32 Publication

32
Landscape
Architect
Quarterly
08/ Features
The Cutest
Nuisances
12/ Public Creatures
14/ Round Table
Critters and Conflict
22/ Barcoding Life
Publication # 40026106
26/ Sodding Raccoons!
Winter 2015
Issue 32

Section .30
02
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FPO

Contents
President’s
Message
Editorial Board
Message
03/ Up Front
Information on
the Ground
Creatures:
08/ The Cutest Nuisances
Text and Compilation by Emily Waugh
12/ Public Creatures
Calm cows in the downtown core
Text by Claire Nelischer
14/ Round Table
Critters and conflict
Co-moderated by Netami Stuart, OALA, Shannon Baker, OALA,
and Ruthanne Henry, OALA
22/ Barcoding Life
Advances in eDNA
Text by Ian King and Steven Hill
26/ Sodding Raccoons!
The battle gets personal
Text by Eric Gordon, OALA
28/ Letter From...Iran
Inside/outside: Persian gardens
Text by Jill Cherry
32/ Notes
A miscellany of
news and events
42/ Artifact
Going to the dogs
TEXT by Shannon Baker, OALA
President’s Message
This past year has seen many advances in
OALA programs and services to the benefit of the
membership. Many active members have contributed
fresh perspectives and unique approaches. As we
move forward in this new year, we will continue to
realize the benefits of this participation.
The OALA’s 48th Annual General Meeting & Conference
will take place on April 1, 2016, in beautiful Niagara Falls.
The suitably themed Landscape Architecture and Tourism
is sure to inspire. The AGM Planning Task Force, led by
Sandra Neal and comprised of the Continuing Education
Committee, supported by OALA staff, is developing
an excellent program for the event. Plan to attend for
speakers, networking, the AGM, awards ceremony, and
more. We look forward to seeing you there!
The OALA is pleased to announce a new addition to
our office team. Sarah Manteuffel, the new Coordinator
for Communications & Marketing, officially started
in December, 2015. Sarah holds a Bachelor of
Environmental Design from the University of Manitoba
and has an employment background in graphic
design, media, and marketing. She has considerable
experience in the non-profit sector gained through ongoing
volunteer involvement in the arts and athletics
communities. As Coordinator for Communications &
Marketing, Sarah works closely with senior association
staff to deliver member programs and services aligned
with the strategic plan and in accordance with the
organizational chart. Welcome Sarah!
A new contract position has been created to support
Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly. Since 2008,
the association’s celebrated and award-winning print
publication has provided a voice for our profession
across the province—and beyond. The OALA Web
Content Editor will oversee the online posting of written
and visual material from the print edition and create a
social media promotions strategy. The Ontario landscape
architectural perspective will benefit from increased
exposure to a wider audience, including affiliated
professionals and the public at large.
Editorial Board Message
Humans have a complex yet close relationship with
the non-humans of the earth, from the unseen and
microscopic to the furry and huggable.
Co-moderated by Netami Stuart, Shannon Baker, and
Ruthanne Henry, the Creatures Round Table explores our
relationship with wilder animals in urban settings, with
an emphasis on understanding unintended habitats and
mixed ecologies. Also in this issue, Emily Waugh provides
an atlas of global urban wildlife; Claire Nelischer asks
us to look again at Joe Fafard’s sculpture The Pasture to
ponder its message about our own habitat; Ian King and
Steven Hill review emerging genetic-based approaches
to species identification; and, Eric Gordon echoes many of
our travails with raccoons when we are gardening in an
urban environment.
In our semi-regular column Letter From..., Jill Cherry
showcases Persian gardens in Iran and expands our
vocabulary of garden design.
The Editorial Board wishes you a wonderful winter
season and all the very best in 2016.
Todd Smith, OALA
Chair, Editorial Board
Winter 2015
Issue 32
Thank you to the many volunteers who have
generously contributed their time and expertise this
past year. I also wish to acknowledge Aina Budrevics,
OALA Administrator, for her exceptional commitment
to the OALA and continued work to the benefit of the
membership. Together, as volunteers working with
dedicated staff, you have made a positive impact on
our profession and helped to make 2015 a success!
Sarah Culp, OALA
oala President

Masthead .32 OALA OALA
.32
Editor
Lorraine Johnson
Photo Editor
Todd Smith
OALA Editorial Board
Shannon Baker
Doris Chee
Michael Cook
Eric Gordon
Ruthanne Henry
Jocelyn Hirtes
Vincent Javet
Han Liu
Graham MacInnes
Kate Nelischer
Denise Pinto
Tamar Pister
Phil Pothen
Maili Sedore
Todd Smith (chair)
Netami Stuart
Dalia Todary-Michael
Art Direction/Design
www.typotherapy.com
Advertising Inquiries
advertising@oala.ca
416.231.4181
Cover
Salamander eggs attached to
red-osier dogwood. Photograph by
Steve Hill. See page 22.
Ground: Landscape Architect
Quarterly is published four times a
year by the Ontario Association of
Landscape Architects.
Ontario Association of
Landscape Architects
3 Church Street, Suite 506
Toronto, Ontario M5E 1M2
416.231.4181
www.oala.ca
oala@oala.ca
Copyright © 2016 by the Ontario
Association of Landscape Architects
All rights reserved
ISSN: 0847-3080
Canada Post Sales Product
Agreement No. 40026106
2016 OALA
Governing Council
President
Sarah Culp
Vice President
Doris Chee
Treasurer
Jane Welsh
Secretary
Chris Hart
Past President
Joanne Moran
Councillors
David Duhan
Sarah Marsh
Sandra Neal
Associate Councillor—Senior
Katherine Peck
Associate Councillor—Junior
Maren Walker
Lay Councillor
Linda Thorne
Appointed Educator
University of Toronto
Peter North
Appointed Educator
University of Guelph
Sean Kelly
University of Toronto
Student Representative
Jordan Duke
University of Guelph
Student Representative
Chen Zixiang
OALA Staff
Registrar
Linda MacLeod
Administrator
Aina Budrevics
Coordinator
Sarah Manteuffel
About
Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly is published
by the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects
and provides an open forum for the exchange of
ideas and information related to the profession of
landscape architecture. Letters to the editor, article
proposals, and feedback are encouraged. For submission
guidelines, contact Ground at magazine@oala.ca.
Ground reserves the right to edit all submissions.
The views expressed in the magazine are those
of the writers and not necessarily the views of the
OALA and its Governing Council.
Upcoming Issues of Ground
Ground 33 (Spring)
Scale
Deadline for advertising space reservations:
February 1, 2016
Ground 34 (Summer)
Question
Deadline for editorial proposals:
March 7, 2016
Deadline for advertising space reservations:
April 18, 2016
Ground 35 (Fall)
Edges
Deadline for editorial proposals:
June 6, 2016
Deadline for advertising space reservations:
July 13, 2016
Ground 36 (Winter)
Data
Deadline for editorial proposals:
September 12, 2016
Deadline for advertising space reservations:
October 10, 2016
About the OALA
The Ontario Association of Landscape Architects works
to promote and advance the profession of landscape
architecture and maintain standards of professional practice
consistent with the public interest. The OALA promotes
public understanding of the profession and the advancement
of the practice of landscape architecture. In support
of the improvement and/or conservation of the natural,
cultural, social and built environments, the OALA undertakes
activities including promotion to governments,
professionals and developers of the standards and
benefits of landscape architecture.
Advisory Panel
Andrew B. Anderson, BLA, MSc. World Heritage
Management Landscape & Heritage Expert, Oman
Botanic Garden
John Danahy, OALA, Associate Professor,
University of Toronto
George Dark, OALA, FCSLA, ASLA, Principal,
Urban Strategies Inc., Toronto
Real Eguchi, OALA, Eguchi Associates Landscape
Architects, Toronto
Donna Hinde, OALA, Partner, The Planning
Partnership, Toronto
Ryan James, OALA, Senior Landscape Architect,
Novatech, Ottawa
Alissa North, OALA, Assistant Professor, University of
Toronto, Principal of North Design Office, Toronto
Peter North, OALA, Assistant Professor, University
of Toronto, Principal of North Design Office, Toronto
Nathan Perkins, MLA, PhD, ASLA, Associate
Professor, University of Guelph
Jim Vafiades, OALA, Senior Landscape Architect,
Stantec, London
’s environmental savings
with Cascades paper
Ground is printed on paper manufactured in Canada by
Cascades with 100% post-consumer waste using biogas
energy (methane from a landfill site) and is EcoLogo, Processed
Chlorine Free (PCF) certified, as well as FSC® certified.
Compared to products in the industry made with
100% virgin fiber, Ground: Landscape Architect
Quarterly’s savings are:
15 trees
55,306 L of water 158 days of water consumption
838 kg of waste 17 waste containers
2,178 kg CO2 14,566 km driven
25 GJ 113,860 60W light bulbs for one hour
6 kg NOX emissions of one truck during 20 days
www.cascades.com/papers

Up Front .32
03
01
Sundials
time and design
Victoria Lister Carley, OALA, a landscape
architect who often designs large country
estates, recently had an unusual request
from a client: “We have a wall, so how about
a sundial?” Carley thought the idea was
“grand,” but there was a problem: the wall
faces northwest.
02
The result is a whimsical statement, specific
to the site and to the client’s interests—and
unique in Ontario. “No one else has done
one like this in recent history,” says Carley,
clearly proud of surmounting this unusual
design challenge. “I couldn’t for the life of
me have figured it out on my own,” she
notes, but with help from experts in an
arcane art, the sundial is up and keeping
track of time’s passage.
Text by Lorraine Johnson, the Editor of Ground.
Sundials placed flat on the ground are
relatively easy to install in a way that makes
them tell time with some measure of accuracy,
but wall-mounted units, particularly those with
limited solar access, are a different story.
As Carley notes: “Why include a sundial
if it doesn’t tell time? That would be silly.”
Most of the reference books she consulted
focused on ground units, but Carley had
seen wall-mounted sundials in Britain, so
knew it was possible.
While researching the options, she came
across the experts she needed—the North
American Sundial Society. “These fellows are
amazing,” says Carley. She connected with a
sundial designer in Victoria, British Columbia—
Roger Bailey, Walking Shadow Designs—and
they worked together to produce a fixture that
was both decorative and functional.
Up Front:
Information
on the
Ground
03
First, Carley had to get exact scientific
coordinates for the location, accurate to
within 1 degree. Bailey then calculated the
positioning that would work. On site they
made a gnomon (a stylus, in effect—and
“a good Scrabble word,” notes Carley) from
a nail hammered into a piece of wood,
and used it to measure where the shadow
would fall on a particular day and time.
Using that information to confirm his original
calculations, Bailey then fine-tuned the
configuration. “The mathematics of it just
blew my mind,” says Carley.
The aesthetics, of course, were more imaginative
than scientific. The owner of the estate,
near Creemore, Ontario, is a Beatrix Potter
fan, and Carley, herself an animal lover,
drew her inspiration from this popular British
children’s author, famous for her Peter Rabbit
books and others. The design represents
bunny rabbits in the grass set within a frame
based on the doorway to Ms. Potter’s house,
Hilltop. Although cute in conception, the
design is quite stylized and the mechanics
of it were solid: “It weighs a lot and we had
to make sure the wall could support it.”
04
05
01-02/ Victoria Lister Carley, OALA, recently
designed a sundial for a large country
property near Creemore, Ontario.
IMAGES/ Victoria Lister Carley
03/ The design incorporates a Beatrix
Potter motif.
IMAGE/
Victoria Lister Carley
04/ Wood mock-up
IMAGE/
Victoria Lister Carley
05/ The wall-mounted sundial in situ
IMAGE/
Victoria Lister Carley

