[getsmart-l] The Talor Massey Project releases Protecting Warden Woods

[Janet May]

THE TAYLOR MASSEY PROJECT

       Celebrating and Protecting Taylor Massey Creek

 

 

March 30, 2008

 

 

After a lot of work by volunteers and with fantastic support from the City,
the TMP has today released Protecting Warden Woods, which provides three
over-arching recommendations, three key sub-recommendations, and 16
additional suggestions to protect this wonderfully diverse area for future
generations. 

 

Key recommendations include that the City declare Warden Woods an
Environmentally Significant Area and that the TMP will seek to facilitate
the creation of an organization to be called the Friends of Warden Woods
with other community-based organizations. 

 

Protecting Warden Woods can be found at  <http://www.thetmp.org/>
www.theTMP.org, under Publications.

 

On behalf of the Board,

 

Andrew McCammon

 

 

Copy of the Covering Letter for copies sent to

the City of Toronto, TRCA, and our community partners

 

The Taylor Massey Project is pleased to announce the release of a major
report entitled Protecting Warden Woods, which provides three over-arching
and three key sub-recommendations to protect this wonderfully diverse area
for future generations.

 

The TMP began work leading to the report in June, 2005, based on concerns
about invasive species in Warden Woods Park, poor management practices on
lots abutting the park, and the potentially negative consequences of a
massive re-development of lands immediately adjacent to Warden Woods. 

 

Volunteer efforts in mapping the main ecological zones in the park were
aided by the City of Toronto, which provided topological drawings. Following
a presentation by the TMP to the City's Transportation and Planning
Committee, in 2006 the City hired a consultant to produce a professional,
baseline environmental assessment of the park. Pending the production of
that report, the TMP suspended its volunteer efforts, but re-started them
once the City's report was complete. 

 

The TMP notes that support on this project from Parks, Forestry and
Recreation was fantastic, and the report from their consultant provided an
excellent inventory of both the historic and ecological dimensions of Warden
Woods, as well as highlighting the challenges it faces. 

 

This in turn allowed the TMP report to focus on solutions. Those solutions
include three over-arching recommendations, three key sub-recommendations,
and 16 additional suggestions. Over-arching recommendations and key
sub-recommendations, and the organization with the perceived responsibility
for each, are outlined in the chart below. 

 


Over-arching Recommendations


1

The City should designate Warden Woods an Ecologically Significant Area and
consider changing the name of the park to the Warden Woods Natural Heritage
Reserve.

City of Toronto


2

Parks, Forestry and Recreation should be directed to develop a Management
Plan, with other City departments, the TRCA, and the community, for the
long-term protection and enhancement of Warden Woods. 

 

City of Toronto


3

The Warden Woods Natural Heritage Reserve should be positioned as a vehicle
to increase community involvement in the protection of the City's natural
heritage and other environmental priorities, including the City's Wet
Weather Flow Master Plan and the TRCA's Don River Watershed Plan, as well as
through the creation of an organization to be called the Friends of Warden
Woods.

City of Toronto


Key Sub-recommendations


 

3.3

Warden Woods should become a model area in which the City can establish a
comprehensive watershed planning approach within the City's Wet Weather Flow
Master Plan. This model can then be extended to the whole of the Taylor
Massey sub-watershed and later to the whole of the Don watershed.

City of Toronto


 

3.2

Warden Woods should be identified as a Regeneration Concept Site in the
forthcoming Don River Watershed Plan. 

TRCA


 

3.3

The Taylor Massey Project should seek to bring local community-based groups
together to discuss the creation of an organization to be called the Friends
of Warden Woods.

The TMP,  local partners, City of Toronto

 

On the last item, the TMP is pleased to also report that it has already
broached the subject of the creation of the Friends of Warden Woods with
area neighbourhood associations that are currently partners of the TMP. 

 

As cited in the report, "Even as we lead the call for the designation of
Warden Woods as an ESA and a Natural Heritage Reserve, the TMP understands
that it cannot be the sole, long-term voice for the Woods, and that success
in protecting and enhancing the Woods, and in dealing with other
environmental issues, will lie with an engaged community."

 

Digital copies of the report are available on the TMP's website, at
www.theTMP.org <http://www.thetmp.org/> , under Publications. 

 

We look forward to any comments, requests for more information, and/or
discussing the report and its recommendations at your convenience.

 

 

 

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