We pass over and around Toronto’s river valleys every day without thinking of the treasures they hold. But the lush green ribbons that wind through our city contain a world rich in history and natural beauty. In a new book, Toronto’s Ravines and Urban Forests, author Jason Ramsay-Brown explores the vast ravine system and produces loving portraits of his favourite spots, each one an ecosystem unto itself.

Ancient valley

Ramsay-Brown calls Gates Gully in Scarborough a “flagship ravine” because it brings together the rich human history and natural ecology of the ravine system. First Nations artifacts dating to 8,000 BCE have been discovered here, and defeated British soldiers are rumoured to have buried treasure in the forest in 1813. Today, the gully still provides habitat for deer, coyotes and salamanders, and is an important stop for migrating birds. “Toronto was wilderness up until the 17th, 18th century,” Ramsay-Brown says. Visiting Gates Gully, “you really get a sense for what it must have been like for people back then.”

Back from the brink

Todmorden Mills in the Don Valley has served many uses over the years, including playing host to flour and paper plants, a World Ward II prisoner-of-war camp, and a dumping ground for the nearby brickworks. After decades of abuse, “it was within millimetres of disappearing forever,” Ramsay-Brown says. But thanks to preservation efforts that began in the 1990s, it has been reclaimed as a sanctuary for wildflowers and wildlife, including turtles and great blue herons. According to Ramsay-Brown, “It’s probably the most beautiful 15-minute walk you can take in the city.”

Recreation vs. preservation

The 60-hectacre Glendon Forest, near Bayview and Lawrence, is the “poster child” for how overuse can cause environmental degradation, says Ramsay-Brown. The forest is home to 37 species of rare flora, but despite signs asking visitors (and their dogs) to stay on the trails, erosion, soil compaction and habitat destruction have become critical problems. Conservationists have erected iron gates to protect sensitive areas, but Ramsay-Brown says the barriers have been dismantled with crowbars. “Unfortunately, it’s one of those places that is literally being loved to death,” he says.

Green survivor

During his 1919-1920 stay in Toronto, Ernest Hemingway used to take walks through Cedarvale Ravine, near Bathurst and Eglinton. That it’s still here nearly 100 years later is a miracle. The Spadina Expressway would have cut through it had the highway not been halted in 1971, and while subway tunneling later that decade disrupted the ravine’s topography, an ecosystem of wetlands and maple forest survives. That’s remarkable for a space so deep inside the city, says Ramsay-Brown. “You don’t necessarily think a place with that abundance of life is right there under your feet when you’re walking up Bathurst.”

Life finds a way

A unique, self-contained ecosystem, Tommy Thompson Park covers much of the Leslie Street Spit, the artificial landform created in the 1950s out of discarded construction materials. “It was almost immediate that nature started to invade,” says Ramsay-Brown, who describes the park as a testament to “the colonizing force of nature.” Lagoons and meadows have formed amid the rubble, providing habitat for beavers, opossum and muskrats, and more than 300 bird species have been identified on the spit. That’s a more diverse avian population than has been found in Algonquin Park.