Up Front .32
04
08
06
Community Spaces
a peace garden
Local residents of Roncesvalles Village, in
Toronto’s west end, might wonder why
city planners seem to have overlooked
the triangular intersection of Roncesvalles
Avenue and Dundas Street West when they
carried out the 2011 Roncesvalles Avenue
streetscape improvements. Mary Tremain,
a partner at PLANT Architect, was curious
enough to make some inquiries with the
city’s planning department—inquiries that
led to the design and installation of a small
parkette at the intersection.
A red brick building built in 1911 for the
Merchants Bank of Canada sits squarely
on the triangular site and presides over the
small open space in columned, corbelled
dignity. To pedestrians, cyclists, and streetcar
passengers, the position of the building in
the centre of the “Y” intersection gives the
building and the space in front of it a strong
visual prominence.
The intersection represents the threshold
between two neighbourhoods: Roncesvalles
Village to the south and High Park to the
northwest. Hence, when Tremain received
a positive response to her inquiries, she
and PLANT’s Andrea Mantin saw an
opportunity to create a gateway to
Roncesvalles Village and a community
space that connected people to the
streetscape. The result is the Dundas
Roncesvalles Peace Garden.
07
An exploration of the site’s constraints (“there
were many, many constraints,” according
to Tremain), presented challenges, primary
among them the whopping number of utilities.
Overhead TTC wires and underground
Toronto Hydro and Bell utilities meant that
all new construction needed to occur above
ground. This imposed limitations on the size
and scope of the project to design a small
garden for the site.
In Tremain and Mantin’s initial concepts, a
planted bed wrapped around the building,
but at the request of Starbucks, the former
bank building’s sole occupant, they scaled
back the soft surface and created a separate
sidewalk immediately in front of the store. The
final footprint, approximately 100m 2 , left little
room for three trees that the community had
requested during the public consultation
process. The initial budget of $80,000
increased somewhat to accommodate the
changing footprint. (According to Tremain, the
fees for small projects like this one are “not
always commensurate with the costs.”)
09
When the project is finished in the spring of
2016, a centrally located red oak tree will
stand sentinel to the Roncesvalles neighbourhood
and will punctuate the gritty,
exposed streetscape with cooling shade.
The redesigned intersection will also
feature a circular open area surrounded
by raised planting beds and high-end
curved wood seating. Salt-tolerant
grasses and perennials will block some
of the traffic and create a respite from the
heat. This circular area mimics in built
form a motif that Tremain envisioned
when exploring the concept of a threshold.
When the paving in this area is complete,
two rings of contrasting engraved pavers
will overlap, visually representing the joining
of the two neighbourhoods.
Beyond the circular open area, bands of
granite and luminescent pavers will create
more dynamic paving in the walkway in front
06/ The Dundas Roncesvalles Peace
Garden’s design is based on the idea
of a threshold.
IMAGE/ PLANT Architect Inc.
07-08/ Curved “Rough & Ready Bench Tops”
installed in the Netherlands
IMAGES/
Courtesy of CM Streetlife
09/ Schematic drawing of the Dundas
Roncesvalles Peace Garden
IMAGE/
PLANT Architect Inc.
10/ Rendering of an earlier phase in
design development
IMAGE/
PLANT Architect Inc.

Up Front .32
05
10
11/ Roncesvalles Avenue and Dundas
Street intersection during construction
IMAGE/ Corinne Meadows
12/ Seat wall under construction
IMAGE/
Corinne Meadows
13/ Some pavers were engraved by a First
Nations artist and some by local children.
IMAGE/
Corinne Meadows
14/ The curved bench, under construction,
will raise the standard of street furniture in
the neighbourhood.
IMAGE/
Corinne Meadows
12
11
13
of the Starbucks. Some of these pavers have
been engraved by school children, others
by an artist from the First Nations community.
Two straight benches, carefully sited to
take advantage of view corridors of the
neighbouring streets, Bousted Street and
Dundas Avenue, will provide seating while still
ensuring a sense of prospect and refuge.
The community has been behind the
Dundas Roncesvalles Peace Garden since
the beginning. And when local residents or
visitors pause in the garden, either to sip a
coffee while sitting on a bench or to meet
a friend under the limbs of a stately tree,
they’ll do so in a community space that has
become much more than a desolate and
overlooked intersection.
Text by Corinne Meadows, BLA, who received her
certificate in professional communication from
the University of Toronto, and recently launched
her writing business (www.thewordbistro.com).
14

Up Front .32
06
16
“We’re looking for artists to activate public
spaces,” says CAFKA Executive Director
Gordon Hatt. “We think carefully about the
degree to which proposals integrate the
concept of public space.”
Through its growth, CAFKA has become
a fixture in the local community. The
2014 exhibition drew 91 volunteers who
lent 3,500 hours of work. Local residents
are encouraged to participate as artists,
spectators, critics, and guides. “It involves
people who don’t necessarily go to art
galleries,” says Hatt. “It engages the entire
community in debates on contemporary
art and its role in our lives.”
15
Art
thriving kitchener scene
The plan is to construct a pedestal in
the middle of an open, unused building.
When two or more people link hands
and touch the pedestal, an electric field
will be created and interpreted through
lights and sound bouncing off the building
walls. It’s interactivity at its best, relying on
the willingness of strangers to touch, and
changing based on the unique quality of
personal electric fields.
This installation, by French collective
Scenocosme, is just one of the works
planned for CAFKA, the Contemporary Art
Forum Kitchener and Area. CAFKA is an
artist-run organization that presents a
biennial exhibition of contemporary
art throughout Kitchener, Waterloo,
and Cambridge.
CAFKA was founded in 2001 by a group of
Kitchener-based artists. The first project was
at the Kitchener City Hall plaza, and subsequent
years saw the exhibition expand to
other public spaces, and to privately owned,
publicly accessible spaces.
Earlier this year, the organization distributed
an open call for applications for the June,
2016, exhibition. Submissions were reviewed
by the Board of Directors, and, to date,
ten works have been selected, with more
anticipated. Each year the pieces vary widely,
including sculptural, social practice, relational,
digital, performance, and land art. Local,
national, and international artists are included.
15/ Samuel Roy Bois, The Brittle Edges of
Coherence, 2014
IMAGE/
Robert McNair
16/ Lucy Howe, Wilt II, 2011
IMAGE/
Gordon Hatt

Up Front .32
07
17
Having exhibited more than 189 projects
by 175 artists over its 14 years of operation,
CAFKA undoubtedly operates at an international
level. However, it remains committed
to its founding principles of strengthening
the local arts scene and engaging residents.
When asked about the core mission of
the organization, Hatt replies simply:
“Our ambition is to be a thriving part of
this community.”
CAFKA’s upcoming exhibition takes place
in June, 2016.
Text by Kate Nelischer, a Senior Public
Consultation Coordinator at the City of Toronto,
and a member of the Ground Editorial Board.
20
21
18
Landscape architect Michelle Purchase,
OALA, joined the CAFKA Board earlier this
year. “I haven’t had that much fun in a long
time,” she says of the submission review
process. Purchase is the first landscape
architect to sit on the Board, and she sees
great potential for the profession to be
represented within the organization and
through the exhibitions: “They’re landscape
projects as much as they are art projects.”
Since its founding, CAFKA has garnered
substantial support. The City of Kitchener
and the City of Waterloo are key funders,
Christie Digital serves as a lead corporate
sponsor, and the Ontario Arts Foundation
and other granting programs offer support.
19
17-18/ Swintak, The Gallows, 2014
IMAGES/ Robert McNair
19/ Broken City Lab, Reflect On Here, 2011
IMAGE/ JK Beford
20/ Walter van Broekhuisen, The Green
Room, 2011
IMAGE/
JK Bedford
21/ Image by photographer Jimmy Limit,
who will be exhibiting at CAFKA16.
IMAGE/
Jimmy Limit

The Cutest
Nuisances
.32
08
Text and compilation by Emily Waugh
Nuisance urban wildlife species highlight the
conflict between human interests and the
natural world. Many of these opportunistic
species are attracted to cities by plentiful
resources. Some (for example, London’s
red foxes) have migrated to cities as their
natural habitats are threatened by human
populations, some are introduced (Hong
Kong’s macaques), and, for some, the city
has gradually expanded into the animal’s
natural habitats (Mumbai’s leopards). All
have adapted to life in the city, and we have
adapted to life with them.
They are often cute and fun to watch.
In some cases, they are the beloved iconic
animals of their regions—until they start to
damage our property, threaten the safety
of our children and pets, and otherwise
inconvenience our urban lifestyles. Then,
they become nuisances and must be
controlled with extreme and/or controversial
methods, such as “contraceptive”
pigeon lofts in Paris, snipers to kill
foxes in London, and massive culls of
kangaroos in Canberra, Australia.
These so-called “nuisance” species
cause severe damage to our designed
landscapes, require expensive physical
interventions, and force us to question
what our threshold for ecological diversity
within the city is.
When does a creature become a nuisance
and what do we do about it?
Toronto, Canada
Raccoon (Procyon lotor)
Estimated Pop. 100,000-200,000
Problems Caused
These masked creatures have become
the unofficial symbol of Toronto—the
raccoon capital of the world. Despite their
cultural status as mascot and symbol, raccoons
have irked city residents with nightly
domestic disruptions: upsetting garbage
bins, nesting in attics, chewing through
screen doors, fighting, and digging up
gardens. Their roundworm larvae-laden
feces can be harmful to children and pets.
As these highly adaptable animals become
more entitled (I have had more than
one raccoon let herself into my home),
52 percent of Toronto residents surveyed
support a raccoon cull.
Extreme Measures
Control methods include: limiting access
to food waste, custom locking mechanisms
on compost bins, and live trapping by
private companies. One frustrated resident
attacked a family of raccoons with a shovel
and has since been charged with cruelty
to animals, issued a fine, and ordered to
perform 100 hours of community service.
In the midst of whispers about culls,
Toronto’s mayor, John Tory—who
jokingly equates feeding raccoons
with high treason—has launched a
war on “raccoon nation,” including the
introduction of a $31,000,000 “raccoon
resistant” compost bin program.
Ottawa, Canada
Beaver (Castor canadensis)
Estimated Pop. 2,500-5,000
Problems Caused
The beaver is the national emblem of
Canada. It is featured on our currency, on
our first stamp in 1851, and is an official
symbol of sovereignty (via Royal assent in
1975). But these semi-aquatic rodents can
be destructive. Although beaver dams are
responsible for creating and maintaining
much of Ottawa’s 500-sq-kms of biodiverse
wetlands, they also interfere with municipal
infrastructure—blocking culverts, drains,
stormwater management ponds, and even
flooding land and roads. And, of course,
cutting down city-planted trees.
Extreme Measures
City-hired trappers kill approximately 150
beavers annually. The practice is widely
protested by advocacy groups, residents,
and local farmers. There is a plan to implement
more “beaver deceivers” (engineered
pond-levellers, diversion dams, and constructed
fences around bridges and road
culverts), but many feel that the management
plan is timid and cannot handle the
growing population of urban beavers.

