Reclaiming Nature in Toronto

What should a city do if it wants to bring nature back, but most of its original wildlife is long gone? Buying back private land to let it go wild is expensive, and usually so unpopular that it doesn't happen. But there is an alternative: create new land. That has been one of Toronto's strategies, and it has worked quite well. Today, all along the shore of Lake Ontario, bikers, hikers and birders enjoy many parks that have all sorts of wildlife, yet are built on top of landfill. Used concrete blocks from buildings that were torn down, along with the dirt from their foundations, have been used to create new peninsulas which are now havens for birds and wild animals along the lakeshore.

Today, I spent the morning in one of those areas, where I was delighted to spot a number of beautiful birds and flowers that call these landfill areas home. I was in the area to the east of Cherry Beach, along the Martin Goodman Trail, Toronto's biking trail across the lakeshore. There were all sorts of beautiful songbirds flying among the trees and bushes. The reason they like this spot so much is that these birds aren't fans of deep, dark woods. Many, like the cedar waxwing, prefer to eat berries from bushes, so they favour areas that are sunny, or at the edge of the forest. These reclaimed areas haven't had time to create dense forests, so they are full of low bushes and the odd quick-growing tree. A great habitat for many colourful birds, as well as bees, wasps and butterflies.

A Cedar Waxwing

These landfill areas aren't very broad, and have many paths cutting through them, which allows lots of sunlight for plants that flower late into the summer. In darker forests, plants on the floor can only flower briefly in the spring, before tree leaves create a dark canopy, blocking out the sunlight. But in these reclaimed areas, the trails and lack of forest cover mean that there is lots of sunlight, so species that flower later in the summer can thrive here. Some are weeds, some are invasive species from Europe, but many are from Canada, and would have been seen in meadows at the edges of forests, and near swamps.

An American Goldfinch

These areas are wild and natural in one sense, but they are not a glimpse of what Toronto was like before settlers arrived. In 1793 when the British government decided to create a town in this area, the shore featured a broad beach, some meadows, and then a dark forest which the newcomers found oppressive. Lieutenant Governor Simcoe, who created the new town of York ( he didn't like the Aboriginal name, Toronto), wanted all of Ontario from the Ottawa River to Detroit to be farming land. Like most whites of his time, he thought trees were a nuisance, and swamps, like the one then next to the Don River, were considered just a source of mosquitoes and malaria.  So, the settlers cut down the trees, drained the swamps, and did their best to erase the original nature here. Now that we realize the folly of that decision, these reclaimed lands are a small step in the right direction to restoring some of what was once here. It is far from perfect, but it is a start.

Stephen Milton runs the Toronto Nature Diary, a Facebook page that posts a new Nature picture each day. For more information on Toronto's nature and parks, please visit www.torontonature.com.