Tree Planting in Bob Hunter Memorial Park

For Earth Day this year my daughters and I had the privilege of planting trees with our Brownie unit for the organization 10,000 Trees for the Rouge .  The tree planting was held at Bob Hunter Memorial Park, just south of 14^th Avenue and west of Reesor Road. 

There were already hundreds of volunteers, largely Girl Guides, Scouts and families, busy planting trees when we arrived at 10am on this chilly Sunday morning.  Once we registered our unit, we were directed to our designated planting area where our Brownies very happily got busy with their shovels!

(C) Sandra McIntyre

We dug holes about a foot wide and deep.  With over twenty-three types of trees and shrubs to choose from, we chose to plant Downy Serviceberry saplings.  After filling the holes with dirt, compost, mulch and water, we wrapped a white plastic sleeve around the base of the saplings to keep the little critters away.

I would estimate we planted no more than thirty trees in all, but we certainly felt good knowing we were making a contribution to the restoration of Bob Hunter Memorial Park. 

Bob Hunter Memorial Park is currently in the development phase.  They are restoring wetlands, wet and dry meadows, native grass meadow and indigenous flora, as well as planning hard surface, pedestrian and soft surface trails for nature walks.  Tree planting is a small but important part of what the Rouge has in store for this park over the next couple of years. 

Bob Hunter Memorial Park was created under Dalton McGuinty on August 21, 2006.  It is bounded by a rail corridor, Ninth Line to the west, Reesor Road to the east, Highway 407 to the north and Steeles Avenue East to the south, adding another 500 acres to the vast Rouge Park.

The park is scheduled to officially open in 2015.  With the recent federal budget including funds to help make the dream of Rouge National Park a reality, the official opening of Bob Hunter Memorial Park will be timely. 

One of my mother’s favourite journalists and environmental activists, Bob Hunter was a journalist in the 1960’s, co-founder of Greenpeace in 1972, commentator and reporter for Citytv since 1988, and later CP24 as well.  He created documentaries about Canada’s north and was the author of numerous environmental books.

Bob Hunter was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1988 and passed away on May 2, 2005, at the age of 63.  His family helped make his memorial park a reality.

My daughters and I are grateful we were able to contribute to such a wonderful and worthwhile cause, and in turn, honour the memory of a great Canadian hero. 

This article also appears in April May 2013 issue of Our Canada Magazine.  

Frog Watching at Rouge Park

(C) Christine McCann

My family is proud to officially be Rouge Park volunteers!  Bill and I believe it is important for our daughters to be involved in volunteering in our community in some way and we all feel Rouge Park is a very meaningful cause.  We want to be a part of keeping our precious green spaces green. 

I assumed signing up as a volunteer would mean we would help pick up litter in the park, plant some trees, post some signs, that kind of thing.  It turns out being a volunteer can entail so much more! 

Sheryl Santos, Stewardship Coordinator, asked if we would be interested in frog watching.  I was hesitant at first because my girls are only five and seven, but after discussing it with them we decided to give it a try.  My eldest daughter is also learning about amphibians in school, so the conversation was quite timely.

We went to our first workshop Wednesday evening at the Toronto Zoo’s Operations Complex.  The volunteers were placed in groups of about six to eight people.  Our group’s leader is a friendly, knowledgeable man who all of us warmed to right away. 

During the meeting we watched a detailed and entertaining slide show discussing the frogs we will hopefully encounter while frog watching, including their appearance and their specific calls.  I was surprised to find out there are over ten species of frogs and toads in Ontario and that each of their calls are quite distinct.

We were each given an information package which included a CD titled Ontario Frog and Toad Calls. This CD is surprisingly addictive!  It is narrated by four young girls and they discuss the different frog calls and then present each call.  We have been listening to the CD in the car since our drive back from the meeting and we are getting pretty good at recognizing the individual calls.  The Spring Peeper is our favourite! 

Our first attempt at frog watching will be in May and we are pretty excited about it.  We will meet at dusk and visit each of our three designated sites once the sun has completely set.  We only record the calls for a period of three minutes, much shorter than I would have thought, but apparently enough time to get a good sampling of the frogs in the area.  We are to record air temperature, cloud cover, precipitation, wind scale and background noise on the Frogwatch Observation Form provided at the workshop . 

We can also frog watch on our own by entering the data on the Frog Watch Ontario website.  So while we may not be able to make all the Frog Watching evenings scheduled, this is another fun activity our family can participate in during our much-loved nature walks.