The Cutest
Nuisances
.32
09
London, England
Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes)
Estimated Pop. 10,000
Problems Caused
After London’s postwar suburbs crept further
into their rural surroundings, London’s newly
minted urban foxes adapted well to city
life. They share sidewalks with pedestrians,
ride escalators, and even allow themselves
to be petted. Their offences range from
minor—digging up gardens, scattering
garbage, screeching at night—to more
problematic—attacking pets and chewing
through brake lines on cars. Recently, they
have also snuck their way into a few rare,
but media-friendly situations that heighten
the illusion of their threat: one fox was found
napping on a filing cabinet in the Houses of
Parliament, another broke into the grounds
of Buckingham Palace and reportedly killed
some of the Queen’s pink flamingos. In
2010, 9-month-old twin girls were mauled in
their cribs, and a 4-month-old boy had his
finger bitten off in his home in 2013. Urban
foxes are also to blame for an increase in
mange, a skin disease that affects pet dogs.
Extreme Measures
While some feel that the media and the
fox-hunting lobby are trying to “reinvent the
fox as a pest,” others find the nuisance very
real and have hired private snipers to shoot
foxes. Other means of control include eliminating
food sources and den opportunities.
Paris, France
Pigeon (Columba livia)
Estimated Pop. 80,000
Problems Caused
Known to many in Paris as “flying rats,”
pigeons—and, more specifically, pigeon
poop—have become a major civic nuisance
in the City of Light. Pigeon feces causes
minor irritations like unsittable park
benches, but also major heritage concerns
as many of the cities’ historic limestone
buildings and monuments have been
severely damaged by the acid content
in pigeon poop.
Extreme Measures
Feeding pigeons in Paris is forbidden
by law and could cost “nourrisseurs” up
to 450. The city has also introduced
20,000 contraceptive pigeon lofts in
its parks and gardens. These 5m-high
structures encourage pigeons to nest,
but discretely shake their eggs to prevent
them from hatching.
Moscow, Russia
Wild Dogs
Estimated Pop. 30,000-35,000
Problems Caused
Moscow’s stray dog population has been
alive as long as the city itself. At a density
of about 32 per square kilometre, these
dogs are everywhere—in the streets, institutions,
apartment courtyards, and even
riding the metro (some getting on and off
at their regular stops). The stray dogs are
(mostly) beloved by most Muscovites, but
official numbers from 2008 report 20,000
attacks on humans.
Extreme Measures
In the Soviet era, stray dogs were routinely
captured and killed. Today, animal control
methods are more humane, but most of the
money the government allegedly spends
on shelter and sterilization programs
remains unaccounted for. Some joggers
carry sausage and pepper spray to ward
off attacks, while Internet-based vigilante
“dog hunters” have taken it on themselves
to “clean the city of the fanged pests” by
setting traps of poisoned meat in city parks.
This controversial method is dangerous to
the city’s pet population and a survey shows
that only 9 percent of Russians support
dog hunting.

The Cutest
Nuisances
.32
10
Chicago, USA
Eastern Cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus)
Estimated Pop. unknown
Problems Caused
These storybook fluffballs are a nuisance
to local gardeners and city planners alike
as they gnaw their way through the city’s
flowers, shrubs, and trees. A large population
(some call it an infestation) of rabbits
in Grant Park has cost the Park District tens
of thousands of dollars replacing and protecting
vegetation. Soon after the opening
of Millennium Park, rabbits caused more
than $100,000 worth of damage to the
park’s vegetation.
Extreme Measures
In major parks, bunnies are trapped and
released into nearby woods, and trees
are shielded. Cold winters knock out
about 70 percent of the population each
year, though the rabbit’s oft-referenced
reproductive rate tends to balance this
out. Diseases such as tularemia and a
population of 2,000 coyotes assist in rabbit
management, as well.
Mumbai, India
Leopard (Panthera pardus fusca)
Estimated Pop. 21-35
Problems Caused
Mumbai’s exploding human population
has pushed the city’s western suburbs into
one of the largest protected urban forests
in the world. The 250,000 Mumbaikars
who live within the boundaries of the
Sanjay Gandhi National Park (and the
more than one million people who live
around its borders) understand that
they share the territory with its original
residents—251 species of birds, 50,000
species of insects, and 40 species of
mammals. Leopards are routinely found
in slums, residential complexes, and
schools, and although these big cats can
usually co-exist with human residents, there
are increasing reports of attacks, with six
fatalities reported since 2011. A 2015 study
showed that pet dogs make up nearly 25
percent of leopards’ diets in the area.
Extreme Measures
Most measures are about learning to live
with these big cats, avoiding contact, and
remembering that mere sightings don’t
equal danger. Other recommendations
include: playing loud music from mobile
phones when walking at night, avoiding afterdark
outdoor bathroom visits, accompanying
children, especially at night, keeping garbage
under control, and kenneling barking dogs
(who attract leopards from up to 400m)
far away from homes.

The Cutest
Nuisances
.32
11
Hong Kong, China
Rhesus Macaque (Macaca mulatta) and
Long-tailed Macaque (Macaca fascicularis)
Estimated Pop. 2,000
Problems Caused
After years of being fed a diet of junk
food by humans (whom they now pursue
aggressively to get food), Hong Kong’s
macaques have become obese, lazy,
and aggressive. Even renowned primatologist
Jane Goodall was reportedly
ambushed by these little monkeys while
picnicking in a local park.
Extreme Measures
A feeding ban has been in place since
1997, which carries with it a maximum
10,000 HKD ($1,685 CND) fine for anyone
caught feeding macaques. After failure to
properly enforce the ban, the government
has turned to birth control—trapping female
monkeys to perform sterilization surgeries.
Tokyo, Japan
Jungle Crow (Corvus macrorhynchos)
Estimated Pop. 36,400
Problems Caused
Japan’s increasing waste production
combined with a 2012 law requiring clear
garbage bags has led to a huge growth in
Tokyo’s population of crows. These large
(they can be up to almost 60cm long and
have a wing span of more than 1 metre)
and intelligent birds routinely attack people,
cause electricity blackouts by nesting in
utility poles, and disrupt broadband service
by stealing fibre optic cable to build nests.
Extreme Measures
Trapping in 3- by 6-metre structures in
city parks and then gassing to death; using
yellow plastic garbage bags, which crows
cannot see through; placing wire mesh
over curbside garbage bags to keep beaks
out; deterring with falcons; and working
with crows’ eating habits by collecting restaurant
garbage at night rather than in the
morning, when crows typically venture out
to feast. The experimental Ginza Honeybee
Project repels crows using 300,000 honeybees
who are known to aggressively attack
shiny black objects.
Canberra, Australia
Eastern Grey Kangaroo (Macropus giganteus)
Estimated Pop. 30,000
Problems Caused
Kangaroos are national icons of Australia.
Though, as Sam Vincent of The Monthly
writes, “We like the kangaroo on our coat
of arms, but aren’t so pleased with it on
our roads.” With more than 5,000 annual
traffic accidents involving kangaroos, 17
percent of Canberra’s drivers report having
collided with a kangaroo at some point.
The (over) abundant population of grey
kangaroos is also blamed for threatening
small grass and woodland species, and
for degrading the kangaroo’s own grassland
habitats.
Extreme Measures
The main method for dealing with
the kangaroo population is highly controversial
“conservation culling.” In 2015, cull
contractors were licensed to kill more than
2,400 kangaroos in the Australian Capital
Territory. Though some of these contractors
report receiving death threats from local
animal rights activists, a government
survey shows that 86 percent of residents
agreed that culling was appropriate under
certain circumstances.
BIO/ Emily Waugh is the founder of Survey
Studio and is a lecturer in landscape
architecture at the Harvard University
Graduate School of Design.

Public
Creatures
.32
12
Calm cows in
the downtown
core
01
Text by Claire Nelischer
A sculpture at Toronto’s TD Centre Plaza
titled The Pasture but affectionately referred
to, simply, as “the cows,” is familiar to many
Torontonians: seven life-sized cows, cast in
bronze, lounge on an open grassy lawn at
the heart of Mies van der Rohe’s towering
TD Centre. The Pasture demonstrates how
the presence of “creatures,” whether live or
artistically interpreted, can have profound
effects on our experience and understanding
of the city around us.
Commissioned in 1985 and created by
Canadian sculptor Joe Fafard, The Pasture
was originally installed in front of what is now
the TD Waterhouse Tower at 79 Wellington
Street before moving to its current location.
For Fafard, The Pasture represented a major
turning point in his career: a shift from ceramic
to bronze as his primary medium and an
unprecedented increase in his public profile
and commercial success.
Fafard’s work is heavily influenced by the
rural environment of his youth; the cows
harken back to his childhood in the prairies
of Saskatchewan, and farm animals are a
central focus of his artwork. For The Pasture,
Fafard dotted a blank lawn with seven lifesized
bronze cows, each cleverly positioned
to conceal that all seven sculptures are, in fact,
identical castings. Seated in restful positions,
the cows bring a sense of bucolic calm to the
bustling urban plaza, and situate Toronto’s
financial district in the context both of the
region’s agricultural history and the country’s
present day rural/urban relationship.
At the time of its unveiling, The Pasture was
a resounding success. Art and architecture
critics praised the piece as a humorous,
human-scale intervention in the beautifully
proportioned, yet somewhat severe,
landscape of the TD tower complex. Viewers
marvelled at the ability of the cows to so
quickly connect with their audience, inviting
office workers out of their cubicles to enjoy
lunch on the lawn in all seasons.
Thirty years later, the cows still elicit
similarly positive responses from designers
and the public.
“I like them; I like public art that allows you to
interact with it,” says Jake Tobin Garrett of the
Toronto non-profit organization Park People.
“The cows are really interesting because if
you go and watch them for a while at lunch,
people flood into that space from the tower
and sit on the grass. It’s kind of neat to have
public art that allows people to go up and
touch and interact with it.”
As the Manager of Policy at Park People
and the writer behind the City Within a Park
Project, in which he has committed to visit
one park in each of the city’s wards over the
course of one year, Garrett has seen his fair
share of Toronto’s parks. But he still finds
something special about the TD Centre Plaza
and The Pasture.

