†Parks&Recreation

Nature on the Toronto Islands:An Explorer’s Guide

Joanna Kidd

A WELCOME TO EXPLORERS

When I was a boy, I loved going to the Toronto Islands.The adventure began with the Red Rocket trundlingdown Bay Street to the docks. Arriving at the harbour,we found another world from the City – a worldbustling with planes, boats and people. Then came theferry ride, experiencing the vast expanses of sky andwater. And when we landed on the Islands, there wereso many choices to make from the amazing diversityof places and activities.

Some places, like Mugg’s Island, were just forthe birds and my mother would exhort us to leavethem alone. You could swim at the beaches, have a pic-nic, or go to Centre Island for games and rides. Therewere water sports, and rowboats and canoes jostlingtheir way along Long Pond. And you could explore theisland villages, full of character with weather-beatenhomes and whimsical gardens. But wherever you wentand whatever you did, nature was ever present in theweather, the waves, the trees, birds and wildflowers.

Then, as now, the Toronto Islands were a gath-ering place, appreciated by every generation and everyculture from around the world: a place to relax, tomeet, to play, to renew the body and spirit.

This Explorer’s Guide does much more thanprovide information, it will enchant and inspire you.So much beauty and diversity, so accessible to the City,so near and yet so far. Try it in all seasons. I know youwon’t be disappointed.

David CrombieFounding Chair,Waterfront Regeneration Trust

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface by David Crombie

Welcome to the Toronto Islands Park

The Islands as a Place of Healing

You Are Standing on a Sandspit

Point of Interest: The Sand Dunes at Hanlan’s Point

A Haven for Birds

Point of Interest: The Trout Pond

Lagoon Life

Point of Interest: The Cottonwoods at Gibraltar Point

Map of the Islands

Mammals

Amphibians

Meadow Plants of the Toronto Islands

The Islands’ Environmentally Significant Areas

Changing Lake Levels

Point of Interest: The Boardwalk

Naturalization and Habitat Creation

Point of Interest: Ward’s Beach

Some Characteristic Island Plants

Further Reading

Please Follow These Simple Rules

The plants and wildlife found on the Islands are dis-tinctive, both because of their high quality and theirrarity. This is why six parts of the Islands have beendesignated as Areas of Natural and Scientific Interestand Environmentally Significant Areas.

We ask you to help us protect the Islands’ fragilehabitats by please doing the following:

❖ Stay on trails within the natural areas to avoidtrampling fragile plants.

❖ Refrain from taking away plants or seeds. Althoughit is tempting to cut blossoms and collect plants andseeds, please enjoy them in their natural setting.

❖ Refrain from disturbing wildlife.❖ Avoid littering and better still, pick up any litter you

find in natural areas.

Welcome to the Toronto Islands Park

This guide is designed to encourage you to explore themany special and beautiful natural areas on theToronto Islands, and to help you understand theirimportance and value.

The Toronto Islands are one of the city’s mosttreasured green spaces. Formed from one of LakeOntario’s largest sandspits, they are an archipelago of14 islands, some 325 hectares in size. About 230hectares of the Islands are maintained as public park-land by Toronto Parks & Recreation.

Some 40 hectares remain in a natural state.Within these natural areas, there are unique land-forms, unusual vegetation communities and produc-tive aquatic habitats. These areas support rare plants, athriving fishery, and many species of birds, mammals,reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates.

For those who like walking, this guide outlines aroute that highlights many of the natural features ofthe Islands. The walk starts at Hanlan’s Point in thewest and finishes at Ward’s Island in the east, but canbe started at any point. A complete tour could take twoor more hours. Others, more inclined to dabble, maychoose to explore only one or two aspects of theIslands’ treasures.

Whatever way you choose to explore the naturalfeatures of the Islands, we hope you enjoy your stayand that you will visit often.

Key map of walk with Points of Interest

Walk Starts Here at Hanlan’s Point Ferry Dock

Walk Finishes Here atWard’s Island Ferry Dock

Ward’s IslandBeach

Sand Dunes atHanlan’s Point

Cottonwoods atGibralter Point

TroutPond

The Boar

dwalk

N1

beyond. About 1.25 million people visit the Islandseach year to experience their tranquility, to picnic, tocycle, skate or walk, to fish, to birdwatch, to sail orcanoe, and to enjoy its unparalleled vistas.

With care, the Islands will function forever as ahaven in which people can escape the stress of urbanliving, experience spiritual renewal and becomereconnected with nature.

The Islands as a Place of Healing

For perhaps as long as 10,000 years, the Islands havebeen cherished as a place of healing. Although theFirst Nations peoples did not live here, they used it forhunting, fishing and spiritual purposes.

