Walking Around Toronto. Leslie Spit. August 1, 2009

The now defunct Toronto Harbour Commission (THC) began construction of the peninsula in the late 1950s. Its originally foreseen purpose was to provide a breakwater for Toronto's Outer Harbour, which itself was expected to be necessary to handle the increase in shipping on the Great Lakes after the Saint Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959. However, owing to the containerization revolution of the 1960s, the need for an outer harbour never arose, and all cargo ships calling at Toronto still use the Inner Harbour, while the Outer Harbour sees only pleasure boat traffic.

The need for the headland, however, did not disappear. In the 1960s and 1970s, development in Toronto proceeded rapidly, and the Leslie Street Spit was a convenient place to dump the endless supply of rubble and earth generated by all the building projects in the city. Originally a long, slender finger of bare land stretching out into the lake, the headland eventually developed several lobes enclosing small bays, and was eventually colonized by a variety of plant life. [1] Cottonwood and poplar forests now cover much of the headland, and it has become a fine example of the development of pioneer plant communities and ecological succession. About 400 species of plants have been identified on the Leslie Street Spit.

The inner part of the spit consists of three embayments. These were designed to hold dredged material from the Inner Harbour and the Keating Channel. The first embayment has now been filled. It has been capped with clean fill and is being restored by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority as a marsh. The remaining two embayments have about 50 years' capacity remaining.

The Leslie Street Spit's evolution into an urban wilderness was never in the city's plans. Indeed, the spit's status as such was secured by a number of organizations, with the citizens' advocacy group known as Friends of the Spit at the forefront of advocacy to retain the spit in as natural a state as possible.
(wikipedia)

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Toronto
• Ontario
• Leslie street spit
• leslie street
• leslie spit
• lake ontario
• plants
• birds
• Conservation

[EasyLivingProduction]

Great soundtracks, may I ask what it is called?

[videofilmik]

@EasyLivingProduction It's called "La Morte Accarezza a Mezzanotte" by Ed Ariete - (to the best of my knowledge - anyway)

[redneckshowtunes]

Nice video, blah background muzak.

[jethrowjj]

did ever see any reptiles there?

[37warnock]

Nice! You make Tommy Thompson Park look so exotic.