Public
Creatures
.32
13
01-03/ Artist Joe Fafard’s The Pasture graces
TD Centre Plaza in Toronto.
IMAGES/
Maurice Nelischer
“The art becomes a social connector because
people connect over experiences they have
in common and the particularities of the
space that they like. These places stimulate
social interaction; these are the spaces where
people can slow down and get to know each
other, identify with each other, and start to
create a community.”
The cows seem to have an innate ability to
create this collective experience and memory
for visitors. Viewers are able to form an instant
connection with the cows, with the plaza, and,
ultimately, with each other.
“It’s this relaxing pasture in the middle of a
cement jungle. And it’s always nice to hang
out there and to have that be a place to spend
an hour,” says Lia Boritz, an articling student at
a law firm located in the TD Centre.
03
“It’s a super urban park—one of the most
urban parks in Toronto, by virtue of it being
surrounded by the TD Centre towers,” says
Garrett. “The public art that is there is of a
scale that you don’t find in other parts of the
city...the whole space is a piece of public art,
which is kind of unusual.”
According to Ran Chen, an urban designer
with the City of Toronto’s Planning Division,
02
the plaza and The Pasture still represent
important contributions to Toronto’s privately
owned, publicly accessible park and public
art networks.
“On Wellington Street, there are not many
other spaces that are so open. This one is very
peculiar because it’s sort of an open plan kind
of space…it is a big area covered in grass,
which you don’t usually see in the downtown,
and it is also elevated and isolated from the
street,” says Chan.
In addition to the unique openness of the
space, the art adds character to the plaza
and contributes to a sense of place, which
Chan believes is a critical component of any
successful urban park.
“When you add character to a public space by
adding public art, a specific paving treatment,
or a built form that is consistent in the
space, it all adds to an experience that will
become a memory—hopefully a good
memory—so you will go back,” says Chan.
Like many of those who work in the area,
Boritz and her colleagues enjoy lunch with the
cows almost every day during the summer.
“The general feeling is that people really like
[the plaza] and we like working right next to it,”
says Boritz. “One of my co-workers is from outside
of Toronto, and she said the cows remind
her of being home, and being in the country,
outside of Toronto, and she really likes that.”
The presence of flora and fauna in the urban
environment reminds us that the city and
nature are not so clearly delineated. While
the cows depicted in The Pasture would not
naturally graze in the middle of the downtown
core, surrounded by sky-high towers, stark
granite plazas, and shuffling pedestrian and
auto traffic, the creatures somehow seem
perfectly at home in the TD Centre Plaza.
This sense of everydayness, of calm, and of
comfort exuded by the cows helps to make
urban dwellers feel at home in their natural
habitat, too.
BIO/ Claire Nelischer lives in Toronto, where
she coordinates projects and outreach
for the Ryerson City Building Institute.

Round Table .32
14
01
02

Round Table .32
15
Our panel
discusses the
interactions
between
humans and
wildlife in
the urban
environment,
and explores
the ways in
which accidental
habitats, in
particular, can
surprise and enrich
our understanding
of nature
Co-moderated by Netami Stuart, OALA, Shannon
Baker, OALA, and Ruthanne Henry, OALA
01-02/ Daily access to nature is important for
children in order to form an emotional
attachment and connection to nature
and develop a sense of empathy for the
natural world.
IMAGES/
Mike Derblich
03/ Green bee
IMAGE/
Sheila Colla
03

Round Table .32
16
BIOS/
Shannon Baker, OALA, is the national manager
for landscape architecture and urban design at
MMM. She is also on the Editorial Board of
Ground magazine.
Heidi Campbell is the Senior Designer for Evergreen
Learning Grounds. She has a Master’s degree in
landscape architecture from the University of
Guelph and a Bachelor of Education from the
University of Toronto. She started with Evergreen
in 2001 as their School Ground Design Consultant
at the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), Evergreen’s
first partnership agreement with a board
of education. A qualified teacher with a focus on
place-based learning, she has worked in a variety
of outdoor contexts with artists, educators, and
volunteers to envision and co-create natural play
and learning environments for children and youth
in cities. She currently directs and manages the
planning and design consultancy aspect of
Evergreen’s Children’s Program.
Victoria Lister Carley, OALA, received the Carl Borgstrom
Award for Service to the Environment in 2013
and is a former member of the Editorial Board of
Ground. Specializing in city gardens and country
properties allows her ample opportunity for microinterventions
to support a diversity of species. She
has also done a great deal of volunteer citizen
science, and has been on the steering committee of
Friends of the Spit for many years.
Sheila Colla, Ph.D, is an Assistant Professor in the
Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University
and a Liber Ero Fellow. She is a conservation biologist
who has researched the ecology and threats
to native bees in Canada for more than a decade.
Recently, she co-authored The Bumble Bees of North
America: An identification guide (Princeton University
Press, 2014). Sheila is a member of the Committee on
the status of Species at Risk in Ontario (COSSARO).
Lori Cook is a planning ecologist at the Toronto
and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA).
Eric Davies is a Ph.D student at the Faculty of Forestry
at the University of Toronto, where he studies
urban forestry, in particular looking at how forest
structure affects forest function.
Jenny Foster, Ph.D, is an Associate Professor in the
Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University.
She is the coordinator of York’s Planning Program
and the Urban Ecologies program. Jenny’s research
investigates the habitat creation and cultural
politics of urban ecological systems, particularly
in post-industrial sites. Recent projects include
Land|Slide: Possible Futures, Rubble to Refuge, and
the Jane Finch Environmental Justice Project.
Ruthanne Henry, OALA, is a member of the Editorial
Board of Ground magazine, and is a landscape
architect with the city of toronto working on new
or improved park amenities and trails, with a focus
on urban forestry strategy and ravine protection.
Charles Kinsley is an independent contractor
performing ecological and botanical consulting.
He received his B.Sc. in applied mathematics
from the University of Western Ontario. After a few
years of working in computerized quality control
systems, he began specializing in botanical inventory
projects and small landscape restoration. In 1994,
he founded a nursery with partners to provide
high-quality native plant material for restoration—
Ontario Native Plants (ONP)—as well as restoration
services and landscape design, installation, and
maintenance. In 2007, he started working strictly on
consulting projects. After a three-year stint with
the City of Toronto in Urban Forestry Planning, he
now has returned to independent consulting in a
primarily regulatory field with some sub-contracting
in landscape design.
Karen McDonald manages Tommy Thompson
Park (also known as the Leslie Street Spit), Toronto’s
man-made urban wilderness. She is the Toronto
and Region Conservation Authority’s staff lead on
colonial waterbird management, including cormorants.
She is also involved with other human/wildlife
conflict issues, as well as species at risk habitat
restoration projects.
Linda McDougall, MES, OALA, CSLA, RPP, MCIP, is an
ecologist with the City of London in the Environmental
and Parks Planning section. In her free time,
Linda volunteers as the Board Chair and President
with the Thames Talbot Land Trust to protect
natural heritage in Southwestern Ontario.
Fraser Smith is the Forester for the Ganaraska
Region Conservation Authority responsible for
management of the 11,000-acre Ganaraska Forest.
Fraser is an avid sustainable forestry practitioner,
outdoorsman, and hunter who has worked
previously with the Ministry of Natural Resources
(MNR) and the Ontario Federation of Anglers and
Hunters (OFAH).
Netami Stuart, OALA, is a landscape architect
at the City of Toronto’s Parks and Recreation
department, where she facilitates the creation
of parks in Toronto.
Ruthanne Henry (RH): How do we
integrate space for other faunal species
into the built or anthropogenic environment
around us, and how do we limit our impact
on wildlife habitat? Seventy percent or more
of Ontarians live in cities. In an increasingly
urban environment, how do we meet the
challenging task of integrating spaces for
other species and sustaining biodiversity?
What are the points of tension?
Netami Stuart (NS): The question—and this
Round Table discussion—is really about living
together with animals, including insects.
RH: How do you design environments
in a way that facilitates interactions
between people and animals, so that
these interactions are not problematic?
Karen McDonald (KM): The Leslie Street
Spit was never intended to be what it is today.
We have species conflict that happens on
a regular, ongoing basis at this park.
For example, probably the biggest area
of contention involves the double-crested
cormorant colony, and that’s because they
kill the trees they nest in, which is a source
of conflict for people because we put a lot of
value on trees. Whenever we see something
that hurts a tree, we tend to think of that species
as an enemy. So whether it’s emerald
ash borer, which is an invasive pest, or a
native bird, such as the cormorant, they’re
viewed similarly. We’ve been managing this
conflict fairly well, since about 2008, and that’s
through a management strategy that involves
bringing together groups from across the
spectrum to understand the issue, to offer
their thoughts, advice, and experience with
the issue. Now we’re at the point where
we’ve got the largest double-crested colony
in the world, and we don’t get complaints
about it as much as we used to. People have
a better understanding, appreciation, and
awareness of this bird, and the Toronto and
Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) is
taking an active role in managing them
but not eliminating them.
Other conflicts in the city: Canada geese,
and how they like to occupy the same type
of habitats as we occupy, and urban coyotes.
There’s still a perception that cities aren’t a
place for coyotes to live in, but, in fact, cities
are a great place. It’s just that people tend to
think of coyotes as wild animals and there’s
no room for wild animals in the city.
Regarding Tommy Thompson Park, we’ve
been successful because we have a really
solid master plan, which dictates how the
park is developed and managed. In concert
with this, we’ve got a really great trails plan
that leaves the depth of the park as a wilderness
area for wildlife.
NS: What about rural interactions with
bigger species, such as coyotes, because
if they don’t belong in the city, then maybe
they belong in the country? I guess that living
together is a bigger deal when the animals
are bigger—the conflict is more perceptible
when we are in danger.
Victoria Lister Carley (VLC): You have both
touched on something that’s key to this: we’re
speciesist. People don’t like cormorants
because they’re ugly and their colonies are
smelly. People don’t like coyotes because
they are carnivores. People don’t like snakes,
but there’s no good reason. People don’t like
spiders, again there’s no good reason. The
speciesist aspect goes back to folklore, to
children’s stories; it isn’t based on what our
real interaction with cormorants is. If you look
at cormorants, they’re pretty handsome, but
they’re seen as threatening because they
are dark and big. Whereas people are fond
of butterflies…
Fraser Smith (FS): I think you hit the nail
on the head about speciesism. But it’s also
that we’ve lost some knowledge that we
previously had in terms of the natural world.
There’s a problem of perceiving conflict
where in fact there really isn’t any. For example,
in Canada there are, on average, 2.4 bites
or scratches to humans from coyotes per
year. Yet there are 460,000 incidents of bites
from dogs. Two hundred people per year in
Canada are hit by lightning.
A lot of the issues associated with conflicts
between humans and wildlife, especially
when it comes to coyotes, have come from
people forgetting the basic rules: not leaving
garbage out, cleaning up barbecues,
laying out trails away from critical habitat. In
order to minimize these conflicts or the perception
of them, we need to have a realistic
approach and also a realistic expectation
that if you’re going into a natural environment
then you’re going to experience a natural
environment and the species and conflicts
that come along with it.