In 1793, Lieutenant Governor John GravesSimcoe arrived to found the Town of York as a newcapital for Upper Canada. His wife, Elizabeth, imme-diately embraced the Peninsula, the forerunner of ourpresent day Islands, which she referred to as her“favourite sands”. She often came to the area to walk,to ride her horse, to picnic or to paint. Her observa-tions as an amateur naturalist and diarist were acute. Afew days after her arrival in the fledgling settlementshe wrote about her first visit in her diary:

“We rode on the Peninsula so I called the spitof sand for it is united to the mainland by a verynarrow neck of ground. We crossed the Bay oppositethe Camp, & rode by the Lake side to the end of thePeninsula.

We met with some good natural meadows &several ponds. The trees are mostly of the Poplarkind covered with wild Vines & there are some fir.On the ground were everlasting Peas creeping inabundance of a purple colour. I was told they aregood to eat when boiled & some pretty white flowerslike lilies of the Valley”.

The Islands have changed dramatically from thePeninsula of Elizabeth Simcoe’s day. Today, they servemany functions. Ward’s and Algonquin Islands arehome to one of Toronto’s oldest residential communi-ties. The Islands also contain an airport, a NaturalScience and Public School, and Toronto’s oldest waterfiltration plant. They host three yacht clubs and a pub-lic marina. The Toronto Islands Park provides recre-ational opportunities for residents of Toronto and

“Cried all the day,” Mrs. Simcoe noted in her diary onJuly 21, 1796, the day she left York to return to England.

“Little wind, soon became calm,” she noted, whichenabled her to make this final sketch of York beyond thestorehouses on Gibraltar Point.

(Gibson, 1984)

Photograph provided courtesy of Toronto Reference Library.[PC (C-13927)]

and which created such a fine natural harbour was ahooked formation stretching nine kilometres from itsbase at the foot of present-day Woodbine Avenue. Aspine of sand on the outside of the sandspit kept LakeOntario at bay; on the inside, finger-like spits, wet-lands and ponds stretched out to the northwest.

The Peninsula became the Toronto Islands onApril 14, 1858. On that night, a violent storm breachedthe neck of the sandspit, opened up what is now theEastern Gap, and forever severed the Islands from themainland.

Since that time, human hands have greatlychanged the sandspit we call the Islands. To counterLake Ontario’s erosion, most of the Islands’ shorelineshave been armoured with rock, protected by revet-ments and groynes, or encased in seawalls. The shapeand size of the Islands has been altered and expandedby dredging and filling. The construction of the LeslieStreet Spit (Tommy Thompson Park) has cut off thesource of sand that created and sustained the Islands.Despite these changes, the Islands retain much of theirbeauty, uniqueness and character.

You Are Standing on a Sandspit

Welcome to one of Lake Ontario’s biggest sandspits.Other examples in the Great Lakes can be found eastof Toronto at Presqu’ile, and at Long Point and PointPelee in Lake Erie.

The Toronto Islands were created over thou-sands of years by the deposition of sand eroded fromthe Scarborough Bluffs. The thick sedimentary layersof sand on the Bluffs were laid down by glaciers dur-ing the last Ice Age, when Toronto was covered with asheet of ice more than a kilometre thick. After theretreat of the glaciers about 15,000 years ago, the ero-sive forces of wind and waves began to remove sandfrom the Bluffs. This sand was carried westward bycurrents and deposited in the shallows off the shore ofwhat is now downtown Toronto to form a sandspit.

Sandspits are dynamic landforms that are con-stantly changing with sand being deposited on oneside and eroded on the other. They are at the mercy ofwind, ice, currents and water. The sandspit or“Peninsula” that Elizabeth Simcoe observed in 1793

Joseph Bouchette’s plan of York Harbour1793

Plan courtesy ofCity of TorontoArchives.

At Hanlan’s Point, you will find marram grass,many other grasses and sedges and the provinciallyrare bushy cinquefoil. Behind these colonizing species,in the foredune zone where the sand dunes are higher,you will find hardy shrubs such as woolly-headed andsandbar willow.

Farther inland is the wetter trough zone thatgets periodically flooded when water levels are high.Here you will find plants such as cattails that “like tokeep their feet wet.” Beyond the trough you will noticethe mature eastern cottonwoods and hybrid crack wil-lows that characterize the backdune area.

With their undulating shapes and varied plantlife, the Hanlan’s Point dunes attract humans andwildlife alike. Killdeer often nest in the area, and theshoreline is a great place for observing semi-palmatedplovers and spotted sandpipers during spring and fallmigration.

This area is extensively used by birdwatchers,swimmers, and those frequenting Toronto’s onlyclothing optional beach.

