Raymore Park: changes over the years – Part 1.

This year marks 30 years since I started coming to Raymore Park. During that time many changes have occurred, most of them reflecting adjustments in park philosophy and management.

1. Pesticides:

Herbicides were sprayed here – just north of the current off-leash area. October 2000.

Back in 1993, park staff would spray grassy areas with herbicide in order to keep weeds down and in particular, poison ivy. They used Roundup (Glyphosate) which is pretty potent. Caution notices were placed on the grass informing people that weedkiller had been sprayed but these didn’t last long. At that time, much more of the park was grass (more on that in another article). Despite the claims of Monsanto, Roundup when sprayed over such a wide area is probably terrible for wildlife and dogs. The City banned pesticides in theory in late 1998 but the practice continued for a while after that according to this article from 2000.

2. The Humber Footbridge.

The 1917 ‘swing’ footbridge that was condemned and replaced in 1950. Photo via Weston Historical Society.

When Hurricane Hazel struck in 1954, a four-year-old footbridge over the Humber was swept away. This link between Westmount and the stores in Weston wasn’t replaced until 1995 some 41 years later. The bridge gets a substantial amount of use from cyclists, sightseers and commuters who can be whisked to the airport or downtown in about 15 minutes via the UP Express on Weston Road.

Read this excellent article on the three Weston footbridges from the Weston Historical Society.

The bridge with an abutment of the 1950 version in the foreground; looking upstream in March 2009.

3. Garbage Containers.

Garbage containers were either lined wire-mesh bins or the occasional re-purposed oil drum back in the 20th Century. There were no recycling containers back then – just open-topped receptacles that went uncollected during the winter. The cans and baskets weren’t replaced with the current wheeled carts until 2012.

Even with our clearly marked carts, park users are fairly indiscriminate where they toss their waste, so the recycling bins become contaminated and their contents worthless. As a result, garbage and recycling are collected by the same truck and the contents lumped in altogether.

From February 2004.

Today in Raymore Park – April 13, 2023.

A group of TRCA employees and volunteers was on a litter cleanup this morning and they gathered quite a haul of trash in perfect weather with temperatures in the 20’s.

All in a morning’s work.

I shouldn’t be surprised at the volume of trash and litter the park receives on a regular basis but this is a fairly typical haul for springtime and more was being gathered while I was there.

Raymore Park clean-up this Sunday.

On Sunday April 24, there will be a park clean-up organized by Brian MacLean who is also leading a campaign to set up a permanent memorial to the Hurricane Hazel victims, many of whom perished in a community now occupied by Raymore Park.

Please meet by the pedestrian bridge across the Humber between Raymore and Lions parks at 10:00 a.m. Note – the Raymore parking lot is closed to traffic. There is street parking on Tilden Crescent or the Lions Park lot is open – it’s a short walk from there to the footbridge that crosses into Raymore.

Area Map – from Google. Click to enlarge.

For more information contact Brian MacLean at EtobicokeCommunityFutures@gmail.com

Raymore Park Cleanup this Sunday

Toronto Bell Cote Church at 691 Scarlett Road.

Another clean-up is being organized for Raymore Park – this time it’s by the Toronto Bell Cote Heritage Preservation people. They have the beautifully restored church at Kingdom and Scarlett Road.

The event will begin at 1:00 pm on Sunday, June 30th at which time light refreshments will be served. At 1:30 pm, the clean-up will begin, focussing on the riverbanks. Their route map will take them down to Eglinton which seems ambitious. Garbage bags will be provided but participants are asked to bring comfortable shoes and gloves.

• Meeting Place: 691 Scarlett Road
• Date: Sunday June 30.
• Time: 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm.

Clean up day removes trash

I lent a hand to the clean-up of our adjacent green space to the north; Lions Park. I met with Weston Clean Team organizer Ryan Emerson Demchuk along with fellow volunteers Joanne and Bob and we moved along the Humber picking up trash as we went. No pictures to show today but lots of litter was removed. The good news is that much of the trash (that I picked up) was quite old; some pop cans had been there for a long time. The predominant trash seems to be water bottles (the triumph of marketing over need), coffee lids, straws, plastic bags and of course pop cans. Some interesting litter included dozens of dog poop bags at the entrance to the Hickory Tree apartments. Some resident (with a small dog) takes the trouble to gather up their dog’s poop but slings the bag into the bush before leaving the park. Aren’t people wonderful?

I left early but my fellow pickers were hard at it when I left.

To learn more about this Facebook group click here.

One last thing; a large twin-hulled canoe with about six people on board sailed majestically past as we worked the banks of the Humber. It was nice to see some rare boat traffic on the river.

Another clean up day

Last Saturday, several bags of litter were picked, mainly from along the entrance to Raymore Park and we had so much fun we decided to do it again. This Saturday, we focussed on the river’s edge near the footbridge and after that, the bush that runs along the backs of the houses on Tilden. Once more we removed a veritable trove of plastic containers, paint cans, and even found a gun stock stashed in a metal pipe along with some empty clips (which has been reported to the police).

