TNS Leaside Park Stewardship Schedule
TNS Leaside Park now has a Facebook Page. We will use that page to announce events and update people if stewardship sessions have to be cancelled (for bad weather or other reasons). TNS Leaside Park Facebook Page.
We have received approval to plant native plants on our site for the 224 season. In fact, the City of Toronto has approved all 17 planting sites that applied for the 2024 season!
TNS Leaside Park has also been approved for an extension to the east, adding a beautiful level area of old forest and almost doubling the site’s size!
Images of the TNS Leaside Park Extension, 2025
TNS Leaside Park is back in action for 2024, starting with a clean-up session at 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 21st. This is a joint project with TNO, The Neighbourhood Organization, and is part of “Clean Toronto Together.”
If you are looking for some fresh air, exercise, and a chance to meet some of your neighbours doing good work, please join TNS and TYNO in cleaning up Leaside Park at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 21st. Gloves and garbage bags will be provided; just show up and find us near the playground! The event will take place rain or shine. It will only be cancelled if the weather is dangerous (e.g., thunderstorms).
We will then resume weekly Tuesday evening stewardship sessions, from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm, starting on Tuesday, April 30th.
Email johnpoyston@gmail.com to be added to our mailing list to keep updated.
STEWARDSHIP SESSIONS:
Starting 5:30 pm on Tuesday April 30th
These dates may be cancelled if there is a forecast of heavy rain, thunderstorms, or a heat alert warning. I will send out an email before 2 p.m. on the stewardship days, and I will also post any changes here.
What will we be doing?
This will depend, as always, on the weather and on what invasive species are most urgently needing to be controlled.
In spring, we removed a lot of burdock, but the smaller plants we left behind now need removing.
We have pruned back a lot of buckthorn, but there is still quite a bit left, which needs removing.
We must persist with removing dog-strangling vines, particularly in preventing them from releasing seeds.
In the fall, we may be able to collect seeds that we could grow over winter. Hopefully, we will be allowed to plant in the spring of 2024.
TNS Leaside Park has received a grant from the Invasive Species Action Fund. This has enabled us to buy a cart, several “Extractigators,” gloves, trowels, pruners and other equipment.
From April to August of 2023, TNS Leaside Park volunteers have removed 21.5 bags of garbage and 55 bags of invasive species (mostly buckthorn and DSV, but also burdock, wood avens, garlic mustard and creeping bellflower) from the site.
The total hours worked on site is 158.5.
It would be great if some volunteers were interested in taking the Lead Steward training course over the winter. This is an excellent program that is partly online and partly in person. It is very practical, teaching everything you need to know about managing a stewardship site. It is interesting, engaging and not very time-consuming.
If we were able to recruit more volunteers, we could look at asking for permission to extend our site further to the east.
For more information:
TNS Leaside Park Facebook Page.
TNS website: https://torontonaturestewards.org/
TNS Leaside Park Instagram Page: https://www.instagram.com/tnsleasidepark/
What grows at Leaside Park? Find out on our iNaturalist Project page at https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/tns-leaside-park. Feel free to add your own observations using the iNaturalist smartphone app!
E-mail: JohnPOyston@gmail.com
Thank you for your interest in helping TNS to restore the natural beauty of Leaside Park!
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