Round Table .32
17
04
Karen McDonald (KM): People want to live
next to natural areas, but often they don’t
want to have the wildlife that’s living in those
natural areas. I had a call a couple of weeks
ago from a fellow who owns a ravine
property on the Humber River, in Toronto,
and he was complaining because a beaver
was accessing his backyard to eat his apples.
I was like, that’s wonderful, you get to see a
beaver eating your apples, that’s great! And
he was like, well no, that’s not great, the
beaver is going to cause damage, and
maybe hurt the river and dam it up. And
I said, well, you’re living on a ravine property,
on a river, of course you’re going to get
beaver there.
FS: And that’s our national animal!
Linda McDougall (LM): In the city of London,
we recently reviewed those very situations.
We looked at subdivisions built next to
environmentally significant areas and the
effectiveness of buffers, and the effectiveness
of fences, and how to reduce conflicts
with nature. We found that, in fact, fences
without gates limit encroachment. Where
we provided a buffer of ten metres, people
tended to encroach into that buffer and not
beyond it. We also provide folks with natural
areas brochures to make them more aware
of the sensitivity and the wonderful nature
they’re living next to, and how to enjoy it and
so forth. It tends to reduce the conflict somewhat
when you have that education along
with that physical barrier between nature
and the backyard garden.
05
NS: It’s an interesting question for landscape
architects, because we’re often working on
subdivisions. We’ll often be the people who
are designing the park beside the subdivision,
or collaborating with ecologists to design
waterways, etc. There are lots of regulatory
guidelines for these things. But if you had one
thing to say to somebody who was building a
new subdivision right beside a place where a
beaver might live, or a coyote or a bear, what
would you tell them about how to design
the park or design the interface in order to
reduce conflict?
Sheila Colla (SC): A good example of a
successful educational effort relates to bees
in the city. Southern Ontario has some of the
most diverse areas for bees in Canada. What
people don’t know is that all bees are not
honeybees, right? (Honeybees live in hives,
with tens of thousands of individuals, they
sting, and they make honey.) The majority
of native bees are solitary bees, they don’t
sting, and they live in the ground, not in hives.
The city of Toronto frequently gets calls from
parents who see all these bees in the sand—
sand is one of the best habitats for a large
portion of our native bees—and people are
06
04/ Cormorant nests, Tommy Thompson
Park, Toronto
IMAGE/
Toronto and Region Conservation Authority
05/ Coyote warning sign at Killaly ESA in
London, Ontario
IMAGE/
Linda McDougall
06/ Nesting birds sign, London, Ontario
IMAGE/
City of London

Round Table .32
18
landscapes. Even though coyotes are
not nearly as responsible for damage to
humans as dogs are, coyotes are much
more responsible for damage to livestock
and other things. Those are historical
memories that people bring with them,
culturally, to an urban environment.
07
FS: One thing that’s often struck me when
looking at the design and development of
subdivisions is the design and development
of the farms that were there before. There’s
a very specific reason why the house and the
barn are generally not right up against the
woodlot. There’s a reason why the back forty
is the back forty. Separations of open spaces
are a clear and effective means of design to
minimize these hostile conflicts, but if you look
at the development of quite a few subdivision
areas, you have fingers of built environment
stretching out and trying to keep as much of
that woodlot around it as possible. So you’re
sending out little areas into that wild area in
which you have coyotes, deer, black bears,
etc., which is the exact opposite of what the
going wisdom was even a generation ago.
I think that a lot can be learned from looking
to the past in this context.
Eric Davies (ED): Which mammals would
we want in the city? We’d want them all, but
if you start going down the list—wolf, bear,
coyote, cougar, skunk, porcupine—it gets
really difficult to visualize or even conceptualize
how you could have peaceful interaction with
these animals without a lot of conflict.
08
07/ The Leslie Street Spit, Toronto, 1975
IMAGE/ City of Toronto Archives
08/ The Leslie Street Spit, Toronto, 1982
IMAGE/ City of Toronto Archives
worried. In the past, the city probably would
have just called in a pesticide applicator and
gotten rid of the bees so the kids could play.
But, now, people are more educated about
bees, and they know that there’s nothing to
fear, you just need to leave them alone and
they’re going to do their own thing.
Charles Kinsley (CK): Essentially, as soon as
humans started living in settled environments
we required landscapes to provide resources,
mainly food and other things. It seems to me
that all of these conflicts really stem from a
natural competition for available resources in
Part of it is asking what species we do
want, instead of having a kind of reactive
management where you get cormorants
and no one does anything until they start
killing all the trees, and then people really
start demanding a reaction.
CK: Do you design an area to allow
space for unintended consequences?
Or do you strive as much as possible to
restrict those? Because they’re going to
happen anyway, probably.
Jenny Foster (JF): I feel that we do have to
leave space for what we don’t yet know,
because ecological relationships are always
evolving, especially in urban settings. For
example, nocturnal species are becoming
active in the daytime. We’re also seeing

Round Table .32
19
the co-mingling of species that otherwise
wouldn’t even find each other. In an urban
setting, diets change, reproductive cycles
change, in ways we don’t even understand
or know yet. So we have to allow for emergent
relationships and emerging ways of
interacting with the landscape.
NS: I am interested in the question of
expanding our toolkit for managing species
and managing habitat. For example, we
have a really limited number of things we
can do to control invasive species. Maybe we
need to broaden our understanding of what
ecosystems should and could be in the city
instead of replicating some unrealistic notion
of a pristine environment for Southern Ontario.
LM: In London, we’re battling buckthorn,
phragmites, dog-strangling vine, Japanese
knotweed, goutweed, and on and on in
our environmentally significant areas. It is
an uphill battle and we do what we can.
We spend a huge portion of our budget
every year to protect our environmentally
significant areas by having the Upper
Thames River Conservation Authority, who
are licensed pesticide applicators, battle
these species for us. If we’re going to have
resiliency to climate change, it’s crucial that
we have these invaders in check and under
control as much as possible.
One of the most threatening invasives at
the moment is probably phragmites, and the
vectors are ditches and roadways from which
they then invade our wetlands. Once they
get into a wetland it’s almost impossible
to eradicate because there is no chemical
licensed for use in water. Pesticides are
some of the only effective tools we have, at
a city-wide scale, to control these invaders
that are running rampant and degrading
our natural spaces and that make them less
enjoyable to be in. When you’re walking
through a buckthorn monoculture you’re not
enjoying nature, you’re looking at a wall of
buckthorn. There’s no life, there are no birds,
it’s not a beautiful experience.
FS: The primary driver of management
within the Ganaraska Forest, which is an
actively managed forest, has been to plan
for general health, resilience, and for a more
healthy environment, which includes critters
and wildlife, etc. In the face of climate change,
though, it goes back to some really core principles
of good forest management practices.
The threat to biodiversity is a homogeneous
landscape. When I say that I’m using a
pesticide as part of forest management,
the image that’s invoked is that I’m just
spraying and killing everything that’s alive.
So it’s important to bring people to an understanding
of what we’re trying to work towards,
and what we need to do to get there.
KM: I don’t know that eradication is a realistic
goal. I think we need to be managing
for ecological function. If a site that has an
invasive species is functioning well, we might
need to learn to love it. European buckthorn
is a good example of that. We’ve taken the
stand at TRCA that if we have buckthorn that
is impeding natural regeneration, we’ll manage
it. But if buckthorn is just part of the matrix
of the plants that are around, we’re not going
to bother because we don’t have a realistic
expectation of managing it when we know
that it’s spread by birds, and we’re not going
to get rid of all berry-eating birds…
CK: Ecology is not a snapshot of a place at a
certain time, it’s something that changes over
time, maybe hundreds of thousands of years.
It’s not something that’s generally within the
lifespan of a human being. And so we’re
restricted, in a sense, in terms of what we
deem to be good ecological function.
ED: People are increasingly striving to have
healthy landscapes. And the definition of that,
ecologically, is landscapes that are producing
functions. And one thing would be resilience
to invasiveness. If you look at our ecosystems
now, as Aldo Leopold famously said, the first
law of good land management is to not lose
any of the parts you have. We’ve lost so many
parts, and ecosystems right now are in flux
and experiencing poor performance. And we
don’t even have the metrics to measure them.
VLC: The general public does not necessarily
understand how much of an impact we have
on ecosystems. A simple example is the
destruction of so much of High Park due to
people letting their dogs off-leash in on-leash
areas. Because dogs are small mammals,
some people see it as being perfectly okay to
let them destroy the woodland.
Lori Cook (LC): The city of Toronto is very
excited about increasing public use and
capacity of the Don Valley lands. We have
dog walkers and mountain bikers who
are degrading and creating multiple trails
through sensitive interior forest areas. So we
are concerned about messaging, and again
it just comes back to education. Signage
doesn’t work, fencing doesn’t work.
Heidi Campbell (HC): I can say a little bit
about education. I’ve worked with school
boards for many years, and they are huge
land owners, so they represent a lot of landscape.
We’ve been working with them on
their green standards so there’s a little bit
more thought put into how they develop their
outdoor environments. They’re now seeing
them as outdoor learning environments for
children, and there’s a lot more emphasis
on bringing children outdoors at a very early
age. We’re finding that boards are looking at
standards for helping trees not only survive
but thrive on school grounds (children love
trees, but sometimes they can love them to
death). There are various ways of protecting
trees—from a very rigid cage to artistic
interventions that are about weaving.
Also, we’re now seeing that nature study
areas are being developed. These are nomow
areas that are left uncultivated. Signage
helps people understand that these areas
are managed. Because people are quick to
say: why aren’t you mowing, I see ragweed,
invasive species, all kinds of things growing in
the schoolyard, can you please mow that? So
there’s lots of outreach and education around
these nature study areas. If we can improve
the ecological literacy of children and help
them to have a daily connection with nature,
we’re going to see an increase in empathy
for critters that are maybe not so attractive,
such as spiders and snakes.
LC: At many of the conservation areas
managed by TRCA, our main goal is to focus
the fun. That is, focus the fun in this area, and
distract people from another area. We might
have a small boardwalk into a sensitive
area, so people can have a little peek, but
that’s the extent of the interaction we want
to encourage with a sensitive area. It all
depends on what the goal is and what the
overall management scheme is. But with our
pristine areas, basically it’s a no-go. In most
of our valley areas, we try to focus the fun,
the experience, on particular trails.

