger (he has hair!). Martin-Downs is now a senior manager with the TRCA. According to Harrington's website, his company has worked on projects similar to the one that created Chester Spring Marsh in 1996. There were also a couple of shots of Don locations that have changed considerably since the time of the shooting this film. After watching it to the end the credits revealed the story - this video was shot in 1990.

The video was a documentary on the river as it was in 1990. It is quite good and it covers most of the problems of the Don River. In short, an urbanized river that is being subjected to increased runoff and water that is polluted and warmer than is natural. Increased turbidity means that dredging at the mouth is still a big issue. Unfortunately, all these issues are still relevant to the Don today.

What the video doesn't show is what has happened in the past 18 years. Layton and Harrington did foresee that wetlands would be created and habitat would be improved in the Don Valley. Harrington led the team that designed and built Chester Springs Marsh which was the first major restoration by Bring Back the Don. Layton talked about an expanded mouth of the Don and that idea is currently under Environmental Assessment.

So, yes, it is an improvement on other video efforts (including my own) but it would be nice to see an updated documentary on the state of the river today.


Rescuing a River, Part II

Don River Video Critiqued

"Save the Don River" by Mike Music

Recently I have created some videos to highlight issues and events in the Don Valley. For example, my videos from the Pottery Road weir illustrate the influence of rainstorms on water levels. Other videos show benthic invertebrate testing and wetland planting events.

There are a few other videos about the Don and unfortunately they are not very high quality. A case in point is one called "Save the Don River" which I came across on YouTube recently. It's about 7 minutes long and comes in three parts.

The first part which lasts 2:30 minutes is shot just south of the Queen St. East bridge. Several people are interviewed while looking at a pile of debris that has collected up against a concrete pillar that supports an on ramp for the Gardiner expressway. The people are asked for their opinion about the Don River while the videographer points to the debris pile. The responses are typical - they think the river is dirty and should be cleaned up. They think the debris is a mess and the city should do something about it.

There are two points I want to make. First, while the debris looks messy there is no real point in cleaning it up since the next big storm will dislodge it and send it down to the Keating Channel where it is trapped and scooped out of the water. Secondly, it is important to be aware of people's opinions about the Don River. It seems from this small sampling of the public that people are not aware of the issues concerning pollution on the Don and we still have a ways to go to educate people about these issues.

The second and third parts were taken somewhere in the east Don between the forks of the Don and Lawrence Ave. East. This is the Charles Sauriol Conservation Preserve and sports some areas that are still fairly natural. The second part lasting 2:30 minutes shows one or two salmon swimming in the river. The tagline erroneously states that they are spawning. In fact the salmon are non-native Pacific salmon that are released as fry in rivers (including the Don) around Lake Ontario by the Ministry of Natural Resources. This is done to support the sports fishing industry. The fish live for about five years in the lake, then following some instinctual drive they return to swim up these rivers. Unfortunately the habitat they require doesn't exist in the Don. They required shallow, cold water gravel beds to spawn. Even if they did find it, the eggs would be washed away as the Don regularly floods too heavily for them to survive.

The third part (about 2 minutes) shows white-tailed deer tracks in the riverbank mud as well as a passable shot of a deer feeding in a meadow. I don't have a problem with this part. There are also some nice scenic shots of trees and flowers.

Mr. Music seems to be well intentioned, albeit somewhat misinformed. I do commend him for creating this video but I am sure that someone can do better. The Task Force to Bring Back the Don is investigating the feasibility of running a video contest on the Don River. This might be a project for its 20th anniversary which happens next year.

Early Spring Ride

I went for a ride on the Lower Don Trail yesterday, the first of the year. Since the trails are not plowed they get used repeatedly and the snow becomes hard packed and turns to ice. Eventually they become unusable until it melts. This past weekend it rained heavily so I figured they might be OK. Apart from a couple of patches of remnant ice underneath bridges and through tunnels, the path is pretty much clear. There is also some winter debris such as sticks and mud that will eventually wash away.

I took a short video of the path just south of Chester Spring Marsh. You can see that the river is high from the spring flood, although not too high that it was flooding the path. The trees and plants have not yet budded so it looks pretty drab with greys and reddish browns. Can't wait until it warms up!

