A Tour of Tommy Thompson Park in Summer

Tommy Thompson Parks is one of Toronto’s best kept secrets and one of the best parks you can visit in this city. It is an Environmentally Sensitive Area and a haven for over 300 species of birds that come to nest and live here. Apart from that much of the park consists of meadows, woodland and marsh areas. It protrudes more than five kilometers in to Lake Ontario like a slender finger jutting out.  It offers excellent bird viewing as well as stunning views of the Toronto skyline and of course vistas of the azure water of Lake Ontario. Tommy Thompson Park has excellent hiking trails and cyclists love to come here to enjoy the natural beauty. It also offers excellent fishing. All of this nature right here near the heart of downtown Toronto is surprising not to say the least!

Tommy Thompson Park was never intended to be used as a park let alone a nature reserve. Initially it was created as an artificial breakwater to protect Toronto harbor by Toronto Harbour Commission in the 1950s. It was part of a plan to expand Toronto harbours capacity after the Saint Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959 to handle increased volume of traffic to Toronto Port and protect the downtown shoreline from erosion. Container shipping that started in the early sixties shifted cargo traffic to ports on the Atlantic coast and traffic to Toronto port fell by nearly fifty percent reducing the need for an outer harbour.

Even though the original purpose of the artificially created land was eliminated the site of the future Tommy Thompson park continued to receive construction waste from the building of Toronto’s subway system, office towers and other large projects. In the 1970s dredging aggregate from the nearby Keating Channel was also dumped on the emerging split. To this day dredging silt continues to be dumped here by the Ports Toronto. Gradually this process has created marshes lagoons and smaller lakes within the area. Over years the narrow finger that extended into the lake grew. Slowly nature took over the site first different varieties of plants and trees began to colonize the area and then more wildlife came to live here and of course birds selected this area on their migration path to nest and rest. Different varieties of fish came to live in the protected waters and a diverse ecosystem slowly came to be shaped.

In the mid 1970s the Ontario Provincial Government gave the Toronto Region and Conservation Authority the mandate to develop parks, beaches and recreation areas along the waterfront all the way from Ajax to Mississauga under the Metro Waterfront Plan. Proposed uses for the area were an Aqua Park with included marinas for 1500 boats an amphitheatre water ski area along with fishing, facilities, picnic spots and bicycling lanes. At the time only about 250 acres of the are that was to become Tommy Thompson Park was naturalized. This plan was criticized by a number of groups and in the controversy and the costs of funding such a project the government did not proceed with the project.

In 1984 after lobbying by sailing enthusiasts and naturalists the TRCA acknowledged that the 1976 plan for the park was no longer appropriate. In 1985 the TRCA announced that the northern side of the park would be designated as an Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) and that future plans would include both recreational and naturalists’ groups proposals and Tommy Thompson Park came into being. Overtime naturalization continued and more diverse species came colonize and call the park their home.

What makes this park special is that despite its geographic distance from the built-up areas of downtown Toronto the park houses so many species of birds and fish making it one of the most interesting features of Toronto. Enjoy some of the photos below and don’t forget to view the linked video above.

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