Round Table .32
20
CK: It seems to me that the main question
is: do we keep humans out of areas or
do we put them in areas? In an urban
environment, the more people you bring
in to educate them and to give them the
experience of the natural area, the more
damage you’re going to get. It’s almost
impossible to imagine otherwise.
FS: I think we should be focused on the
older idea, which is good stewardship. This
is more of an ethic of including individuals,
humans, as a fundamental component of
systems, and you are going to interact with
other species. But it’s important to interact
with those systems in a responsible and
stable manner. In the forest I manage, fifty
percent of it is a red pine plantation, with
trees in rows. We’re thinning it out slowly,
trying to bring back more hardwood. I want
people going into those areas. I want them
to interact with it, and I want them to learn
what we’re doing. I want to put up signs that
instead of trying to hide what we’re doing in
terms of management, I want to showcase
it. And integral to that is the concept of good
stewardship of the land.
JF: To go back to our discussion of invasive
species: I’ve always been uncomfortable
with the idea of an invasive species. What’s
most pertinent in terms of ecological health
and resiliency is landscape invadability. It’s
not the species, it’s the base conditions of
the landscape that we should be most
concerned about. Not necessarily keeping
certain species in and out, but asking: what
are the conditions we’re creating in the first
place that allow certain landscapes to be
invaded? Whether it’s the disturbance of soil
structure and soil ecology, or the placement
of dumpsters with french fries that attract
gulls to certain areas, those are all elements
of landscape invadability that create the
conditions for invasion. We can’t just keep
micromanaging certain species. We need
to take a far more holistic approach, which
would necessitate a conceptual shift.
Otherwise, we’re just spinning our wheels.
RH: This conceptual shift or more holistic
approach is discussed in the recent book
by Tao Orion, Beyond the War on Invasive
Species: A Permaculture Approach to
Ecosystem Restoration.
KM: I’d like to return to the idea of empathy.
If people could understand the interconnectedness
of everything, then they might
not demand that a meadow be mowed,
because they could then understand that
by removing the meadow, by mowing that
space, you are interrupting all the florafauna
associations that are there.
HC: When we design for children’s
environments, I’m always asking landscape
architects to get down to the level of a fiveyear-old
or a three-year-old, and walk the
site on hands and knees and just get that
perspective of a child. If you go into a dense
urban environment and do that, it’s frightening.
When you go into a children’s garden or an
area where there’s soft landscape and trees
and things, it’s a whole different experience.
The perspective of a worm is an interesting
way to look at things!
ED: I like this idea of empathy, and appreciating
nature not only for itself but for what
it does for us, because it really does a lot of
things. Good management and stewardship
are shifting from structure to function.
JF: May I posit a suggestion that will be
difficult for landscape architects to imagine?
Maybe you could think about what species to
plant as number three on a priority list. Rather
than thinking about what seeds you’re going
to plant there, you think more about the two
or three other things that were there before
you even think about planting. It’s easy to
get volunteers to plant in the valley—they’re
digging in the plants, and then they leave
some mulch around it, and then they leave
and you cross your fingers and hope that in
ten years there’s some trees there. Whether
or not there’s a forest or a wetland there
in ten years has less to do with how many
trees were planted and what species were
planted, and more about what the soil was
like before you planted. Or, whether you tilled
it before you planted. Or whether anybody
came back and weeded right around those
plants at a certain point. So maybe the focus
has to be less on the planting.
RH: It’s similar to the concept of not just
thinking about habitat or a specific area, but
the need for ecological function in all of our
landscapes, in our urban streetscapes, in our
parks, and all places.
VLC: Of course, we often have this vision
that the forest is what we want. Going back
to when the Friends of the Spit group started,
before the first meetings about the master
plan, we said, just let it be. We wanted to see
how it did by itself, and it’s done a remarkable
job by itself. Look at waste spaces. We
have lots of mockingbirds in Toronto. Not a
single one of them is going to hang out in a
forest. Where are they? They’re on the edges
of the railway lines. We are in fact providing
ample habitats. It’s just a matter of whether
or not they’re attracting the species we like.
Mockingbirds—they’re pretty, so that’s easy.
We may not be as keen on some other
species, but that’s our choice. We provided
them with habitat whether or not we meant
to, and that diversity of habitat is greater in
the city than it is in farmland.
LM: In terms of accidental habitat, in London
we have two former landfills. Both of them
are habitat for bobolinks and meadowlarks,
and it’s exciting, but it’s also a challenge. We
recently developed something called the
planning and design standards for trails and
ESAs, and this helped us with managing the
trails through those landfill sites. We closed
the trails through the centre of the landfill
that’s ground-nesting bird habitat, and we
permit trails around the perimeter. So we’re
managing these landfills that we really
weren’t expecting to have species at risk in,
and it turns out that that’s their favourite place.
HC: Evergreen Brick Works is an interesting
adaptive reuse example and an accidental
habitat. We weren’t able to dig down at this
site, so all the habitat that’s been added is
above ground. Everything is raised beds, etc.
And now we have a very vibrant ecology for
the red-tailed hawk.
SC: The reality is that our city is full of hundreds
and hundreds of species of animals,
and all we need to do is to get people out
there looking at them. And if that means we
have to sell them something about an ecosystem
service and what this thing is giving
to us, then fine. But I think it would be nice
to have more of a natural history tradition
where people are just out there observing
what they see, counting the different types of
things they see, trying to identify what those
things are. Once they’re out there looking,
they start appreciating them more, and they
see more value not only in their own gardens
but also in what’s happening outside of

Round Table .32
21
and moving it a little bit further along towards
an understanding of ecological function.
KM: We can’t forget that buildings, especially
in urban areas, have been really important
for species at risk. The peregrine falcon
is an excellent example of that, where no
one thought that by making tall buildings in
downtown Toronto we would be creating
habitat for an endangered species. There
is an opportunity to use buildings in the city
for additional habitat for other species at risk,
such as night hawks and barn swallows, that
are being affected by habitat loss.
09
their properties. Getting people to take pride
in biodiversity means first recognizing that
biodiversity is there. And you won’t do it by
counting mammals.
FS: Much of what we talk of as natural
habitat is indeed managed. It’s very
important to realize that, whether it’s direct
management of going in with shovels or
not, we’ve removed fire from the landscape,
we’ve controlled wildlife, we create nature in
the image of ourselves and what we want to
see. Really, the core question, both in terms
of creatures and natural environments, is not
so much whether it’s being done intentionally
or accidentally, but whether it’s being done
responsibly and sustainably. We need to ask
ourselves that question very frequently.
JF: The places that are going to be interesting
habitat in twenty years are places that we
probably don’t even notice right now—the
sort of in-between places that we tend to see
in our everyday environment but not notice as
opportunities for the future. The verges and
plots of land that appear to be abandoned
or disused are actually the rich ecological
opportunities in terms of wildlife. That’s difficult
because it’s an aesthetic shift: we have to
accept that ecologically vibrant spaces may
be ugly and unappealing. As a general
rule of thumb, the more impermeable a
site is for humans, the more ecologically
vibrant it is. Or the uglier it is, the more
ecologically interesting it is.
We’ve seen a lot of changes in what’s considered
beautiful and desirable in cities in the
last twenty years, so I’m very hopeful about
where we’re going.
CK: When my partners and I started our first
nursery, it was at the disused Downsview
airport space, and we were doing everything
in containers on top of the old tarmac. We
didn’t really expect anything, we didn’t think
about habitat, we just worked and sold
plants and that was it. Then we noticed after
a couple of years that the toads really liked
us. They liked burying themselves in things;
and there were a lot of insects coming to our
plants, so the toads had a lot to eat. Then we
had coyotes coming in; we had snakes, we
had birds coming down to get the snakes. It
was amazing how many things came to us.
And we were just on top of tarmac—nothing
fancy at all.
I think there are a lot of opportunities in an
urban environment, but the problem is that
we’ve already decided what picture we want
to see. And we can’t do that. We have to
actually study directly what the ecosystem
is like now.
ED: The idea of accidental habitats is humbling:
nature without any help can do pretty
well. But by combining expertise, hopefully
we can make non-accidental habitats even
better than the accidental ones by focusing
on ecological function.
RH: In my career as a landscape architect,
I’ve seen big shifts in aesthetics over the
last couple of decades. People have very
different expectations now, and I think our
profession can help open up the lens to
looking at the landscape at different scales
so that we do see the habitat that’s in open
spaces. That would be a really exciting way
of changing the discussion about aesthetics
LC: If we’re talking about human/animal/
nature conflicts, we should mention road
ecology. How can we reduce conflicts by
means of letting organisms carry on with
their journey? The TRCA has put out a really
interesting piece on road ecology, so look
for that on our website.
Ten years ago, TRCA was working with the
Coyote Collaring Project down at the Leslie
Street Spit, and one coyote collared at the Spit
was shot accidentally by a hunter in Honey
Harbour, Muskoka. That coyote might not
have had too many human conflicts because
he found his way up to Honey Harbour,
where he needed to be. Let’s try to pressure
the development community and cities to
think about sub-service road passages for
animals to be able to cross highways and
roads. They’re very expensive, but if there’s
public desire, maybe it’ll happen.
VLC: We should take advantage of every
opportunity for education. If I’m talking to
somebody who doesn’t necessarily think that
such and such an animal or accidental habitat
is a positive thing, I immediately describe
it as positive. If you happen to open your
barbecue and there’s a snake in there, some
people don’t take that as a positive! Okay, so
nobody likes raccoons digging up their lawn,
but it’s a positive in that they’re getting the
grubs. We can at least try to see that each of
our interactions with these animals can have
a positive aspect. And skunks are cute!
09/ Cormorant colony at the Leslie Street
Spit, Toronto
IMAGE/
Toronto and Region Conservation Authority

Barcoding Life .32
22
Advances in
eDNA
01

Barcoding Life .32
23
isolating whole organisms or their tissue
fragments from an environmental sample.
For example, eDNA analysis can provide a
list of benthic species present in a kick-net
sample taken from a stream reach or other
aquatic system. Similarly, eDNA analysis of
soil samples can be used to identify species
based on DNA that is present from plants,
invertebrates, bacteria, fungi, and other
soils organisms.
Text by Ian King and Steven Hill
Professional consultants who conduct site
inventories and generate species lists for
environmental impact assessments, natural
heritage planning, and ecological restoration
traditionally use methods that rely on trapping,
visual sightings, and auditory identification.
However, recent advances in genomic and
genetic-based approaches for species identification
are poised to create a renaissance in
ecological inventory.
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a molecule
that provides the instructions for life and is
shared by all living organisms. Similar to
morphological characteristics, DNA can be
used to identify species. Generally identifying
species using DNA relies on having reference
DNA sequences that are unique to
02
each species; once the reference DNA is
available and has been vetted for accuracy,
a DNA sample that is taken from a known
or unknown source can be compared to
the reference library to determine the species
it belongs to. This approach, termed
DNA barcoding, has been recognized by
scientists for more than two decades as
a method for identifying species. Recent
advances in the technology used for DNA
barcoding have progressed to the point that
DNA that is present in the environment (i.e.,
that is shed by organisms in soil, water, and
air) can be sequenced and compared to
reference libraries for identification. Identifying
species using this approach has been
termed environmental DNA (eDNA), as it is
not sampled directly from an organism, but
is DNA that has been shed from an organism’s
skin cells, bodily fluids, and/or feces.
From a practical standpoint, the use of eDNA
has a number of advantages that makes it
very suitable as an inventory tool for biodiversity
assessment and biomonitoring. Chief
among these is the fact that eDNA inventory
is a non-invasive method. As well, it can
be used to extend the sampling times and
improve the chance of detection for species
that typically have a short sampling window
when one is using traditions approaches
such as trapping or aural surveys.
Recognizing the potential of eDNA to help
make their work more efficient and cost-
01/ Although spotted salamander
(Ambystoma maculatum) is not often
seen, it can be common in high-quality
forested areas that also have breeding
ponds in the spring.
IMAGE/
Karl Konze
02/ Salamander eggs attached to red-osier
dogwood (Cornus sericea)
IMAGE/
Steve Hill
03/ Spring peepers (Pseudacris crucifer) are
conspicuous in early spring when their
breeding calls can be heard, but later in
the season are hard to find. Water
samples collected later in the season
allow ecologist to determine if eggs
and larvae are present using
identification of environmental DNA.
IMAGE/
Zack Harris
04/ Eastern newt (Notophthalmus
viridescens viridescens)
IMAGE/
Karl Konze
eDNA has the potential to be used to
complement and improve on the results
from traditional inventory methods used
for detection and identification of species.
eDNA introduces a new source of biodiversity
information that has a range of applications,
including but not limited to identifying cryptic
species (species that, based on morphology,
are effectively indistinguishable), hyperdiverse
groups of species (for example,
invertebrates), and microorganisms (invertebrates,
fungi, bacteria, etc.); and detecting
species after they have been present. eDNA
also eliminates the need for sorting and
03
04