Bird Banding Demonstration

Bird Banding Demonstration

Two weeks ago I attended a bird banding demonstration in Milne Hollow, a park in the Don Valley just south of Lawrence Ave. East. It was given by Seabrooke Leckie, a volunteer with the Tommy Thompson Park Bird Research Station. Bird banding is used to track birds on their migration paths. If the bird is recaptured then its band information can be used to identify the bird and find out where it was first banded. This information is logged in a North American database managed by the USGS and Canadian Wildlife Service.

It was a fascinating demonstration and was worth waking up at 6:30 AM. During the 90 minutes I was there, they captured 2 hermit thrushes (Catharus guttatus), 1 black capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus), 1 song sparrow (Melospiza melodia), and 1 immature male cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) (see video). The birds had their wing length measured, were weighed, and were aged and sexed where possible. They also were examined for fat content which is an indicator of where they are in their migration. Apparently birds only store fat during migration periods. A tiny plastic band was placed around one leg and then they were released.

The birds were caught in mist nets which don't harm the birds. They were transported to the banding area in cloth bags. The entire banding process took less than 5 minutes per bird.The process is designed to cause a minimum of stress on the birds.

Anyone can get their own bird banding demonstration if they visit the TTBRS station on the Leslie Street Spit. Check the website for details.

Note about the video: there's a lot a background noise due to the proximity of the Don Valley Parkway. Also Seabrooke's voice is very soft so you have to listen carefully to hear her explanation. Enjoy!


Seabrooke handles a hermit thrush

Spreading the wing feathers. This checks for age, signs of moulting, and general health of the bird

Placing a band on the leg

Birds store fat for long migrations. The fat is stored in the chest area. By blowing gently on the chest feathers, the fatty tissue is exposed. The amount of fat is rated on a scale of 1-7.

A Black-capped Chickadee is held securely in the hand as it awaits its measurements

A very scruffy looking immature cardinal waits his turn

Studying Benthic Invertebrates

A collection of clips from the Benthic Invertebrate study at Riverdale Farm Ponds

This week I went by Riverdale Farm Ponds to participate in a study to monitor pond organisms. The point of the study was to collect benthic invertebrates from the bottom of the pond. Benthic invertebrates are a group of creatures that live in an aquatic environment and include fully developed insects; insects in a larval stage; some crustaceans; and worms and leeches. Benthic Invertebrates can be used to measure the health of a pond. Since some species are more tolerant of pollution, the presence or absence of them can be used as a general water quality gauge.

The collection process involved donning hip waders, wading into the pond and collecting samples from the bottom muck with a special scooping net. Once the samples were collected, we went up to one of the buildings and sifted through the debris looking for different creatures. During our investigation we encountered aquatic sow bugs, midges, aquatic worms, scuds, leeches, and snails. All of these are mostly pollution tolerant and the species found indicated that water quality was low, about 7 on a scale of 10 (1=pristine water, 10=absence of life).

However, there is some good news. Last year an aerator was installed to inject air into the water. Due to several longterm problems, the ponds suffer from anoxic conditions which means that not much can survive here. A similar study was done before the aerator was activated and a grand total of 8 creatures were found. This year between 50-100 organisms were found. So things are looking up for the ponds.


Nathalie and Heather from Citizens' Environment Watch help facilitate the collection process


Looking for bugs in mud


A closer inspection reveals...


...a blurry image of a bloodworm

Fire on the Don River

Yesterday I had an eventful trip on the Lower Don Trail. In addition to the pictures I took of the construction zone near Lakeshore Blvd. East (see previous post), I also witnessed the river on fire. Well, not quite a burning river such as the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland but a pile of woody debris piled against a CN rail bridge abutment caught fire. As I was cycling down the trail just north of Riverdale Park, I noticed a plume of smoke. I went for a closer look and took a few pictures as well as a couple of video clips.

While I was watching, two men (who were likely valley residents) came by. They said that earlier that day they saw a couple of other men who had waded out to the sand bar to drink beer all afternoon. One of them started a fire which got out of control. The resulting bonfire was too much for them so they high-tailed it out of there.


