Meeting next week on future of Humber Trails

 Photos by Barry Wallace

May 25th ~ 7 p.m. ~ Nobleton Arena

An advertisement for a public meeting on a new trail plan for Humber Trails Forest and Wildlife Conservation Area will take place next Wednesday in the Dr. William Laceby Community Centre and Arena, in Nobleton.   The meeting is to be hosted by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, which will present a new trail plan, featuring potential opportunities for improvements to trail conditions, signage, wayfinding, trailheads and parking.   Comments will be welcomed from all attendees. More information can be had in advance by contacting Adam Dembe, Planner, at adembe@trca.on.ca or (416) 661-6600 ext. 5939 or visiting the website at www.trca.on.ca/humber trails.   The two pictures above and below show recent damage to the main footbridge over the East Humber River.   Other photos below show some current scenes at the site. 

Wild Daffodils are still seen at Humber Trails.   They are remnant flowers surviving from the cottage colony that existing here in the early 1950s, prior to Hurricane Hazel's rampage in 1954.   Below is what remains of a water fountain that once served Humber Trails, during its time as a traditional park,  after Hurricane Hazel destroyed the cottages.

Above is an old tapped freshwater spring, encircled by field stones.   Few know of its existence near the old camping grounds at the rear of Humber Trails, and beneath the one-of-kind, giant oak tree beside the river.    In the photo below, one can see logs that once stabilized the river banks, now dislodged and lying on the river bottom.

Above, left, is a tiny broken footbridge over a trickling tributary to the East Humber River.   The photo on the right shows riverside seating for two, on private property on the south side of the Humber, where residents can look across the river to the lush pastoral Humber Trails bottom-lands on the north side.   Below is a photo of a the giant oak tree that several people (including me) think may the largest tree, of any kind, in York Region, or at least the biggest oak tree in the region.   Its circumference is almost 17' and its diameter is approximately 5.4'

Please comment if you wish.

Barry Wallace