SUMMARY: MINUTES FOSS STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING, MAY 26TH, 2015

• CSS Park Bird Festival: FOSS thanks all volunteers for their exemplary performance. Thanks also for the support from all attendees. Special thanks to the South Etobicoke Youth Assembly (SEYA) from LAMP.
• The new viewing platform in CSS Park remains unfinished due to unresolved labour problems. (Now completed)
• Although fishing is legal in the marina, FOSS requests that all fishers respect the nesting areas of the Red-necked Grebes when casting their lines.
• Thank you to the Weston Foundation and their Weston Family Parks Challenge for funding: 1. A new FOSS brochure and business cards (now available for distribution 2. A FOSS website (presently under construction), and 3. New Bird Checklists (now available).
• Please report all illegal dumping of yard waste in CSS Park to 311. Additional contact information posted on the FOSS Blog.
• Call 311 for any off-leash dog infractions. The city’s response is “complaint driven”.
• Contact FOSS (See Blog) with any ideas for improving the dog park.
• FOSS Membership Renewals: See blog for membership form. Present members are encouraged to renew and individuals on FOSS’s contact list are welcome to join.
• With the removal of trees for the new Humber College Welcome Centre (HCWC) on Colonel Samuel Smith Drive, FOSS advocates that native trees, not shrubs, be used as replacements and that the location and species be determined by the city’s wildlife/habitat specialist in conjunction with the Forestry Department.
• FOSS also suggests that the trees be planted in clumps in order to duplicate the habitat that will be lost with the building of the HCWC.
• FOSS’s suggestions concerning the replacement of trees have received supportive feedback from both Wanda Buote (Principal, Lakeshore Campus) and Hai Nguyen (Planner, Urban Forestry, City of Toronto).
• Many additional trees in CSS Park continue to suffer severe collateral damage from the city’s overzealous grass and weed trimmers.
• FOSS will provide representation/input related to the development of a planned 200 sq. ft. exhibit space highlighting the history of the Lakeshore Grounds.