Point of Interest:The Sand Dunes at Hanlan’s Point

The sand dunes at Hanlan’s Point stretch about 2 kilo-metres from the Toronto City Centre Airport south toGibraltar Point. These dunes (and the smaller ones atWard’s Island) are regionally unique; the nearest simi-lar dune system is 150 kilometres east at SandbanksProvincial Park near Picton. Dune systems are fragile.Please stay on the trails and avoid trampling the dunegrasses as it will make the dune vulnerable to erosionfrom the wind.

To establish a dune you need three elements: asource of sand, onshore breezes to move the sandinland, and vegetation to trap and anchor the sand.

Open sand dunes are a harsh and unforgivingenvironment for plants. Those that survive are thosethat can adapt to drought, full sunlight, strong windsand ever-shifting sands. One of the first species to col-onize is marram grass. Once this hardy species isestablished, sand collects around it and dunes begin toform. Without plants such as marram grass, dunes willnot grow in height and width.

Marram grass is a remarkableplant that can reproduce bothby seed and undergroundroot-like stems known as

rhizomes. If buried by sand,it sends new shoots to thesurface. It can roll up its

leaves during dry periods toconserve moisture, and develops

a root system up to five metreslong.

Great Lakes coastal dunesare usually divided into four distinctzones: beach, foredune, trough andbackdune. Each of these has distinctplant communities and they clearlyshow the principle of succession —

the progression of plant life from pioneer species to aclimax forest.

marram grass(Ammophila

breviligulata)

Beach Foredune Trough Backdune

Diagram of zones of dunes

The only nesting locations in Toronto for thesecolonial birds are on the Islands and the Leslie Street Spit.

Other species that nest on the Islands includethe red-winged blackbird, tree swallow, barn swallow,Baltimore oriole, blue-gray gnatcatcher, house wren,Carolina wren, willow flycatcher, killdeer and easternkingbird.

FallOne of the Islands’ truly spectacular sites is the fallmigration of bluejays. At the height of their migration,thousands fly daily along the Islands on their way tothe western end of Lake Erie where they will turn andhead south. Many migrating hawks can also be seen,along with large numbers of monarch butterflies andgreen darner dragonflies.

WinterWinter is a wonderful time to view the northern seaducks that overwinter in the bay and lake. Tens ofthousands of these can be seen, rafting together andwheeling in flight. The mostcommon species seen arebufflehead, long-tailedduck, common goldeneyeand white-winged scoter.

Other prominentwinter visitors include thegreater black-backed gull,the common merganserand the tiny northern saw-whet owl, for which the Islands

are famous.

A Place for Birds

The Toronto Islands are a haven both for birds andbirdwatchers. This is because of the size, richness andvariety of natural areas here, and the location of theIslands in the overlapping zones of the two majorNorth American flyways, the Atlantic and theMississippi. Over 200 species of birds have beenobserved on the Islands and as many as 60 species maynest here.

SpringDuring spring migration, the Islands and the LeslieStreet Spit are often the first landfall for birds exhaust-ed from flying across Lake Ontario. In the Islands’woodlands, dense thickets, meadows, dune communi-ties and lagoons, migrants find food, refuge, and aplace to rest before continuing their northward jour-ney.

Good birding areas in spring include theHanlan’s Point dunes, Gibraltar Point, Snake Island,and the Ward’s Island ESA. Keen birders can expect tosee many varieties of warblers, wrens, flycatchers,sparrows and vireos. Since 1978, bird banding hasbeen carried out in spring by the Toronto BirdObservatory.

SummerOne of the most prominent summer residents is the

black-crowned night heron.The local population wasdevastated in the 1950sand 1960s by chemical

pollution in the Great Lakes, but itbegan to recover in the 1980s, and

there are now hundreds in the area.These short-legged, comical birds canreadily be seen, perched on overhanging

branches, patiently huntingfor small fish.

black-crowned night heron(Nycticorax nycticorax)

monarch butterfly(Danaus plexippus)

northern saw-whet owl(Aegolius acadicus)

Why is There a Raft in the Middle?The raft in the middle of the Trout Pond is a simpleand elegant solution to a serious problem. The prob-lem, first noticed in the 1980s by scientists at theCanadian Wildlife Service, was that the local popula-tion of common terns was decreasing sharply. Theterns were being pushed out of their nesting areas onTommy Thompson Park by more-aggressive ring-billed gulls and the spread of vegetation along thebeach areas.

The reef raft was installed in the Trout Pond in1993 to provide alternative nesting habitat for theterns. Earth, sand, pebbles and driftwood were addedto create a suitable surface for nesting, and woodendecoys were used to attract terns. The results havebeen excellent, with over fifty tern chicks fledged onthe raft each year. As a result,these elegant fliers continueto fish the waters around theToronto Islands and delight uswith their aerial acrobatics.

