Welcome to the Volunteer Stewardship Program (VSP)!  Our goal since we began in 1996 is to assist the City of Toronto Restoration Crew in returning the natural areas of High Park (54 hectares or 135 acres) to pre-settlement conditions and to encourage the use of native plants in Toronto and beyond.

Before European settlers arrived, the local environment consisted of large areas of Oak Savannah and its related wildlife. The VSP works with the City of Toronto to increase this now rare and unique ecosystem. Our document, History of High Park Geology and Vegetation, is available for download (below).

Rare Plants of the Endangered High Park Black Oak Savannah, A Volunteer Stewardship Program Guidebook ­ a plant and habitat guide, history of High Park, account of volunteering experiences and catalog of stewardship resources all in one entertaining pocket-sized book.
 
For more information on the guidebook, including places to buy it, please click here.

Locally, you can purchase the guidebook at these locations:

To order directly from High Park, please do BOTH of the following steps:

1. Email stewards@highparknature.org - give your full name, mailing address and the number of books you wish to order.  This email contact change was listed at the request of the VSP. 

2. Send your cheque ($15.00 plus $3.00 shipping = $18.00 per book), payable to High Park Initiatives, to:
    High Park Initiatives, 95 Lavinia Avenue, P.O. Box 108, Toronto, ON, M6S 3H9

Produced with the financial support of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources Species at Risk Stewardship Fund.

All proceeds support stewardship and educational projects in High Park.

VSP Activities

Our activities range from planting, weeding and watering to our semi-annual native plant sales, social activities, presentations and field trips.  Our calendar is updated in January and in June with events for the upcoming six months. 

VSP meets at 10:30 a.m. on the second and fourth Sundays of each month, year round except December, and for extra sessions during the spring and summer as needed. For work sessions we gather in front of the Grenadier Café and Teahouse in the middle of the park. Our educational presentations (mostly in winter) are at the Howard Park Tennis Club, 430 Parkside Drive (south of Bloor from Keele

We don’t keep attendance, and you can leave an event at any time.  We’re happy to see new faces, as well as familiar faces that have been away for awhile. Not all of our volunteers are schooled in ecology or gardening but everyone shares a love of the outdoors, learning more about their environment and taking an active role in helping it to thrive

Planting and Monitoring

VSP volunteers care for about 3,000 native wildflowers, shrubs and grasses plants a year and spend approximately 1,500 to 2,000 person-hours working in the park.  VSP activities also include weeding and cutting down invasive and non-native plants, collecting seeds in the fall, cleaning and planting those seeds in the greenhouses and transplanting seedlings in the winter months. Over the years we monitor and document the results of our progress and share these reports and photographs with those who can benefit from our experience.

Adopt-a-Plot Program

The Adopt-a-plot Program was launched in 1999 to further extend the restoration work of the VSP.  This program allows individuals or groups of volunteers to adopt and maintain a designated area and plant or seed them with native plants to help restore the site.  There are currently thirteen adopt-a-plots on the Tablelands between the baseball diamonds and the Grenadier Café and Teahouse.  This program has dramatically increased the diversity of native plants since the inception of the program.  Some of the plants that have been re-established are Wild Lupines, Indian Grass, Big and Little Bluestem and Butterfly Weed (HP Woodlands & Savannah Management Plan Feb. 2002).

Boulevard Beds

 In 2000, VSP took over the Boulevard Beds, which are located around the perimeter of the parking lot east of the Grenadier Café and Teahouse.  Initially, the beds were bare earth, now they are a flourishing example of the Oak Savannah ecosystem that exists throughout less publicly-accessed areas of the park. Throughout the growing season a multitude of colour can be seen - in the spring serviceberry trees bloom white and smooth roses pink, in the summer there is blue hairy beardtongue and orange butterfly weed and in the fall there are yellow goldenrods and purple and white asters.

Native Plant Sales

The borders of High Park and the Oak Savannah are expanded when area residents grow native plants in their own yards.  The VSP holds a native plant sale in the spring with plants originating in High Park. Some of the many advantages to growing native plants are that they:

·        Are well suited to their natural habitat

·        Require less maintenance than ornamental cultivars

·        Have longer blooming periods

·        Do not require organic matter or fertilizers

·        Tend to withstand insect and disease attacks

·        Attract more wildlife than ornamentals

·        Are drought tolerant once established

The list of plants that will be available at the next plant sale is available on our website within two weeks of the sale.

Downloads

Contact

For more information, please contact VSP at any of the following:

E-mail:  stewards@highparknature.org
This email contact change was listed at the request of the VSP. 

Phone:  416-392-1749 for an audio event listing and to leave a message for our volunteer coordinator

For non-urgent information you can send mail to:

Volunteer Stewardship Program

c/o High Park Community Advisory Council

P.O. Box 108, Swansea Town Hall

95 Lavinia Avenue

Toronto, Ontario

M6S 3H9

Useful Links

Events