Walking through the Guild Woods

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 visited that often, not even by the local community. It turned out to be a wonderful walk and we welcomed the sun as it shone through the forest ahead of us. 

 A special thank you to the many guests and community members that contributed to our talk. In addition to myself and Steve, we received great insight from naturalist Richard Aaron, Friends of the Bluffs member Gerard Arbour, community member Wendy Hooker and of course there were others sharing their perspective and knowledge of the area. 

 It was also wonderful to see fellow Friends of the Bluffs members Nicole Conboy with her son Aidan, Leslie Arbour, Roy and Denise Wright, and new member Mari-Lynn Dell. What a pleasure to see so many familiar faces on this walk and meet some new ones including Alan Burt, Lucie Moreau, and photographer Barry Scheffer. I enjoyed speaking with one of our youngest guests, budding nature enthusiast (featured at the bottom) by the name of Graysen Hooker Burt. During the walk he was looking intently into some of the vernal pools of water and asked where the frogs are? He said he was supposed to be looking for amphibians. I promised him I would follow up with his parents so that I could show him the Guild Frog Pond. At the end of our walk, a few of us went over to the Guild Park and Gardens and caught the tail end of the walking tour being led by John Mason and his friends. What a great finale to our nature walk through the woods!  

 If you enjoyed our walk, please consider joining us on the next walking tour. It will be led by naturalist Richard Aaron on Sunday June 4, 2017 from 10 am to 12:30 pm. 'Wildflowers and Trees of East Point Park' will take place along the trails of East Point. We will meet at 152 Copperfield Road in Scarborough.  

Enjoy the photo highlights and please subscribe to this blog for automatic updates. Simply add your email address in the box on the upper right side. Many thanks, see you again soon!


Guild Forest 

Guild Forest





Well worn trails



Vernal Pools






A Few Highlights of Guests




















Steve leading the group


Entering the forest


Steve, Richard and Gerard talking about the fall of the Ash Trees


Friends of the Bluffs members on left Gerard, Jen and Roy


Community friends learning about nature


Richard sharing his knowledge of nature



Budding nature enthusiast Graysen






Jennifer @ 416-871-5132 jenfalvy@hotmail.com

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