Discovering Canada's First Urban National Park

Christine Joannou
Rouge Park is over 40 square kilometers, protecting a variety of ecosystems joining the post-glacial Oak Ridges Moraine and the City's biggest wetland, where the Rouge River empties into Lake Ontario.

The park also encompasses two National Historic Sites, the Toronto Carrying Place and Bead Hill. The Rouge River branch of the Toronto Carrying Place Trail was a portage route along the Rouge River to the Holland River (linking Lake Ontario  to Lake Simcoe), originally created by First Nations and later used by early European fur traders, explorers and settlers. Bead Hill is an archaeological site containing the remains of a 17th Century Seneca village. It was designated a Historical Site in 1991 and is not currently open to the public.

Students went on a nature hike and learned about habitat restoration, how the park is helping to save endangered species, the importance of proper trail etiquette, how humans are impacting the environment and what makes this park different from every other national park in Canada. Restoration projects in Rouge Park range from tree and shrub planting, to scientific research, to stream bank rehabilitation and wetland creation.

Students were also able to ask questions and talk to the staff to work on their Rouge Park Field Trip assignment. They are currently in the process of creating curriculum-based field trips, which the park will use in their Grades 1 to 9 educational programming for years to come.
More information on the park can be found here: http://www.rougepark.com/
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Greenwood College School

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We acknowledge with gratitude the Ancestral lands upon which our main campus is situated. These lands are the Ancestral territories of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, Anishinabek and the Wendake. The shared responsibility of this land is honoured in the Dish with One Spoon Treaty and we strive to care for the land, the waters, and all creatures in the spirit of peace. We are responsible for respecting and supporting the enduring presence of all First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples. When away from this campus we vow to be respectful to the land by protecting and honouring it. We will create relationships with the people and the land we may visit by understanding the territories we enter and the nations who inhabit them.
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