Point of Interest:The Trout Pond

The Trout Pond was originally created in 1968 by theformer Metro Toronto Parks Department as a “putand take” trout pond. An earth and rubble berm wasbuilt to seal the pond off from Lighthouse Pond, and asystem was installed to circulate cold water. Every year,trout were stocked and excess weeds removed. By theearly 1990s, it was decided that the costs of maintain-ing the artificial pond outweighed its benefits.

The Toronto and Region ConservationAuthority developed a plan to restore the pond to amore natural, self-sustaining condition. In 1992, theycreated three breaches in the berm that isolated thepond. This allowed water and fish to circulate freelyinto and out of the pond and allowed water levels tofluctuate as the level of Lake Ontario changed.

To improve pike spawning habitat, a series ofshallow “fingers” were created by placing fill at thenorthwest corner of the pond. These fingers were thenplanted with aquatic plants and shrubs. When waterlevels rise in the spring, northern pike use the shallowsbetween these “fingers” as spawning grounds.

The alterations made to the Trout Pond havehad dramatic results. Because water circulation hasimproved, excess growth of the aquatic plants hasbeen reduced and the need to cut weeds has beeneliminated. Instead of a monoculture of stocked trout,there is now a self-sustaining and vibrant communityof fish. There has been an increase in both the numberof fish species and the total population of fish, and thepond has become a productive nursery for pike andother species of fish.

The best place to observe fish is at the breaks inthe berm on the eastern side of the pond. Fish areattracted by the constant flow of water through theopenings, which brings food in the form of plankton,invertebrates and smaller fish.

common tern(Sterna hirundo)

They can be commonly seen during the summer inthe Islands’ lagoons and ponds, sunning on exposedlogs. Painted turtles feed on a wide range of insects,earthworms, fish, snails, frogs, carrion and mostspecies of water plants.

Snapping turtles are found throughout theIslands’ lagoons. The prehistoric looking “snappers”with their bony shells have not changed much sincethey emerged during dinosaur times 70 million yearsago. They eat a wide variety of plants and animalsincluding crayfish, snails, fish, frogs, tadpoles and car-rion. Snapping turtles typically emerge from hiberna-tion in May, breed soon after and lay a clutch of 20 to40 eggs in June or early July. The young snappers hatchin September and early October, just in time for theirfirst hibernation.

No tour of the Islands’ lagoons would be com-plete without mentioning the fish-eating birds thatdepend upon them for food. The black-crowned nightheron and great blue heron are numerous, and occa-sionally a green heron will visit. The common tern canbe readily seen and heard as it flies along the lagoons,searching for fish. The belted kingfisher is anothercommon sight, swooping from tree to tree as itscreeches its raucous call.

Lagoon Life

The Islands’ lagoons provide some of the best aquatichabitat in the Toronto area. Water quality in thelagoons has improved significantly over the last thirtyyears. In these protected waters, fish find aquaticplants, rocks and submerged logs for shelter, shallowback bays for spawning and deeper pools for overwin-tering. In many areas, densely vegetated shorelineshelp keep water cool and provide cover for young fish.Because of their shallowness, the lagoons providethermal refuge to fish such as brown trout that cannotsurvive winters in the frigid waters of Lake Ontario.

One of the best ways to observe the Islands’lagoon life is to travel through them by rowboat orcanoe. With luck, you can see the stony nests made bypumpkinseeds, many species of forage fish (fish thateat plankton), and schools of minnows and young-of-the-year brown bullhead.

About 35 species of fish have been found in theIslands’ lagoons. This is comparable to the diversityfound in the fertile Humber and Rouge marshes.Many anglers are drawn by the presence here of theresident top predators such as smallmouth bass andnorthern pike. Long, narrow and powerful, the north-ern pike likes to lurk in weedy bays, waiting forunwary prey fish to swim by. Specimens more than ametre in length are routinely found in the Islands’lagoons.

The life in the Islands’ lagoons is not limited tofish however. There are considerable populations ofMidland painted and snapping turtles. Painted turtlesemerge from hibernation around the end of March.

northern pike(Esox lucius)

Midlandpainted turtle(Chrysemys

picta)

snapping turtle(Chelydra

serpentine)

Point of Interest:The Cottonwoods at Gibraltar Point

The principal tree of the Toronto Islands is the easterncottonwood (or poplar), a Carolinian species that is atthe northern limit of its range here. The cottonwood ischaracteristically found in naturally disturbed flood-plains and in shoreline sand dunes in the Great Lakes; itwill eventually be the dominant tree on the Leslie StreetSpit. The only other major stands of cottonwoods in theToronto area are found east of the Islands at ClarkeBeach Park (Cherry Beach). This is perhaps not surpris-ing as Clarke Beach was connected to the Islands beforethe storm of 1858 formed the Eastern Gap.

