Fall Planting Season has Started

The city has posted a schedule for tree planting this fall. There are 12 events including 10 tree plantings, one bird banding, and one trail building workshop. Eight of the events are located in the Don River watershed, one in the Highland Creek watershed, one in the Rouge River watershed and two on the Toronto Islands.

I hope to get out to a few of the events and take some pictures. If you come out to a tree planting you may be featured in an upcoming Don Watcher post!

Trail Work Pictures

Last weekend the city, together with a few stalwart members of the mountain biking community did some more trail work in Crothers' Woods. This job meant to reroute trail around a degrade section was partially completed. Jason Murray, the Durham IMBA rep, posted some pictures of the work on Flickr. You can also follow the discussion of the event on the biker forum Drop Machine.

The work was only partially completed. Another work event is scheduled for Oct. 14 so if you missed your chance, book your calendar now to help out.

Another Brush Fire

I've been out of town for a few days so I missed this fire which was reported on Torontoist. While they don't say where it was it looks like a section of the DVP embankment just north of Pottery Road. While Toronto always experiences a dry period in August, this summer has been the driest in 50 years (2005 wasn't much better - see comments by Toronto forester Richard Ubbens). So incidents like this should be expected.

Interestingly, I started this blog over two years ago with a blog post about a brush fire (with pictures and also followup a year later) .

News story on Taylor-Massey Creek

An outfall in Pine Hills Cemetery - known to be one of the worst pollution sources on Taylor-Massey Creek

This story appeared in the Scarborough Mirror. Environmentalists have known for years that Taylor-Massey Creek was little more than an open sewer. But this knowledge hasn't percolated down to local media until recently. The story hits all the major creek highlights: ecoli levels are sky-high in some places; it's not an easy fix; and it's not going to be cheap or quick.

On the bright side, education about the creek's troubles is starting to get the public asking questions. Councillors are also getting on the bandwagon and this is moving city staff to focus more resources on some short term fixes. A long term fix is still several years down the road.

FODE's Fall Fundraiser

Friends of the Don East (FODE) are holding their fall fundraising dinner on Monday Sept. 10, 7 PM at Allan's Restaurant on Danforth just west of Broadview. Tickets can be had by calling 416-657-2800. I was there last year and dinner was pretty good. There are also some prizes to be won. $65 may seem like a lot but it includes a three course meal with beer or wine. The gratuity for the the wait staff is also included. A pretty good deal!

Chicken of the Woods

Laetiporous sulphureous

I am not a mycologist by any stretch of the imagination but I do know what fungi looks like. I came across this one near the Beechwood Wetland. It is about 50 cm long and 30 cm high so it occupies a fair amount of volume. It is one of the larger ones I have seen. A couple of years ago I picked up an identification book called Mushrooms of Ontario. I figured it would make identification easier. However I am continually frustrated in my attempts to match up what I find with pictures in this book. So I just went to Google Images and typed in "Yellow bracket fungi". Eventually I found a similar one so that is how I determined this one to be Laetiporous sulphureous or Chicken of the Woods, so called because parts of it are edible.

I am not about to try it because mis-identification of fungi is a common method of killing yourself by mistakenly eating a poisonous mushroom that you thought was an edible variety. I suppose if I were lost in the woods and starving... although this is unlikely to happen in the Don Valley, not with a Tim Hortons always within walking distance.


Maybe it's called Chicken of the Woods because you can see the face of a chicken on the underside :)