CALL FOR NATURALIZATION AT ROTARY PARK COMMUNITY MEETING

At the Rotary Park public charrette last Saturday, there was strong support for daylighting the mouth of Jackson Creek as well as increased naturalization.  Both were key features in the designs worked up by all three tables.

The design process is being lead by Netami Stuart from City of Toronto - Parks, Forestry and Recreation
She has a copy of CCFEW's  "Towards the Ecological Restoration of South Etobicoke", and she introduced the concept of daylighting the creek in her opening presentation.  This document can be read online.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that families, residents and park users want our parks, all parks, no matter how small, to have plenty of natural areas set aside for critters so that our kids as well as adults do not lose that essential contact in this grey, concrete world we all live live in.  Our children need a place to try catching a frog, to marvel at a darting dragonfly or to watch red winged blackbirds building a nest in the impossibly swaying reeds.

Richard Louv's "Last Child in the Woods" introduces the term "nature deficit disorder" as a contributing factor in things like childhood anxiety, depression and obesity - a thought provoking read.

We must protect what we have and insist on more!