The eastern cottonwood is a tall, fast growing,relatively short-lived species of tree. In June, it releases

its fluffy white seeds (dubbed by locals “fluff”)which are carried by the wind and cover the

ground like snow. The cottonwood stand atGibraltar Point is one of the finest exam-

ples on the Islands.When you walk through the

woodland, you will notice thecharacteristic dense understoreyof red-osier dogwood and willow.If you look up, you can see thegentle arching shape of the cotton-

woods, not dissimilar in shape to theelms that were once so plentiful in Ontario.Viewed at a distance, you can see that themature cottonwoods form a super canopy

that stands high above all the othertrees on the Islands.

The Lighthouse

The Gibraltar Point lighthouse is the oldest stonebuilding in Toronto and Canada’s oldest standinglighthouse. It was built in 1808 to mark the entranceinto the harbour. Despite its beacon, many ships havefoundered on the notoriously shifting shoals that lieoff the Islands.

The lighthouse was built from limestone hauledacross the lake from Queenston and its height wasincreased to eighty-two feet in 1832. It was operatedfor 150 years from 1808 to 1958, first using oil fromsperm whales, then coal oil and finally electricity forits lamps.

Legend has it that the lighthouse is haunted bythe ghost of J.P. Rademuller, the first lighthouse keep-er who vanished in 1815. The story goes that he wasinvolved in the illegal liquor trade and was beaten todeath by two soldiers from the Garrison at Fort Yorkwhen he refused to sell them whisky. The soldiers wereeventually acquitted at trial for lack of evidence.Rademuller’s body has never been found.eastern cottonwood

(Populus deltoides).

Gibraltar Point Lighthouse, November 5, 1909Photograph courtesy of City of Toronto Archives.

Map

IslandFerry Docks

Hanlan’sPointFerry Dock

Hanlan’sPoint

Mugg’sIsland

IslandYachtClub

Royal CanadianYacht Club

QueenCityYachtClub

GibraltarPoint Gibraltar Centre

for the Arts

IslandFiltrationPlant

TroutPond

BirdSanctuary

BlockHouseBay

Lighthouse

TorontoCity CentreAirport

Western Chan

nel

Centre IslandFerry Dock

Island Park

OlympicIsland

Far EnoughFarm

Centre Island

ForestryIsland

Boardwal

kSnakeIsland

AlgonquinIsland

Long Pond

Toronto Inner Harbour

Toronto Outer Harbour

N

Eastern Channel

Lake Ontario

Ward’s IslandFerry Dock

Ward’s Island

1

Amphibians

In a world in which amphibian populations are gener-ally in decline because of pollution and habitatdestruction, it is encouraging to know that the Islandscontinue to support populations of two amphibians:the American toad and the northern leopard frog.

Both species of amphibian breed in the Islands’seasonal ponds and wetlands. Their populations canvary dramatically from year to year, depending on lakelevels, rainfall and number of resident garter snakes.

The American toad is primarily terrestrial exceptwhen breeding. During late April or early May, themales sit in ponds and trill their distinctive song, hop-ing to attract females. After matingtakes place, the female laysstrings of eggs, asmany as 7,000at a time. Intwo or threedays, thesehatch into tad-poles. By Julyor August, the tad-poles have absorbedtheir tails, grown armsand legs, and are ready to climbout of the pond and start terrestrial life.During “big toad years”, you can see thousands of tinytoads, only a quarter of an inch long, migrating acrossthe Islands’ roads. When ready to mate for the first timeat two years of age, the toads will return to the pond inwhich they were born to begin the cycle again.

Mammals

Despite the number of park visitors and the extent ofmown grass, the Islands support a rich variety ofmammals. Grey squirrels and raccoons are residenthere as elsewhere in Toronto. The raccoon populationhas grown significantly in recent years as they have fewpredators and abundant food.

The population of rabbits, once high, is nowlow because of predation from feral cats and a relativenewcomer, the red fox. Foxes likely reached the Islandsby travelling across the ice from the Port Area in win-ter and are now well established. The sly and agilefoxes are a familiar sight on the Islands, and thepatient viewer is sometimes rewarded with a glimpseof a fox with her kits.

Resident muskrats are often seen on the Islands,swimming through the lagoons, en route to theirbankside dens. In recent years, many beavers havefound their way to the Islands, likely from the Humberor Rouge Marshes. Most of these have been passingthrough, but some have stayed, living in the banks ofthe lagoons and feasting on the Islands’ trees andaquatic plants such as cattails and sedges.

The changing mammal population on theIslands and the presence of occasional visitors such asthe striped skunk and the coyote illustrate the dynam-ic nature of wildlife populations, even in urban cen-ters.

red fox(Vulpes vulpes)

American toad(Bufo americanus)

Dry MeadowsDry meadows, or tallgrass sand prairies, were oncequite common in the Toronto area. Unfortunately fewof the plants associated with these areas have survivedurban development, making those that remain espe-cially valuable.