Location of fire

The resulting fire could be seen for quite some distance and the Toronto Fire department soon responded. They parked on Bayview Avenue. With the assistance of an aerial ladder which stretched over the CN rail lines, they were able to pump a stream of water that reached the fire and reduced it to a smoldering pile of wet ash. There was no real danger of it spreading since the log pile was in the middle of the river. Still it was an interesting sight and I caught it all on video.


Fireman on aerial ladder just before dousing fire

It was just over two years ago that I made my first Don Watcher post on another fire in the valley. Then it was just pictures. Now my camera does video as well.

Just before seeing the fire I also stopped beside the trail when I saw a deer just north of the viaduct. A female, it was munching on crab apples. I took a few pictures but none of them came out too well since it was moving around.


Who's that peeking out of the trees?

Wetland Planting at the Brick Works

I attended a workshop at the Don Valley Brick Works on how to plant in a wetland or a pond. It was attended by about 25 people from the Community Stewardship Program. Paul Morris of Acorus Restoration gave a 30 minute presentation followed by a hands-on demonstration of planting techniques in the quarry ponds.


Paul Morris talks about the different kinds of wetland plants

The proper technique is to stick your trowel into the mud, push once away from you then pull towards you. Then you place the seedling into the hole behind the trowel. Remove the trowel and then give it a kick (unless it is underwater). The kick removes any air pockets under the surface which can cause growth problems.

For an emergent or underwater plant you can also take some clay and form it into a ball around the roots and drop the whole thing into the water. This will quickly take root where it is dropped.

I nominated myself as event photographer. I also shot some video of the action which I cobbled together in a short video which I have posted on YouTube.




Girls in hip waders - oh yeah!

Don River Flood Videos

No sooner did I post my first Don River video on YouTube than I get the opportunity to post my second (and third) video, at the same site! The torrential downpour Thursday morning resulted in a rapid up-swelling of the Don River. By the afternoon there was a lull in the weather so I hopped on my bicycle and zipped over to the valley. It occurred to me that a video at the Pottery Road weir would make a nice contrast to the video I took last week.

As you can see, I wasn't able to use the same vantage point as it was submerged. The video dramatically displays the power of the river and how a heavy rainfall (or wet weather flow event in the planning lexicon), can change a relatively placid watercourse into a raging torrent.

The video easily encapsulates the problems facing the river, brought on by the intensive urbanization of the watershed. As water surges through the small streams that lead into the Don, they scour the banks and stream beds of mud and debris - and it all ends up here in the Don.

My third video is from the same time. While I was watching the water I saw this big tree approach. I took this video of the tree going over the weir, the river handled it just like another twig.

Don River Video

Most of the videos I have seen for the Don have been about mountain biking or bicycle stunts in the Don. I have also found a some pretty amateurish stuff posted on YouTube including "The Don River Project".

Alas, nothing on the natural environment, until now. Using my new Canon Powershot A530 which has a video function, I am experimenting with some of my own content. My first effort involves a minute long film that looks at the weir just north of Pottery Road. A dam for an old mill (now long gone) was blocking fish travel. The TRCA modified some years ago by placing step like rapids for 100 m downstream. This allows fish such as Atlantic Salmon to venture north to spawning grounds (that is if the river ever becomes clean enough to support them!).

"Don River Cascade" is 61 seconds long. Just click on the big video icon and it should display in your browser or your default media viewer.

Brick Works Video

The Don Valley Brick Works is gaining popularity, not just for the environmental restoration of the quarry but also as an historical and architectural curiosity. Kirsty Bruce posted a video on YouTube that serves as an introduction to her thesis for a degree in architecture.

Japanese Knotweed Video

There's a video on You Tube about Japanese Knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum) which is one of the nastier invasives threatening the Don Valley. I found this video courtesy of the Invasive Species Weblog, one of the blogs I follow. The video discusses the history and biology of the plant and is about 5 minutes long. Well worth a look.

Don Videos

Bad poetry? What was I thinking? A quick search of the popular video site YouTube reveals at least two videos where the Don River is featured. The first video entitled "The Don River Project" by three teenagers reveals that talent is not a factor when trying to get published on the internet. The second video called "Old Luke Bootes Sings" is a musical rendition about the 'dirty Don River' although I couldn't detect much about the river itself other than it rhymes with other words.