Don River Park

Site of future Don River Park (click to expand)

You might be wondering what is happening south of Queen St. on the west side of the Don River. Among other things they are clearing land for a major new park to be called Don River Park. This expanse will be about 16 hectares (38 acres) and will occupy the land between the Queen St. bridge south to the railway corridor. The photo above was taken from the Eastern Avenue bridge so it doesn't include the section to the north. However you can see this is a fairly large area.

The railway corridor will stay in the same place. A berm will be built roughly where Bayview Avenue is now. Bayview will be relocated to the west edge of the site and will link up will Mill St. which is now out of site around the corner. All of this will form the eastern edge of the new West Don Lands development.

They are currently doing some heavy infrastructure work which deals with modifying the railway trestle to accommodate hurricane flood levels. The trestle was a major obstacle for flood waters during Hurricane Hazel. This is a lengthy project and won't be finished until Spring 2007. However, when it is complete, the Lower Don Trail (currently closed south of Queen) will have a new at grade tunnel under the railway (no more metal cage) and a new east west connection that wil link up with the future park.

As things move along Don Watcher will keep you abreast of the details.

Busy Summer

You may have noticed that I have been lax in posting recently. That is because I am taking a course at the UofT this summer that has me insanely busy. It will be over by mid-August but it means my Don travels are severely curtailed until then.

The only thing I am doing in the Don this summer on a regular basis is community stewardship. I am leading a team at the Beechwood wetland. You would think I might post about that but one of my team members created a blog to detail just this one activity so why duplicate the effort. Visit her blog to see updates and great pix.

On another note, now that I am a blogger, I have discovered that I am just a tiny part of a larger blogosphere. In cruising this online environment I have noticed that many blogger's list their favourite blogs on the main page. Not to be outdone, I have now done the same and have listed five weblogs that are more or less related to this blog. Check out the list (including the Beechwood Wetland blog) on the right sidebar.

Run for the Don?

The city plus a loose collection of mountain bikers is putting on this event which allows you to ride the trails in Crothers' Woods or run them. This dual event is ostensibly to highlight the city's latest buzz phrase, ie. multi-purpose trails. Trails users are about 98% bikers and 2% other. Other being runners or walkers. It would be nice if more walkers/hikers/runners used the trails but many people are initmidated by the bikers many of whom insist on speeding through the circuit. What's needed is more technical trail features to slow the bikers down but still allow hjikers to use the trails safely. A interesting balancing act the city is trying but they are not quite there. More on Crothers' Woods soon.

July 2006 City Documents

A few documents from the Parks and Forestry Committee Agenda for July 6, 2006.

Brick Works Site Remediation. Before the city can hand off the site to Evergreen, they determined that there is a little bit of cleanup to be done. It will cost the city $840,000 to remove a variety of toxic substances from the buildings and some from underground deposits.

Emerald Ash Borer Situation. They are on their way to Toronto. Unfortunately this invading beetle is marching it's way inexorably through southern Ontario despite efforts by the CFIA to stop it. Staff are recommending the city set aside $37 million, not to control the beetle but to cover the cost of cutting down the soon to be dead trees and chipping them. This is a serious situation. If you walk down a typical Toronto street, approximately 1/3 of the trees planted in boxes are ash trees.

Street Tree Strategy. This report discusses methods to improve and expand Toronto's urban forest. Currently trees cover about 20% of the city. If we do nothing this will likely decrease. Toronto's goal is to increase cover to about 33%. It also discusses the impact on the aforementioned EAB situation.

Collecting Insects

Plant pest collection device

If you've been at the Brick Work recently you might have seen this hanging in the bushes. The label says that it is for collecting plant pests. I haven't been able to determine what pests they are collecting but it is likely the TRCA who is doing the work.

Report on the Burke Brook EA

Burke Brook as it flows out of culvert on east side of Bayview. This is the site of the proposed fish ladder.

The Environmental Assessment process launched with an open house on June 13. The plan is to look at restoring fish habitat in the open portion of Burke Brook that stretches west from the Don River and flows through a narrow and deep ravine just south of Sunnybrook Hospital, underneath Bayview and up through Sherwood Park towards Yonge and Lawrence.

The city is looking at building a fish ladder to allow them to progress upstream from Bayview as there is a series of steep drops from an outlet pipe that they can't get past.

While this project has some merit, it appears to neglect the basic fact that there are no fish in Burke Brook that will use the ladder. Local naturalists pointed out at the meeting that there is an outlet pipe in the ravine east of Bayview coming directly from underneath the hospital that often has a strong disinfectant smell. It is likely that any chemicals in this outflow are making the water too toxic for aquatic life. Until the effluent issue is addressed the fish ladder proposal will be a waste of money.

The initial study looked at stream morphology, bank stability, and erosion issues but failed to look into water quality issues. Toronto Water, the lead department in this EA should really know better. Surely their experience with the pollution study on Taylor-Massey Creek in 2005 would give them some clues as to the state of Toronto's urban creeks - it boggles the mind.

The city did say that perhaps the water quality issue should be addressed before proceeding. The EA will continue with another meeting, to be determined. If you are interested in getting on the contact list, send an email to Josie Giordano.