The explorer will find many common plants inthe Islands’ dry meadows — plants such as wild straw-berry, gray goldenrod and common milkweed. Theunassuming common milkweed plant plays a majorrole in the life cycle of the orange and black monarchbutterfly, forming the major food for its caterpillars.After metamorphosing to its adult form, in late sum-mer/early fall monarchs gorge on nectar and gather infields and meadows along the north shores of theGreat Lakes to start their 4,000 kilometre long migra-tion south to Mexico, where they will overwinter.

The Islands’ dry meadows also contain manyregionally rare species. Prairie cord grass, switch grassand cup plant are just some of noteworthy natives ofthe tallgrass prairies that are found on the Islands.

The cup plant is easy to spot as it grows to about8 feet in height andhas yellow compos-ite flowers that looklike giant daisies.The plant derives itsname from theway its leaves sur-round the stalk toform a shallow cup.Even on the hottest sum-mer day, dew can be foundcollected with these miniaturegreen receptacles.

Meadow Plants of the Toronto Islands

Along with their cottonwood stands, beach strands,dune communities and lagoon edges, the Islands areknown for two other distinctive plant communities –wet and dry meadows. These are scattered throughoutthe Islands.

Wet MeadowsAs their name suggests, wet meadows are flooded inthe springtime and gradually dry out as lake levels

drop over the summer months. The edges ofthe Islands’ wet meadows are

typically dominated by grass-es and sedges. In the wetterparts, you can find Balticrush and the green, jointed

stems of Nelson’s horse-tail, both regionally rare

species. Horsetails are anancient group of plants thatreproduce vegetatively byunderground roots. Because

of its high silica content, theplant was once commonly used

for scouring pots and pans and issometimes referred to as “scouring

rush”.The peak time to visit any

of the Islands’ wet meadows is latesummer/early fall, when most of

the wildflowers are in bloom. If lucky, you can see thelarge pink spikes of false dragonhead, the violet flow-ers of Kalm’s lobelia and the electric blue swirls offringed gentian, all of which are regionally rarespecies. The locations of species and their extent willvary from year to year depending on how wet themeadows are.

Nelson’s horsetail(Equisetum X nelsonii)

cup plant(Silphium perfoliatum)

Changing Lake Levels

The water levels in the Great Lakes fluctuate annuallyas the seasons change and over longer cycles lastingmany years. Over thousands of years, native shorelineplant communities have adapted to this changingwater regime. However, the damming of the St.Lawrence River in the 1950s to create the St. LawrenceSeaway moderated the natural fluctuations of thelakes. This has affected coastal plant communities thatdepend on fluctuations in water levels, and the wildlifecommunities such as shorebirds that take advantage ofthese changes.

On the Islands, the plant communities that havebeen most affected by the moderation of lake fluctua-tions are shoreline plants and those that inhabit wetmeadows and seasonal ponds. In the low water years atthe end of the 1990s, emergent plants – plants withleaves that extend above the water’s surface such assedges, grasses and rushes – began to get establishedon some of the Islands’ previously barren lagoonedges. This provided improved habitat for frogs, fishand insects. At the same time, however, low levels ofwater in the Islands’ ponds reduced the breeding suc-cess of toads and frogs. This is an illustration of hownature at the same time can often both “giveth andtaketh away”.

The Islands’ Environmentally Significant Areas

Six natural areas on the Toronto Islands have beendesignated Environmentally Significant Areas (ESAs)by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.They have also been designated Areas of Natural andScientific Interest (ANSIs) by the Ministry of NaturalResources.

These areas are on the east side of Mugg’sIsland, the dunes at Hanlan’s Point, the WildlifeSanctuary north of the Filtration Plant, the SnugHarbour/Snake Island area, the western end ofAlgonquin Island, and the eastern end of Ward’sIsland. All of these relatively undisturbed areas areimportant because they contain habitats that are ofhigh quality, have limited representation in the region,and support rare species of plants. As ESAs and ANSIs,these areas are protected from development.

Environmentally Significant Areas

Map provided courtesy of Toronto and Region Conservation Authority

broad-leaf arrowhead(Sagittaria

latifolia)

Birdwatchers enjoy the boardwalk in all sea-sons. During spring migration, the shrubs can seem tobe alive with colourful warblers, especially early in themorning. On the lake, you may see common loons,black ducks, blue-winged teal, and other spring visi-tors. In spring, walkers often come across harmlessgarter snakes sunning on the boardwalk. Less fre-quently, one may find the rare black (or melanistic)form of garter snake.

During, the summer, Canada geese, mallards,gadwalls and mute swans graze close to the seawall. Atnight, dozens of black-crowned night herons can beseen perched on the seawall or on nearby rocks.