Part of the haul of garbage and recyclables that my neighbour José (L) and I collected today.

The more we do, the more we find that it’s a big job that can’t be done in just one or two sessions.

We’re making this a regular event for a few weeks – If anyone would like to join us, meet at the Raymore Park gates at 11:00 am next Saturday, rain or shine. All welcome. You never know what we might find.

Update: a police office came quickly and examined the gun stock. It turned out to be quite old and likely  tossed out by a hobbyist. He seemed happy to be out of the office on such a nice day!

Park clean-up

Friends of Raymore Park will be holding a 1-2 hour clean-up on the first Saturday of each month at 11:00 am. We have contacted Councillor Holyday’s office to ask for bags and locations to stash the collected garbage. Our first clean-up day will be on Saturday, April 6. Meet at the park gates on Raymore Drive for supplies such as gloves and collecting bags. Our main focus will be the Raymore Park area and possibly along the pathway between the footbridge and the stairs leading to Hickory Tree Road.

Come and meet your neighbours and get some exercise while keeping our park clean – it promises to be a beautiful day.

Date: Saturday April 6, 11:00 am.
Place: Raymore Park gates at Raymore Drive.

I give up

Call me old-fashioned but I think if I had responsibility for a park or two, I might visit them once in a while.

Garbage issues continue to plague Lions Park and the reason is because there is no follow-up by anyone in charge. Phoning 311 gets someone to do something immediately but after that nobody follows through to see if the problem remains solved.

The City manages TRCA parks in Toronto. Management and garbage collection are performed by separate departments and nobody seems to talk to each other.

The problem remains with garbage bin placements. Because there is a soccer field, players practise using the bins as movable goalposts. Each time the problem is reported, a fix is made but it never lasts. Currently there are over a dozen bins scattered around the field but empty spots where they should be.

Bins galore! I count 9 on the field and 2 off.

 

WTF?

I have reminded the folks at the City that bins need to be chained to a well-secured post if they are to be useful in Lions Park. Here’s the latest response for bins at the bottom of the new steps:

Where’s the recycling bin? Post in ground – check. Padlock and cable – check.

Loop cable and attach with padlock – fail.

The padlock is still locked because the people who empty the bins probably can’t be bothered to use a key and so they re-secure the bins with the quick release rather than the padlock.

I won’t bother phoning 311 – it’s a waste of time.

 

Double Trouble.

Plastic is a danger to wildlife in our parks.

Raymore Park attracts many people, drawn by its natural setting. It also has its fair share of visitors whose presence is a net detriment. The one responsible for this empty bag qualifies as doubly ignorant. First they bring their Dempsters 100% whole wheat bread scraps filled with some unwholesome ingredients*, attracting gulls and Canada geese while  training birds in general to approach humans. That’s not good enough apparently so they complete their (literal) douchebaggery by leaving the empty bag on the ground. The whole point of their visit seems to be the self-gratification obtained by watching wildlife jostle and beg for scraps.

*Ingredients of Dempsters 100% Whole Wheat Bread:

Whole grain whole wheat flour including the germ, water, glucose-fructose / sugar, yeast, vegetable oil (canola or soybean), wheat gluten, salt, vinegar, acetylated tartaric acid esters of mono and diglycerides, calcium propionate, sodium stearoyl-2-lactylate, sorbic acid, monoglycerides.

There is no shortage of material on the harmful effects of feeding bread to birds. Unfortunately the damage done isn’t evident at the time or else people might think twice.

Strange behaviour…

As a regular in Raymore Park, people watching is part of the daily experience. Patterns of behaviour are often identifiable and the brain automatically assigns a category to people – for example dog walker, jogger, person in transit etc. This morning, I encountered a young woman walking in a way that defied easy categorization. She was coming from Scarlettwood Court and instead of joining the path, marched towards the river. I watched as she stepped down to the water’s edge and walked along the bank to the peninsula, her pace making it clear that she was not a sightseer. Once on the far bank, she retrieved a plastic bag from a holdall, quickly dropped the contents into the water and returned. In the meantime I moved closer and stood by her exit from the river. I looked at her questioningly and she retorted, ‘What?’.

‘What did you put in the river?’, I asked. She seemed embarrassed.

‘It’s wax’.

‘Why would you put wax in the river, why not throw it in a garbage bin?’

‘It’s private – something I had to do.’

She began to walk off.

‘Why poison the wildlife?’

‘I’m sorry’, she threw the remark over her shoulder and strode off, not looking back.

I walked down to the water and sure enough, the wax was floating exactly where it was dropped thanks to an onshore wind.

The wax, where it was dumped.

A better look at the wax.

Having no shame, I lay on the bank and fished it out of the water – a substantial lump, possibly from a large candle or wax figure – and dumped it in the garbage.

Sorry, dumping waste in a public park is not a private act.

I’ll probably never know the story behind the wax; whether or not it was some kind of occult leftover that had to be sent to the ocean – one can speculate endlessly. I am sure that if karma, voodoo, Air Miles or any kind of points were being awarded today, this young woman scored a big fat zero.