Barcoding Life .32
24
05
effective, some Canadian environmental
consulting companies have started to
include eDNA methods in services they
offer to clients. For example, Dougan &
Associates, located in Guelph, has been
collaborating on an eDNA project with
researchers from the Biodiversity Institute of
Ontario (BIO) at the University of Guelph. This
project is exploring eDNA methods to monitor
Jefferson salamander, an endangered
species on Ontario’s Species at Risk list. “The
eDNA is generally in low concentrations in
the water, so it’s important to find the best
method for getting it out of the samples,”
says Rachel Smith, a former undergrad and
now lab technician at BIO who has been
experimenting with different techniques for
extracting DNA from water samples. Matrix
Solutions, a Calgary-based environmental
consultancy, has also been using eDNA
technologies developed through their
in-house lab testing to monitor northern
leopard frogs in Alberta. In addition, they
provide eDNA services to their clients for
monitoring fish, including Arctic grayling,
bull trout, and other species of concern in
Alberta waterways.
05/ Green frog (Rana clamitans) tadpoles
emerging from an egg mass
IMAGE/
Dylan White
06/ A northern leopard frog (Lithobates
pipiens) found in late season heading
back to its overwintering habitat
IMAGE/
Steve Hill
07/ A single collection of water from this
forest pond confirmed the presence of
Jefferson salamander (Ambystoma
jeffersonianum), an endangered species
in Ontario.
IMAGE/
Steve Hill
06
07

Barcoding Life .32
25
08
In addition to incorporating eDNA extraction
and sequencing as a tool for basic species
inventory, there are also many applications
for ecological restoration and monitoring.
From validating the accuracy of plant
species found in seed mixes to screening
plants and soils for pathogens, incorporating
an eDNA approach into the restoration
ecology toolbox will allow a much more
robust understanding of the biological
network of organisms that support individual
plants and plant communities; this is true for
both natural and designed landscapes.
Finally, ecological monitoring, the often
overlooked yet critical stage of the
design process, can benefit from an eDNA
approach on multiple fronts. It is a costeffective
alternative to traditional inventory
approaches; with a little bit of training,
anyone can collect environmental samples.
Therefore, ecological monitoring will not
be restricted to professional or amateur
experts. As well, when environmental
samples are taken, they’re typically
standardized, which allows data across
many samples to be consolidated and analysed
for important biological trends.
Recent advances in technology and
reductions in cost will make this approach
accessible to governments, professionals,
and the public. Start-ups such as Life
Scanner (www.lifescanner.net/) are
already providing services that allow anyone
to purchase a kit that can be used to
collect and identify species using DNA barcoding
methods. Looking to the future, we
expect to see eDNA identification methods
being incorporated into the standard set of
inventory approaches used by ecologists,
landscape architects, ecological restoration
professionals, and other land managers.
We also anticipate that when regulatory
agencies adopt inventory standards that
09
include an eDNA approach, the results
will include, but not be limited to, improved
accountability, information-rich biodiversity
data sets, and new evidence-based methods
for ecological restoration.
BIOs/ Steven Hill, Ph.D., is a director and ecologist
with Dougan & Associates.
08/ Salamander eggs attached to red-osier
dogwood (Cornus sericea)
IMAGE/
Steve Hill
09/ A traditional approach to DNA
analysis would have required removing
a small piece of tail tip from these
blue-spotted salamanders (Ambystoma
laterale), something that could be
avoided through an eDNA approach.
IMAGE/
Ian King is a researcher at the Biodiversity
Institute of Ontario.
Dylan White

Sodding
Raccoons!
.32
26
The battle gets
personal
01 02
text by Eric Gordon, OALA
It all started when we removed a massive
hedge of rose bushes in an effort to gain
space for a small lawn, a play area for our
one-year-old son. The space the bushes
left behind was just the excuse I was
looking for to renovate the backyard.
The plan involved built-in bench seating,
a sandbox, a raised planter for veggies, a
stepping-stone slab pathway, a shed, and
a bunch of new plantings. The final touch,
of course, would be a smooth green carpet
of grass—at 6 feet by 12 feet, not much, but
enough for our needs.
With visions of blissful outdoor play and the
desire to create some joyous family memories,
I started the renovation. The sod went
down quickly, and marked the end of the
season’s efforts. It was mid-September.
The view out the kitchen window the
next morning was a treat. The lawn was
looking resplendent and I was thrilled. The
following morning, however, the view was
somewhat less resplendent. The smooth
green carpet was now a hummocky mess.
Apparently I wasn’t the only one who
was excited by the new green patch. The
raccoons clearly had a great time turning
over almost every roll of sod in what I can
only assume was a group effort. Buggers!
I don’t know why I was so surprised.
Every residential client of mine who has
wanted new sod has had struggles with
these masked menaces, these nocturnal
nuisances. Why should my experience be
any different?
Filled with some misguided hope, I thought
I’d wait and see if after their first exploration,
the raccoons lost interest in exploiting the
lawn for whatever grubs or insects they
could find. No luck.
Every morning I would wake up and
survey the damage and then repair the
sod. After about a week, I decided to start
experimenting with some of the commonly
recommended raccoon deterrents.
I bought some bird netting and laid it
over top of the entire lawn, pegging it
into the soil in about 20 different places.
The raccoons may very well have been
annoyed by our netting, but that didn’t
stop them from pulling up the sod along
with the netting, spikes and all.
I had just finished working with a client
who had tried motion sprinklers, cayenne
pepper, coyote pee, and even high-pitched
noise emitters, all to no avail. Indeed,
the only success story I did hear from
my previous clients was the use of highpowered
halogen flood lamps to light
the area throughout the night.

Sodding
Raccoons!
.32
27
So, I set up two bright flood lamps and
pointed them into the yard. Suffice it to say,
the raccoons were just as happy to go
about their business in the bright lights.
During all of this, I kept the bird netting in
place with the hope that it might serve as
a deterrent in the long run, alongside one
of the other approaches. My final effort
was to set up a bit of an obstacle course
using precariously balanced timbers left
over from the renovation. I was hoping that
the raccoons would attempt to walk along
one of the balanced planks whereupon the
plank would fall, making a good noise and
spooking the raccoons away. Because it
was such a small patch of lawn, I was able
to almost entirely surround the perimeter
with an array of scrap wood.
04
This seemed to be somewhat effective.
There were regular collapses, accompanied
by fewer incidents of damage. I kept
this up until winter, when the snow fell, and
the sod was given a rest for a few months.
03
01/ Tell-tale raccoon prints in the mud
IMAGE/
Eric Gordon
02-03/ Raccoons are the bane of
urban gardeners.
IMAGES/
Eric Gordon
04/ The yard now
IMAGE/
Eric Gordon
05/ The author’s Halloween raccoon
IMAGE/
Eric Gordon
Come spring, I continued with the obstacle
course, but realized I was going to have
a problem with the netting. Because the
netting had prevented me from mowing
the sod at the end of the season, there
was a mat of tall grass that had grown up
through the mesh. I spent hours on my
hands and knees coaxing the netting out
of the grass. It was like pulling a fine comb
through dreadlocked hair. The result was
a lawn with areas of bare soil.
Beyond the aesthetic disappointment,
I was most upset with how all of the
raccoons’ digging and shifting had
resulted in an extremely bumpy lawn.
When I consider all the trouble that
went into it, I do feel a bit silly.
Recently, I was chatting with the founder of
a large pest control company who treated
me to his own raccoon story. When he
installed a new lawn at his house, he tried
all the usual deterrents (unsuccessfully),
and then he had his crew set up humane
traps. The traps worked, snatching two or
three raccoons every evening. In the morning,
his crew would return and relocate the
raccoons to the Bridal Path neighbourhood,
where they would tear into the lawns of
$20-million homes. This went on night after
05
night, until he had caught all of the
raccoons in his neighbourhood. Total
relocation count: thirteen!
Of course, there are ethical questions
raised by trapping and relocations, such
as the orphaning of young raccoons. And
at any rate, relocation is considered a
short-term fix only. New raccoons, possums,
skunks, or what have you will happily take
up the territory the raccoon once held.
Suffice it to say, raccoons are just
too crafty and too plentiful. Inevitably,
there will be conflicts within our shared
urban landscapes.
If I have one piece of advice to share
from my experience, it is that the best way
to avoid issues with raccoons is to resist
removing that massive thorny hedge of
roses that might be keeping them away
in the first place!
BIO/ Eric Gordon, OALA, is owner and designer
at Optimicity, and a member of the Ground
Editorial Board.

Letter From…
Iran
.32
28
01
text by Jill Cherry
My recent trips to Iran have been voyages of
discovery in a misunderstood country. Iran
is an exciting place in which to travel, full of
mysteries and contradictions and some of
the world’s great art and architecture. Persian
gardens lie at the heart of Iranian culture
and, for the Western visitor, can frame access
to a rich heritage. One of the pleasures for
me in leading groups of North Americans to
Iran is watching the preconceived notions
melt away. As they walk in gardens created
centuries ago for the pleasure of kings and
court, visitors experience the kindness and
innate hospitality of present-day Iranians
eager to engage in conversation and shared
photo-ops. Given the vitriolic exchanges of
politicians on both sides, it is a wondrous
thing to find that our delight in being there
is reciprocated whole-heartedly by the
everyday folk we meet.
02
Any study of Persian gardens begins with the
idea of the mythological “paradise” which,
although ancient, gained symbolic potency
after the arrival of Islam in the 7th century AD.
The “idea” of a garden as retreat from the
world, filled with fragrance and birdsong, is
woven into the poems of Hafez, Sa’di, and
Ferdawsi, medieval poets still widely read today.
But gardens are secular endeavours too,
evolved from the geometry and constraints
of agricultural production in a challenging
climate and terrain.
Iran is a desert country, hot and dry. Since
all rivers are seasonal, there are longdeveloped
strategies for managing water.
Gardens and orchards are walled so that
only the plants within are irrigated. In built-up
areas, street trees are located in jubes,
channels that direct water to their roots.
Since ancient times, a system of underground
canals, known as qanats, have

