Whether it’s pleasant walks with family or charming sightings of foxes and other wildlife, it seems every Toronto councillor has a personal story to share about the city’s ravines.

But one of the problems with Toronto’s ravines is that too few of the millions of others who live and work in the city find themselves regularly drawn to these quiet and meandering outdoor spaces. So they don’t have similar experiences.

Let alone the kind of elevated view of the city’s ravines as espoused by Robert Fulford in Accidental City: The Transformation of Toronto.

“The ravines are to Toronto what canals are to Venice and hills are to San Francisco,” he wrote. “They are the heart of the city’s emotional geography.”

The city’s ravine plans, which passed easily at council last week amid all those happy anecdotes, will help with some of the ravines’ most pressing problems.

There will be an additional $2.7 million annually to clean up litter and tackle the invasive species that choke off native plants and trees and threaten the ravines’ long-term biodiversity and health.

That’s all good and long overdue.

But ultimately the best way to ensure the ravines have a healthy future is to help more people enjoy and value these unique wildlife habitats and green spaces.

On a warm summer’s day people flock to the Toronto Islands and High Park, and there’s scarcely a blade of grass visible in neighbourhood parks like Trinity Bellwoods for all the people who gather to enjoy the outdoors. The ravines, meanwhile, are practically deserted.

Ravines cover 17 per cent of the city but they’re largely hidden, leaving them with both an accessibility problem and a public relations challenge.

The series of amendments that councillors made before passing the city’s implementation strategy suggests councillors see that.

Now, city staff will have to “encourage citizen volunteer engagement in both ravine clean-up and stewardship,” and explore “partnership opportunities whereby schools would adopt their local ravine as part of their curriculum to support ravine sustainability and protection.”

The city should also “permit qualified volunteers to lead volunteer groups without city supervision.”

One can almost hear the forestry experts and ecologists rolling their eyes. But the councillors’ desire to foster grassroots engagement is wise. Especially since we already know that bureaucracy, pretty much anywhere and certainly at any level of government, has a tendency to over-complicate things.

Indeed, Councillor Paula Fletcher proved that very point when she raised concerns about a volunteer group, Friends of the Don, who were told to cease and desist their efforts to remove invasive species lest they pull out the troublesome dog-strangling vine the wrong way.

“That kind of work needs to be done carefully,” Fletcher was told by city staff.

If that’s the case, the city should work with with these “citizen experts,” as Fletcher rightly called them, rather than making them feel unwelcome. Nothing hurts community support for just about anything than being told to go away and let the experts handle it.

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Ravines offer a refuge from the hustle and bustle of the city. They’re also an invaluable natural flood prevention system, which is needed more than ever as climate change brings us more extreme weather. That’s all at risk as numerous reports have warned that Toronto’s ravines are on the verge of ecological collapse.

The city has taken an important step in turning that around by increasing funding to protect and enhance the ravines. Some of that money, the city says, will go to engage community groups in those activities. And that may well be the most important component of all.

The best long-term outcome for the ravines rests with residents really valuing the treasure they provide.