In winter, the boardwalk experience can bequite exceptional. After snow has fallen, cross-countryskiers carve trails along its length. Rafts of sea ducks(bufflehead, goldeneye and long-tailed duck) andcommon mergansers ride the waves just offshore anddive for zebra mussels. Some years, when large winterstorms come from the southwest, breakers crash overthe seawall and sculpt massive ice sculptures on theboardwalk itself and the trees and shrubs beside it.

Point of Interest:The Boardwalk

The boardwalk that runs from Centre Island to Ward’sBeach is a favourite route for walkers and joggers.From about 1900 until 1969, there were summer cot-tages all along here. Plenty of evidence remains of thecottagers’ gardens, and their battles against the powerof Lake Ontario.

At the western end of the seawall, you can seewhat looks like old wooden palisades in the lake. Theseare the remains of the original seawall that was built in1884 of seven-inch square cedar piles. The present daysea wall was built to the height of the boardwalk in1935. A massive structure, it consists of a continuoussheet pile wall 7 metres in depth topped with a 2.1metre high, curved concrete wall. In 1951, a one-metreextension of concrete was added above the level of theboardwalk to provide additional protection.

North of the Boardwalk look for walls built byindividual homeowners as secondary lines of defenseagainst the lake. In high-water years and duringstorms such as Hurricane Hazel in 1954, even thesedefenses were not sufficient to keep the Islands dry.

The area beside the boardwalk has been allowedto naturalize and functions as a wildlife corridor. Itcontains an interesting mix of native plants (such asdogwood, willow, and horsetail), ornamental shrubsfrom the old cottage gardens (such as lilacs, forsythiaand flowering cherry), and invasive species such asJapanese knotweed. Many of the trees along thisstretch are draped with wild grapevines.

common garter snake(Thamnophis sirtalis)

long-tailed duck(Clangula hyemalis)

add to the naturalization improvements already madeat the Trout Pond and will improve habitat conditionsfor fish, amphibians, turtles and birds.

The purpose of the naturalization and restora-tion projects, (both planned and completed,) is toimprove, expand and better connect natural areas onthe Islands. All this will make the Islands better forwildlife and even more valuable as a place where peo-ple can explore, appreciate and reconnect with nature,now and in the future.

Naturalization and Habitat Creation

In recent years, park managers in North America havemoved away from the manicured parkland that waspopular thirty years ago to embrace more naturalapproaches to landscaping. On the Islands, the grass isno longer mowed in certain areas. This allows a diver-sity of plant species to get established. When this hap-pens, a broader range of wildlife is attracted and sup-ported.

With thesupport of

citizen’s groups,shoreline restoration

has begun to takeplace. In some places the lagoon edges, once

mowed to the edge, have been planted with water-loving trees and shrubs such as willows, dogwoods,poplars and ash. These re-vegetated banks providehabitat for wildlife, cover for fish, and protect againsterosion caused by boat traffic.

On the more exposed, bay side of the Islands, inthe early 1990s, shoreline protection was carried outwith an eye to also improving wildlife habitat. Insteadof rebuilding deteriorated vertical sea walls, they werebuttressed with rock placed alongside them in the bay.This produced more natural looking shorelines andalso improved fish habitat. Over time, grasses andshrubs will become established on the shorelines; thiswill further improve their look and ecological func-tioning.

Plans are underway to expand and create newwetlands on the Islands to replace those that have beenlost through shoreline alteration and filling. This will

red osier dogwood

Battling Invasive Plant Species

On the Islands, as in other Toronto parks,invasive plant species are becoming an increas-ing concern. Invasive plant species are speciesthat aggressively colonize natural areas andforce out native plants. Most of them wereintroduced into North America for agricul-ture, medicine, horticulture, or erosion control,although some are native. Invasive plantspecies tend to have few natural enemies,reproduce very quickly, and take advantage ofdisturbed conditions (such as forest edges).

How best to deal with invasive plant speciessuch as Japanese dogwood, purple loosestrifeand dog strangling vine is a great challenge.Managers use a variety of approaches to con-trol these plants, depending on the particularspecies. Some respond well to mechanicalmethods of control such as cutting or hand-pulling and others to biological controls suchas insect predators. Careful and selectiveapplications of herbicides are required for con-trol of the most troublesome invasive species.

(Cornus stolonifera)

by toads and frogs for breeding, and they are a popu-lar place for great blue herons to feed.

Walking inland you will come across a series ofold gravelly shorelines. Their presence illustrates howthe Islands grew to the south as sand from theScarborough Bluffs was deposited along the shore.

The wet meadownorth of the old shorelineis beautiful in all seasonsbut can be quietly spectac-ular in the fall when thewildflowers are in bloom.With luck (and optimumwater levels) you may seethe small white flowers of nod-ding ladies tresses, the blue swirlsof fringed gentian, and the bell-likeblossoms of purple gerardia. The openwet meadow is a good place to seekestrels and ground feeders such as the common flicker.

