Alec Ross explains how Forests Ontario and the City of Toronto launched the Tree Seed Diversity Program to protect the city's flora and fauna, at Blue Dot Living Toronto.
"There have been important changes in the ravines since I was a kid. They get far more visitors than they used to, so dirt paths are now paved over to accommodate the increased foot and bicycle traffic. But the biggest transformations in the ravines have occurred in their vegetation. Many of the ravines’ native trees and shrubs have been crowded out by invasive species such as European buckthorn and Norway maple, which is particularly nasty because it is poisonous to insects and other plants. If there are no insects, there are no birds, and if no other plants can grow nearby, the greenery on the forest floor withers away. Thus, if Norway maples and other invasives proliferate, they will ultimately take over and slowly degrade the important ecological services provided by the ravines and the diversity of the wildlife that lives there. The forests will become all but barren of the life that once teemed there.
This alarming prospect is why, in 2005, in collaboration with a nonprofit organization called Forests Ontario, the City of Toronto launched the Tree Seed Diversity Program."
Read Alec's full article on the Blue Dot Living site.
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