Toronto Shorelines

This young deer looking at us from the fields along the shoreline in Scarborough, May 2017,  Mike Melnechenko . The City of Toronto is a remarkable place for nature and wildlife. As a city, we truly are blessed. Not only are we on the shores of one of the most amazing fresh water resources in the world, but our city is situated within an intricate web of rivers and ravines that have remained undeveloped due to their unique topography. We have a wilderness around us.  And to realize this on a deeper level would make for a unique opportunity for change and a move towards a future that makes conservation a priority.  One of Toronto's most natural areas is along the shore of the Scarborough Bluffs. It's a place of natural beauty and abundant wildlife. Though instead of preserving the natural features of this area, we are destroying them as o ur regional conservation authority (TRCA) is in the process of a very e...

WILDFLOWERS AND TREES OF EAST POINT PARK A Naturalist’s Perspective with Richard Aaron, presented by Friends of the Bluffs Join us on Sunday, June 4 from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm as naturalist Richard Aaron takes us on a guided walk along the trails of East Point Park.  Richard is a passionate naturalist who loves sharing his knowledge with others. Over the years, he has presented hundreds of nature walks, workshops and lectures for numerous naturalist and conservation groups across the province. He is widely regarded for his knowledge and understanding of nature. Please join us for this special opportunity to learn more about the natural environs of East Point. East Point Park is known by many for its dynamic shoreline, beaches and bluffs. It has also been designated by the City of Toronto as a Bird Sanctuary and flyway for migrating birds. What makes East Point even more unique though is the high percentage of native plants (over 55%), and the extensive size o...

Fallen Ash Sunday May 7, 2017 was another successful and well-attended walk led by Steve Smith and Jen Falvy of Friends of the Bluffs with 52 guests attending! What a wonderful way to meet fellow nature enthusiasts from the local community and greater Toronto region.  In addition to our regular community event listing in the Bluffs Monitor we listed our walk in the Jane's Walk network which drew guests from the west end, downtown, and as far as Thornhill, Ontario. We'd like to thank our guests for their understanding in accepting the change of our walking route. Initially we planned to go along the Guild shoreline and talk about the history of the shoreline, and erosion measures with the service road though we received an email from the TRCA on Friday informing us that road access to the lake would be closed for the weekend due to high water levels. Rather than cancel, we chose to redirect our walk through the east segment of the Guild forest, an area that is not visite...

Grey Abbey Beach and Shoreline January 2017 Social Amnesia is a very real phenomenon. Its defined by history professor, author and critic Russell Jacoby as the following: "A collective forgetting by a group of people. It can also be the tendency to ignore history and precedent when responding the present or informing the future...discarded ideas are repackaged; meanwhile, the expectations for these practices remain the same." The Scarborough Waterfront Project If you have been following the Scarborough Waterfront Project and the Toronto Regional Conservation Authority's plan to essentially pave a series of roadways through Scarborough's designated Environmentally Significant Areas, geologically important bluffs and heritage shoreline, then wondering if the TRCA is suffering from Social Amnesia is very tempting. Why? The reason I'm asking this is because I recently came across an article from 2012 where the TRCA ...