Plant succession ends withthe eastern cottonwood forest tothe north of the wet meadow.Like the other stands on theIslands, this one has a canopy ofeastern cottonwoods, a sprinkling ofcrack willows, and an understorey ofred-osier dogwood. During springmigration, this is a fine place formorning birdwatching. In thesummer, it is a good place tolook for roosting black-crowned night herons.

Point of Interest:Ward’s Beach

The Ward’s Beach area has a lot to offer the explorer.The beach – consistently one of Toronto’s best interms of water quality – is a lovely place to swim orstroll. As you walk inland from the water’s edge, youcan see plant succession at work, starting with the pio-neer species that have colonized the beach and endingwith the mature woodland to the north.

Along the beach strand you will find the region-ally rare sea rocket, a plant of the mustard family withsucculent stems and small purple flowers. This speciesis found only on the Atlantic coast and in parts of theGreat Lakes. Alongside this you can find bushy cin-quefoil, with its highly dissected leaves and five-

petalled yellow flowers. Bushy cinquefoil isonly found in a few sites in Ontario, on

sandy shorelines along Lake Ontarioand Lake Erie.

The beach i s a goodplace to see a var iety ofshorebirds during springand fall migration. In thespring and summer you canhear the raucous sound ofthe double-crested cor-

morant and ring-billed gullcolonies on the Leslie Street Spit.

The low dune behind thebeach is covered with marramgrass, sandbar willow, woolly-headed willow and other shrubs.

This is a particularly good place to find golden war-blers during spring migration.

In the depression behind the beach, there are aseries of ponds and wet areas. The water level in theseponds is directly related to the spring lake levels andvaries significantly from year to year. Vegetation isdominated by sedges and common bulrush. As inmany other wetlands in North America, purpleloosestrife, a beautiful but invasive exotic plant hasfound its way here. The ponds are used in the spring

bushy cinquefoil(Potentilla paradoxa)

sandbar willow(Salix exigua)

great blue heron(Ardea herodias)

Further Reading

Specific references that may be of interest:

Sally Gibson, 1984. More than an island: A history ofthe Toronto Islands. Irwin Publishing, Toronto.

Joanna Kidd, 1998. A living place: Opportunities forhabitat regeneration in Toronto Bay. Toronto BayInitiative.

Norm Murr, 1999. Favourite birding hotspots: TheToronto Islands, Ontario Federation of OntarioNaturalists News, February 1999.

Steve Varga, 1987. Toronto Islands: Plant communitiesand noteworthy species. Toronto Field Naturalists.

General guides that may be useful:

Newcomb’s Wildflower GuideFamiliar Amphibians and Reptiles of OntarioPeterson’s Field Guide to the Birds East of the RockiesBirds of Toronto and Vicinity

AcknowledgementsI would like to extend my appreciation to the individualswho generously shared their time and knowledge toreview the material in this Explorers Guide, to LeslieCoates for her imagination, patience and editing skill,and to Zile Zichmanis for her beautiful illustrations.

Some Characteristic Island Plants

Woodland plants:eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides)hybrid crack willow (Salix x rubens)red-osier dogwood (Cornus stolonifera)

Beach and dune plants:bushy cinquefoil (Potentilla paradoxa)marram grass (Ammophilia breviligulata)sandbar willow (Salix exigua)woolly-headed willow (Salix eriocephala)

Dry meadow plants:cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum)gray goldenrod (Solidago nemoralis)prairie cord grass (Spartina pectinata)wild strawberry (Fragaria virginiana)switch grass (Panicum virgatum)

Wet meadow plants:Baltic rush (Juncus balticus)false dragonhead (Physostegia virginiana)fringed gentian (Gentiana crinita)Kalm’s lobelia (Lobelia kalmii)Nelson’s horsetail (Equisetum X nelsonii)nodding ladies tresses (Spiranthes cernua)purple gerardia (Agalinus purpurea)

What the explorer will find on theToronto Islands

❖

Unparalleled vistas of the City and Lake Ontario❖

A variety of plants, many of which are consideredregionally or provincially rare

❖

Beautiful woodlands, wet and dry meadows, anddune plants that are rare or unique in the

Toronto area❖

Over 200 species of birds and many species ofmammals, reptiles, amphibians and insects

❖

Monarch butterflies on their migration south inautumn

❖

A diverse and thriving aquatic community thatboasts 35 different kinds of fish

❖

Canada’s oldest standing lighthouse❖

And much, much more!

Toronto Parks and Recreation acknowledges thesupport of the Great Lakes Sustainability Fund in the

printing of this publication.

Design: Toronto Corporate Communications 01-366