I must begin by offering my sincere thanks to many people who form the TNS Leaside Park stewardship team

Firstly, I thank Liz, our new lead steward. She has provided fresh ideas, excellent leadership, and, most importantly, has allowed Catharine and I to go off on our hiking holidays confident that Leaside Park was in good hands

Then I must thank Catharine, my first co-lead. She has been a great help in discussing the future of TNS Leaside Park, and in practical projects such as collecting plants from Claremont and UFORA. She also kindly loaned us a hose for watering.

Also, thanks to Ishrat from The Neighbourhood Organization for help in arranging the spring clean-up, and for allowing us access to a water supply, without which our plantings would not have survived the drought.

And, most importantly, I thank each and every one of the people who have volunteered to do ecological restoration work at TNS Leaside Park, whether they came for one session or came most weeks.

I also want to congratulate Nicole, one of our regular volunteers, for her appointment as Community Engagement Coordinator for TNS. Now we have our own mole within the TNS administration!

Activities during 2025

               We had a great kick-off with a litter clean up with TNO and the City of Toronto. We continued to pick up garbage throughout the year., for a total of 25 bags of garbage removed.

               We had a total of 20 stewardship sessions.

               We continued to remove invasive plants, clearing a large area of creeping bellflower and goutweed. In total we removed 23 bags of invasives and left the equivalent of about nine bags to rot on site and act as a mulch. For the third year in a row we prevented DSV from getting to the stage of setting seed.

               In September we found out that the City had granted us a second extension to our site increasing the size by 0.6 hectares from 0.8 Hectares to 1.4 Hectares. (3.5 acres). The new area extends our site further east to a corner in the chainlink fence. This area is predominantly a sugar maple forest with little growing underneath apart from invasive wood avens and some Virginia waterleaf.

               The TNS Leaside Park iNaturalist page has been updated to show the  new boundaries, and is available at https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/tns-leaside-park-2025 .There are 231 observations of 92 different species of plants observed in the park.

Planting

We had an excellent season for planting. In total volunteers planted 200 native plants representing 33 species. 40 came from TNS/UFORA, others from Native Plants in Claremont, Evergreen Brickworks sale, (thanks to a $500 grant Andrew got us from Rotary). I also grew many native plants from seed collected either from Leaside Park or from my own cottage near Peterborough. The dry weather was a challenge, but with regular watering sessions and the use of dead leaves as a mulch, most of our plantings survived.

Species planted:   Big Bluestem                 Andropogon gerardi Blue Cohosh                  Caulophyllum thalictroides Blue-Stemmed Goldenrod              Solidago caesia var. caesia Boneset      Eupatorium perfoliatum Bottle Gentian               Gentiana andrewsii var. andrewsii Bottle-Brush Grass       Elymus hystrix Cardinal Flower            Lobelia cardinalis Common Milkweed      Asclepias syriaca Common Thimbleweed                   Anemone virginiana Cylindric Blazing-Star   Liatris cylindracea Early Meadow Rue       Thalictrum dioicum Great Blue Lobelia        Lobelia siphilitica Grey Goldenrod            Solidago nemoralis ssp. nemoralis Hairy Beard-Tongue     Penstemon hirsutus Hoary Vervain               Verbena stricta Indian Grass                  Sorghastrum nutans Long-Fruited Thimbleweed             Anemone cylindrica Narrow-Leaved Mountain Mint    Pycnanthemum tenuifolium Ostrich Fern                  Matteuccia struthiopteris var. pensylvanica Ox-Eye        Heliopsis helianthoides Pale-Leaved Sunflower                   Helianthus strumosus Pearly Everlasting         Anaphalis margaritacea Slender Vervain            Verbena simplex Smooth Aster                Symphyotrichum laeve var. laeve Stout Goldenrod           Solidago squarrosa Switch Grass                  Panicum virgatum Upland White Goldenrod               Solidago ptarmicoides Virginia Wild Rye          Elymus virginicus var. virginicus Virgin’s Bower              Clematis virginiana White Snakeroot           Ageratina altissima var. altissima Wild Bergamot              monarda didyma Woodland Sunflower  Helianthus divaricatus Zig-Zag Goldenrod       Solidago flexicaulis

In September we had a site visit from Andrew as a representative of the Core Circle.

He wrote:

 “I was very impressed with what John and the team have accomplished, in some tough conditions.  Congratulations John and team.

John showed me several examples where areas that were previously heavily populated with invasives like DSV and Buckthorn have been cleared and replanted with natives – including Goldenrods, Asters, White Snakeroot, Woodland Sunflower and more. These plants have been watered manually by the team through the drought and are thriving.  Overall the team has removed most of the invasives in their management units which is amazing.”

What next?

For fall

Remove any remaining buckthorn or Norway Maple.

Collect seeds, spread some over bare slope.

Tidy up extension area.

Grow vines to cover bush piles in the new extension.

Oct 18^th – Tour of my cottage property and two other ecological restoration sites in Northumberland County as a TNS Fall Auto Tour.

2026 plans

               Continue to recruit volunteers to help make even more progress!

               Planting in the new extension – perhaps mainly spring ephemerals.

Improve plant inventory, perhaps with a “Bio Blitz”.

Make a presentation at the Thorncliffe library to raise awareness and recruit more volunteers.

Tours or walks of TNS Leaside Park.

Yours,

John Oyston

Lead Steward, TNS Leaside Park