Traditional and prescribed burn in High Park

The City of Toronto will be undertaking a traditional and prescribed burn in High Park in spring of 2024.

Black Oak savannahs, such as the one in High Park, are fire-dependent ecosystems, which rely on burning the landscape to remain in balance.?Before European settlement, Indigenous people would use fire to clear the land for agriculture, to rejuvenate the quality and quantity of forage and medicinal plants, and to attract wildlife. This use of fire also helped to regenerate and maintain savannah habitats.

Savannah habitat is extremely rare, with less than 3% of the original pre-settlement cover of prairie and savannah ecosystems remaining in Ontario. In 1995, an evaluation of the oaks in High Park determined that the trees were nearing the end of their life expectancy.

This revealed another concern: there were no young oaks or oak seedlings regenerating to replace them.

It was determined that the use of fire would become part of the City’s long-term management plan to restore and protect Toronto’s rare Black Oak woodlands and savannahs.

Learn more at toronto.ca/prescribedburn/

A traditional or prescribed burn is a deliberately set and carefully controlled fire.

• a low burning grass fire
• does not harm larger trees
• stimulates the germination and growth of savannah species
• species not adapted to fire can be reduced with repeated burns

How we burn

Safety

There are several precautions that we take to ensure that a prescribed burn in an urban setting is done safely.

Burn Boss Leadership

• the Burn Boss leads the planning and execution of the burn
• trained for complex fires, they handle all technical aspects of fire setting and control

Burn Breaks

• these can be natural or created barriers like paved roads, park areas, footpaths, and dirt trails
• breaks are raked free of leaves and organic matter to prevent fire spread on the burn day

Wildlife Safety

• burns scheduled before birds are nesting and hibernating animals emerge
• intentionally small, patchy burn sites for wildlife and insect refuge areas
• protection of large cavity trees to preserve wildlife habitats
• wildlife sweep walking across the site conducted prior to burning provides a last check for wildlife, people, or dogs in the area before ignition and creates ground vibration, encouraging wildlife to flee to safety

Public Safety

• High Park closed to vehicles on burn day
• temporary closure of sites to cyclists and pedestrians undergoing burning
• safe pedestrian access maintained in non-burning park areas
• weather conditions for burn day selected for low wind to reduce smoke drift into residential areas
• anyone with sensitivity to smoke or poison ivy should stay away from the park during the burn and close all doors and windows they live in the nearby

Monitoring

Prescribed burns help restore wildlife habitat by encouraging the savannah ecosystem, which promotes a diversity of living conditions and food sources. Monarch butterflies are dependent on milkweed plants for food for themselves and their offspring. Butterfly milkweed has made a return to High Park due to restoration efforts.

Wild lupines, the host plant for the Karner blue butterfly, are unique to the savannah ecosystem. Once covering much of High Park, mowing and the suppression of fire led to the disappearance of the savannah ecosystem and wild lupines. Through restoration of the savannah ecosystem, wild lupines have now made a return and have established themselves in a few very successful plots.

Evolution

Standing proudly as some of Toronto's ancient arboreal residents, black oaks boast an impressive lifespan of 250 years, creating a majestic spectacle in the heart of the city. High Park has been a hub of restoration efforts for two decades, encouraging the establishment of young oaks that will fill the place of the mature black oak trees once they have completed their life cycle.

Black oaks have evolved to become dependent on fire.

The low-burning fires of a traditional and prescribed burn provide ideal conditions for fallen acorns to sprout and thrive. The oak’s fire-resistant bark keeps mature trees safe during these fires.

Oaks are also unique in producing leaves that are well adapted to fire. Their leaves, thicker and drier than those of other trees, are nature's perfect kindling. The leaves remain curled on the ground so fire can carry easily from one leaf to another across the forest floor. The uniqueness of this curl stands out in contrast to other leaves, such as maples, whose flat, matted leaves do not burn well.

Biinaakzigewok Anishnaabeg is the Anishnaabemowin (Ojibwe) name for the traditional and prescribed burn at High Park, shared by Indigenous Elder Henry Pitawanakwat.

The City of Toronto and the Indigenous Land Stewardship Circle have been collaborating to plan last year and this year's burn, with members of the Indigenous community bringing ceremony to the event to ensure the burn happens in a good way.

This collaboration represents the continuing journey of two sides coming together with two-eyed seeing.

Two-eyed seeing brings multiple perspectives and ways of knowing together to use all our understandings collaboratively. Previously referred to only as a “prescribed” burn, it is now referenced as a “prescribed and traditional” burn in order to use more welcoming wording to honour the traditional practice of Indigenous people on Turtle Island.

The cleansing fire or burn had been used by Indigenous peoples long before the arrival of European settlers. The Anishnaabeg’s relation to the world has much to do with balance, both within oneself, as well as in everything around us.

In Black Oak Savannahs, the burn allows more diversity among native plants and berries to thrive.

Learn more at toronto.ca/prescribedburn/

The City uses a variety of different ways to communicate traditional and prescribed burn plans and preparation.

Updates on the traditional and prescribed burn will be posted on the City’s social media channels as they become available.

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Facebook

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Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation

Nature in the City – Toronto

Notices will be posted throughout and adjacent to the park and delivered to residents directly adjacent to the park within 24 to 48 hours of the burn.

News releases will be issued about upcoming traditional and prescribed burns.