Letter From…
Iran
.32
29
transported water from its source at the base
of mountains to villages and towns, farms
and gardens. You see lines of what look like
giant molehills trailing across the landscape
that allow settlements to exist, and most of
the major historic gardens are fed by qanat
water. Given the critical need for water, on
a practical level it is inevitable that water
features are the central element of Persian
gardens, potent symbols of life; water may
be still or rippled, falling between terraces,
rising in fountains, or mirrors—reflecting light
and trees in the surfaces.
About a three-hour drive south of Tehran, in
the dusty town of Kashan, is the 16th-century
Fin Garden created by Shah Abbas I. It was
here that I realized with lightning clarity that
water in a Persian garden transcends its
practical applications, essential as they are.
Water defines this garden, flowing through
an axial network of channels and pools lined
with turquoise faience, shaded by Cypress allées.
Within the domed pavilions, pools reflect
frescoed ceilings and cool the air. You are
surrounded by the sound of water and highcontrast
chiaroscuro of light and shade. You
01-04/ Fin Garden, in the town of Kashan,
was created in the 16th century by
Shah Abbas I.
IMAGES/
Jill Cherry
03
are also enveloped in a shared experience
of excitement because this is a popular
venue for Tehranis who flock to the area
for the annual rose harvest and rosewater
festival. The former royal watercourses
are a source of fascination for iPhone
photographers and paddling children and,
surrounded by families having a fun day out,
another Western misperception falls away.
Iranians, even in the present day Islamic
Republic with all its challenges, appreciate
gardens and flowers and demonstrate a
joie de vivre that is truly surprising.
04
Building and garden are conceived as one
entity in Persian gardens. The hierarchy
of built structures to garden reverses the
Western model, so that instead of the garden
complementing the more dominant building,
here pavilions and residences are garden
features. There is a fluidity of “inside” and
“outside,” boundaries are blurred, buildings
are open and perforated, and transitions are
seamless. Flower motifs decorate interior
walls and are woven into carpets. Every

Letter From…
Iran
.32
30
05-06/ The entire city of Isfahan, a “Garden
City,” is based on a chahar bagh layout,
with the palace gardens in the quadrants.
IMAGES/
Courtesy of Sunrise Visual Innovations
07-08/ Pasargadae, near Shiraz, includes
remnants of the earliest “paradise”
garden (6th century BC) anywhere
in the world.
IMAGES/
Courtesy of Sunrise Visual Innovations
09/ The ruins of Pasargadae palace
IMAGE/
Jill Cherry
10/ Pasargadae water channel
IMAGE/
Jill Cherry
11-13/ The garden of the Nerangestan
townhouse in Shiraz demonstrates the
way in which pavilions and residences
are garden features in Persian gardens,
and there is a fluidity of “inside”
and “outside.”
IMAGES/
Jill Cherry
05
surface of the talar or columned open porch
of the Nerangestan townhouse in Shiraz, for
example, is mirrored in intricate patterns. The
garden of palms and orange trees, pools
and channels, is reflected into the building
so that garden and building are experienced
as the same space.
06
One of the most exciting gardens in Iran is
barely visible today. In the 6th century BC,
Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid
period and the first Persian Empire, founded
his capital at Pasargadae, near Shiraz. He
received his subjects sitting on a throne in
the centre of the talar of his palace after they
had approached along a central axis passing
through extensive gardens. Archaeologist
David Stronach has established that
the layout was a chahar bagh or four-part
garden. This cruciform shape, with quadrants
framed by intersecting water channels
radiating from a central pool, would become
characteristic of Islamic gardens. This ancient
07
08

Letter From…
Iran
.32
31
09
10
12
Persian garden profoundly influenced
Greece, Rome, and the development of
formal gardens in Europe and beyond. Two
thousand and seven hundred years later I
walked amongst the wildflowers and ruins
of Pasargadae, with its remnant water
channels and pools, evidence of the
earliest “paradise” garden anywhere.
Two cities epitomize the central place that
gardens occupy in Iran. Shiraz has long been
known as “City of Gardens,” attracting Karim
Khan Zand to establish it as his capital in the
11
mid-18th century. He encouraged tree
planting along the avenues and created
gardens and parks for himself and citizens.
A poetic aura emanates from this home of
the poets Hafez and Sa’di, and their tomb
gardens are pilgrimage sites. For a Western
tourist, the sight of Iranians visibly moved at
the tomb of a 14th-century poet doesn’t quite
fit with CNN news reports.
Isfahan, though, has to be the most
significant of all the sites on a garden tourist’s
itinerary because the plan of the entire city
is based on a chahar bagh layout. Literally
13
a “Garden City,” Isfahan was laid out by the
great 17th-century ruler, Shah Abbas I, with
the Chahar Bagh Avenue forming the central
axis and palace gardens in the quadrants. A
few remain including Chehel Sotun with 20
towering columns. These, when reflected in
the pool, create the Forty Column Palace.
For landscape architects, the gardens of Iran
present a conceptual wealth of ideas and a
window on a fascinating culture.
BIO/ Jill Cherry is a UK-based landscape architect
and former director of the gardens of the
Royal Horticultural Society in the UK. She
also directed the City of Toronto parks
department and VanDusen Botanical Garden
in Vancouver. She now leads garden tours
of Iran for Vancouver firm Bestway Tours
and Safaris (bestway.com).

Notes .32
32
Notes:
A
Miscellany
of News
and
Events
02
03
01
01/ Rendering of Project: Under Gardiner
in summer
IMAGE/
PUBLIC WORK
02/ Rendering of Project: Under Gardiner
in winter
IMAGE/
PUBLIC WORK
03/ Rendering of Project: Under Gardiner
at night
IMAGE/
PUBLIC WORK
public space
Project: Under Gardiner is a new initiative,
announced in November, 2015, that will
transform more than four hectares (10 acres)
of land beneath the elevated portion of
Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway, just west of
Strachan Avenue to Spadina Avenue, into a
series of public spaces. With the philanthropic
support of Judy and Wil Matthews, the City of
Toronto has been able to engage Waterfront
Toronto to oversee the implementation of
the project, which includes a 1.75-kilometre
multi-use trail and 500-metre connection
to Exhibition GO Station. By reclaiming this
forgotten space, Project: Under Gardiner
will create a series of rooms formed by the
space between columns, reimagining the
area beneath the expressway as a place
for people. Project: Under Gardiner is based
on a transformative framework design by
urban designer Ken Greenberg, and Marc
Ryan and Adam Nicklin, OALA, of landscape
architecture firm PUBLIC WORK. The vision for
the project includes the continuous multi-use
trail, a bridge over Fort York Boulevard for
pedestrians and cyclists, a grand staircase
at Strachan that will double as seating for
an urban theatre, and a series of flexible,
year-round performance and programming
spaces that can be used by the community. A
first phase of construction is scheduled to be
complete in late 2017.
trees
The ISA Ontario Educational Conference
and Tradeshow is being held in Ottawa
from February 17-19, 2016, at the Ottawa
Conference & Event Centre. The theme
is “Strength in Diversity: The Science of
Arboriculture.” For more information, visit
www.isaontario.com.

Notes .32
33
urban agriculture
An international conference, “Growing
in Cities: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
in Urban Gardening,” will be held in
Basel, Switzerland, from September 9-10,
2016. The conference aims to explore the
dynamics of existing and emerging forms
of urban gardening in Europe and beyond.
To submit an abstract or proposal
(deadline January 31, 2016), visit www.
urbanallotments.eu/final-conference.
html.
conservation
04
The Young Conservation Professionals
Leadership Program is accepting applications
(deadline February 5, 2016) for its program,
which is based in Ontario and accepts a maximum
of 20 participants per year. For more
info, visit http://ycpleadership.ca/apply/.
05
courses
Fruit tree care is the subject of an online
training course being offered by Orchard
People. Featuring eight hours of video
tutorials, topics covered include winter and
summer pruning, preventing pests and
disease, and soil and nutrition management.
After the completion of the course
and an online assessment, successful
graduates will receive an Orchard People
Certificate in Fruit Tree Care. For more
information, visit http://orchardpeople.
com/workshops/.
organics
The Canadian Organic Growers is offering
the Organic Master Gardener course in
Toronto on Tuesday evenings from January
26 to April 26, 2016. Topics include botany,
soil ecosystems, soil testing, and permaculture
design. For more information, visit
www.cog.ca.
06
books
A new publication by the American Society
of Civil Engineers (ASCE) addresses the
design, construction, and maintenance of
permeable pavements, including porous
asphalt, pervious concrete, permeable
interlocking concrete pavement, and grid
pavements. Permeable Pavements, the
first comprehensive handbook on this
subject, explores how permeable pavements
enable reduced stormwater runoff, increased
groundwater recharge, and improved water
quality. Synthesizing today’s knowledge of
the technology, drawing from academia,
industry, and the engineering and science
communities, the book presents an overview
of typical permeable pavement systems and
reviews the design considerations. For more
information, visit http://ascelibrary.org/doi/
book/10.1061/9780784413784.
events
The Carolinian Canada Coalition is hosting
the second Go Wild Grow Wild Expo on
April 2, 2016, at the Western Fair District in
London. The event, celebrating Canada’s
deep south, will gather more than 100
green businesses, experts, and organizations
to share information about the
Carolinian region. For more information,
visit www.gowildgrowwild.ca.
04/ An online course developed by Orchard
People covers all aspects of fruit tree care.
IMAGE/
Courtesy of Orchard People Consulting
and Education
05/ Pruning is essential to fruit tree care.
IMAGE/
Jacklyn Atlas, OrchardPeople.com
06/ A new book addresses the design,
construction, and maintenance of
permeable pavements.
IMAGE/
Courtesy of American Society of
Civil Engineers

Section .30
034
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Section .30
035

Section .30
036
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Section .30 .32
037
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Section .30 .32
038
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Section .30 .32
039
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Section .30 .32
040
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Section .30 .32
041
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Évitez ce
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Artifact .32
42
01
02
01/ Conceptual elevation of the revitalized
Berczy Park, with its central fountain
and plaza, in Toronto
IMAGE/
Claude Cormier + Associés
02/ Rendering of the proposed fountain
at Berczy Park, Toronto
IMAGE/
Claude Cormier + Associés
text by Shannon Baker, OALA
Although our relationship with man’s best
friend may have begun more than 30,000
years ago, as we have moved in ever
greater numbers to the city, things have
changed. Along with the intensification of
our citified habitat, a growing population
of urban dogs has been unleashed.
The effects of the rise of the urban dog can
be seen, heard, and sometimes smelled
in cities throughout North America. In
Toronto, Claude Cormier + Associés have
chosen to embrace the urban dog in their
redesign of Berczy Park, a small triangular
park in the heart of the city.
At the centre of the redesign is a whimsical
fountain, its form a nod to the park’s more
formal past, and its playful sculptures of
dogs spouting water from their mouths
while gazing at the golden bone atop the
fountain an acknowledgement of modernday
life. Although these sculptural dogs
are seemingly oblivious to the lone cat
amongst them, city dwellers are surely
aware of the canine creatures that share
our sidewalks and parks; it’s about time
we started having some fun with it.
BIO/ Shannon Baker, OALA, is a member of the
Ground Editorial Board and a practising
landscape architect in Toronto.

Section .30
043
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Section .30
044
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