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About

Founded in 1994, the Rouge Valley Naturalists is a not for profit organization that has been dedicated to protecting, preserving and restoring the natural heritage of the Rouge Valley. We work with other organizations to protect, restore, and enhance the natural heritage of the Rouge River watershed. The Rouge Valley Naturalists educate and inform residents, individuals, community groups and school groups about environmental issues relating to air, land, and water. We also educate the community of the Greater Toronto Area about environmental protection initiatives such as waste reduction, habitat protection, restoration and land use planning that will help to achieve a sustainable and healthy society for our future.

The Rouge Park

Rouge Park is a “Heritage Park” created in 1994 by the partnership of the Federal and Provincial governments, and the municipalities: City of Toronto, four towns (Markham, Pickering, Richmond Hill, Whitchurch-Stoufville, and two regions (Durham and York.) It is overseen by the Rouge Park Alliance, representing these governments, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and other Rouge Park non-governmental associations. It is the largest park ever created within an urban region in North America. The Rouge Park represents a new approach to park management for Ontario, coordinating efforts of many agencies. Valley corridors upstream to the Rouge headwaters are to be protected, with private lands in those corridors gradually added to the park or managed by agreement where possible. Restoration of damaged ecosystems is a priority, with human uses limited to those that do not harm the natural setting.

Size: 13,607 acres (5445 hectares or 51 square kilometers) This is the figure for 2003: more land is added from time to time. The Rouge is the largest wilderness park within an urban anywhere in North America.

The Rouge consists of woodlands and valleys, meadows and marshes, as well as farmland. It embraces 110 mini-ecosystems with incredible biodiversity. The Park play a role in global ecology, e.g., milkweed meadows for Monarch butterflies migrating from (Mexico).

What’s in the Park?

The river itself. Before roads and railways it was an important canoe and walking route. It was called the Keitchie Sepee by the naives and later River Nen by Lieutenant Governor Simcoe. The settlers then renames it Rouge, from the red color of clay deposits on the river bank. In the wetlands at the river mouth live various species of waterfowl, including wood ducks, swans, Canada geese, plus Least Bittern and Virginia and Virginia rail, reptiles and amphibians.

The predominant trees are sugar maple, poplars, birches, blue beach, Ironwood, Red oak, Hemlock firs, Spruces and Pines (White, Red, Austrian, Scotch), and cedars. There is a variety of shrubs and grasses. More than 760 plant species provide home for 123 nesting birds (hawks, herons, owls, woodpeckers, jays, tanagers, orioles, ovenbirds and songbirds), twenty-seven mammals (coyotes, Red foxes, Cottontail rabbits, skunks, raccoons, and about fifty White-tailed deer), sixty-two species of fish, nineteen reptiles and amphibians, and many species of butterflies. The park provides natural migration corridors and had eleven different microclimate “zones.”