Regeneration Projects

• Terrestrial (tree planting and more) Projects
• Aquatic (marshes are cool) Projects - Chester Springs and more
• The Brickworks - an amazing combination of nature, geology, and industry
• The Lower Don Channel - IT CAN BE DONE!

Terrestrial Habitat Regeneration - Tree Planting

The simplest and least expensive way to begin regeneration is with recreating habitat on the land. By planting with native trees and shrubs we create a place and food sources for breeding and migratory birds and mammals.

Tree plantings are being done all over the Watershed. In the Lower Don alone we have planted over 23,000 trees and shrubs in the past 4 years.

We have planted with
School kids in the rain	Large corporations e.g. Hudson's Bay Company	On a frosty November day

The hard work is worth it! Four years later we have spectacular growth at the south of Riverdale park where there was once only a green desert on an old landfill. The area in the middle has been planted in wild flowers and is fenced off for protection.

The next steps in terrestrial habitat regeneration will be:

• active ravine management to eliminate invasive exotics over time in co-operation with parks departments
• habitat creation in backyards and front yards in co-operation with landowners and managers
• changes to golf course management to increase habitat and corridors

Aquatic Habitat Regeneration

The Chester Springs Marsh Project

In the Fall of 1995 construction began on this project and was completed in the summer of 1996
From the Bloor Viaduct. Piling up top soil for reuse.	Digging up the dump site for redistribution onsite	The pond takes shape

The objective is to bring back the sense of place and type of habitat that was here 200 years ago. The site is about 3 hectares (7 football fields). The name refers to springs that flowed into the valley near the site from the village of Chester. After 2 years of work, the marsh will be complete. In time we hope it will support

• northern pike who will spawn when the site floods in spring
• wood ducks nesting in the cavities of the old trees on the west side
• frogs : perhaps even bull frogs ifwe are really lucky

The site was covered with 2 to 3 metres of landfill. The landfill was dumped from the turn of the century until the 20's. It consists of ash and household materials. Tests have shown no health hazard. Click on the picture to to get a great orienation to the site.(82K JPEG)

There is now a large pond on the east side that brings groundwater and runoff into the marsh as well a pond on the west side. A variety of habitats have been created with limited access to the east side ponds from the existing trail. The west side pond has no access and will act as a refuge.

More Aquatic Projects

Projects are happening all through the watershed. This list is hard to keep up-to-date. If you don't see your favorite project here, send me an email at mark@mwilson.on.ca preferably with a photograph or 2.

• The Todmorden Mills Wildflower preserve has completed a wetland enhancement project.
• At Harding Park on German Mills Creek in Richmond Hill a major stormwater pond retrofit was completed in 1995. This includes a series of 3 ponds to treat stormwater through settling and aquatic plants and plantings of native shrubs and trees as habitat. All this while retaining and improving the baseball diamond and children's playground.
• The regeneration plans for the Brickworks project include daylighting Mud Creek and having it flow through a series of 5 connected ponds and then into the river through the recently resurfaced mill race (that's where the water flows past the mill wheel).
• Teh 2 ponds in Riverdale Park have been restored.
• A new wetland has been constructed in Milne Hollow at the future trailhead for the Charles Sauriol Nature Reserve where the East Don crosses Lawrence at the Don Valley Parkway.
• In 1997, The Conservation Authority modified the 2 dams above and below Pottery Road so they are no longer a barrier to fish movement. One of the difficulties has been to design this so that the majority of fish can traverse the stream but lamprey eels are prevented from entering the system.
• A broad community around a major business park at Langstaff Road in Vaughan have created Keffer marsh which includes a 2,700 meter nature trail, stormwater cleansing and the first deciduous swamp restoration in the Don. This is part of the much larger Bartley Smith Greenway project which will regenerate more than 15 kilometres of the West Don.
• Scarborough has completed a major regeneration project at the head waters of Taylor / Massey Creek in Terrraview-Willowfield park.
• Markham is developing plans for Pomona Mills Park.

Heritage Regeneration - The Brickworks Project

The largest project underway in the Don is at the Brickworks site on Bayview Avenue. Work started in the summer of 1995 and the first phase was opened to the public in October of 1997. (54K JPEG)

Plans for the 40 acre site include preservation of buildings and machinery from a century of brickmaking, interpretation of the geologically important North Slope The first phase has already achieved significant habitat restoration in the quarry together with the redirection of Mud Creek to provide a wetland and improve water quality.

Brick making commenced in 1890. The bricks made here built many Toronto landmarks including Queen's Park, Casa Loma and Massey Hall. The complex of buildings and equipment represents a first-class industrial heritage site.

The process of extracting the clay, and later shale, to make Bricks exposed 445 million years of geological history. The North Slope was made internationally famous by Professor Coleman of the University of Toronto with a series of papers that started in 1913. He laid out the detailed history of the last interglacial period of about 100,000 years, from the deposits uncovered. Among the residents was the giant beaver whose presence has been confirmed by a fossil tooth.

Among the human residents of the area at the turn of the Century was Ernest Thompson Seton (1860 -1946) who had a cabin in Mud Creek. Among the stories he wrote was "Redruff, The Story of the Don Valley Partridge" published in in 1898.

In 1902, he organised the Woodcraft Indians, upon which the Boy Scout movement was later patterned. Random House Encyclopaedia 3rd edition

Naturalists and gardeners see the great potential for the South facing quarry pit, protected from the winds, at the North edge of the Carolinian zone.

© mark wilson 1998