The birth of the Task Force was the culmination of an exciting process that started on February 23, 1989 when Toronto City Council asked that 'the Neighbourhoods Committee be requested to consider establishing a Don River Clean-Up Task Force, which could be comprised of local residents and City Councillors to pursue the clean-up of the Don River by the year 2001.' This was in addition to endorsing in principle a recommendation of the St Lawrence Neighbourhood Advisory Council "That the Don River and its related recreation and wildlife areas be made fully useable, accessible and safe for the people of Toronto no later than the year 2001."

In its April issue of the same year the Globe and Mail (which then published a monthly Toronto magazine) ran a cover story by Pat Ohlendorff-Moffat entitled "Rebirth of a River - Unclean flows the Don, but there is no reason why it has to stay that way".

Read the original article by Pat Ohlendorff-Moffat (PDF 89 Kb)

500 people came out on April 1, 1989 to an all day Forum on the Don at the Ontario Science Centre. That was where the Don caught my imagination and my heart. I learned about the water cycle and how storm water was polluting the Don. Helen Juhola talked about the great natural habitats and the urgent need for action to preserve them. Glenn Harrington told us about the moral imperative to restore the Don so salmon could once again swim and spawn. I learned about what other cities such as Cleveland were doing to restore their trashed urban rivers. Their notorious Cuyahoga River had become so saturated with oil that it literally caught fire in 1969; at least the Don was not in that state.

When councillor Jack Layton stood up and said there were a group of people meeting at City Hall who were going to do something about the Don I had to join.

When I went to my first meeting I became part of an energized group of citizens and city councillors hard at work developing a proposal to the city for the new task force. The late Dan Leckie, who was then Jack Layton's assistant, was the sparkplug that made it go but there was strong leadership from the councillors on both the river banks - Barbara Hall and Marilyn Churley, and their assistants Jennifer Morris and Sean Meagher, as well as support from the planning department when David McCluskey became our coordinator plus Metro councillor Roger Hollander.

The Don then was a very different place from today. There was no public access between Pottery Road and the Lake - no recreational trail, no Riverdale footbridge, and no regeneration projects. No one had yet proposed that we create a new mouth for the Don much less restore the Narrows.

On May 25, 1989 we presented our Proposal for a Public Task Force on the Don River. The vision presented then has evolved and become more refined but still embodies the same core principles:

1. We want the Don to belong to the public
2. The river must become accessible
3. We must let the river return to a natural state
4. We want clean water, air, land
5. We would like the river to be seen, in the minds of Torontonians, in its broader context
6. We want the Don to be seen in its geographic context

At one of the meetings that summer Dan Leckie said it was time for the public members to chair the meetings. We all stared at each other and then Bruce Pope made the helpful suggestion that Michael White and I co-chair the meetings. I carried on as chair for almost 10 years and the Task Force has been citizen led ever since.

The birth of the Task Force was not without controversy. There was a part of City Council led by Tony O'Donohue that viewed the issue as solely one of water quality - best dealt with by engineers from the Public Works department. An early proposal by the Task Force to hire communications consultants who had worked in previous municipal electoral campaigns was attacked by Tom Jakobek who was quoted as saying, "The Don River may be dirty but I don't want to see it become an NDP sewer for capturing endless public funds".

But the Task Force endured. We focused on positive action for the Don with innovative communications - both hallmarks of the Task Force ever since.

• On Earth Day, April 22, 1990, we put banners on the bridges over the DVP and Wishing Wells on the bridges asking the people of Toronto to make a wish for the Don
• Mayor Art Eggleton proclaimed June 10, 1990 as Don Day in the City of Toronto and joined us for over our first ever tree planting in Riverdale Park East. The event was notable for the native American participation of the Eagle Heart drummers and Cree Elder Vern Harper who conducted a ceremony honouring the Don on the Riverdale footbridge above the DVP traffic
• In February 1991 the now familiar logo was first published in our first newsletter

On August 1991 we launched Bringing Back the Don, the award winning report that changed the Don's future and ensured the Task Force a permanent place in the City.

Going up the river, the trail divides at the Forks of the Don (Don Mills Road and the DVP). The Taylor Creek branch runs to Victoria Park Ave., near Danforth. If you take a short trek on city streets, you can pick up the trail again on Pharmacy Ave. and continue through Warden Woods Park to Warden Ave. and St. Clair (near Warden subway station).

From the Forks, the West Don branch of the trail continues through parkland as far as Edwards Gardens at Leslie and Lawrence. Farther north, there are trails in Earl Bales, Hinder and G. Ross Lord Parks, but unfortunately, they are not linked.

The worst pollution in the Don comes from "stormwater". This is the water that flushes off hard surfaces in urban areas - roofs, streets, sidewalks, parking lots, etc - and into storm sewers, which flow into the Don. This stormwater collects pollutants like:

• pesticides and fertilizers (from lawn care);
• petroleum products (leaking from vehicles or thoughtlessly disposed of);
• paints and solvents (thoughtlessly poured down storm grates);
• road salts (applied by the city to roads and by residents to their sidewalks); and
• animal feces (including pet wastes).

Unnaturally high levels of dirt and plant material (like leaves), washing off streets, building sites and road works contribute to an excessive sediment load - and a muddy appearance. Illegal sewer connections sometimes allow toxic substances to enter the river from homes and businesses. "Combined" sewers in older parts of the city allow sanitary sewer water (containing human feces) to mix with stormwater and enter the Don during rainstorms.

The Ontario Natural Resources and Environment ministries have tested fish flesh samples from rock bass, brown bullhead and carp from the G. Ross Lord Reservoir, near Dufferin and Finch. Their conclusion, published in the "2001 - 2002 Guide To Eating Ontario Sport Fish", is that these fish are safe to eat for up to four meals per month by women of childbearing age and children up to 15 years old. Others may safely eat these fish for up to eight meals per month. This publication reaches the same conclusion for white suckers of 35-45 cm. from Pottery Road. Larger white suckers should not be eaten at all by women of childbearing age and children. Others should restrict their intake of these larger fish to four meals per month.

The lower level came about because the St. Lawrence valley had been under as much as 2 km of ice for over 100,000 years and thus had been pushed hundreds of metres down into the mantle. The western end of the lake was freed from the ice several thousand years earlier than the eastern end, and probably had only been under the ice sheet for a small part of the Wisconsinan ice age, and so was higher. The sea, which came into this valley and is called the Champlain Sea, covering all of Montreal including Mount Royal. As the land at the outlet of our lake rebounded, the level of the lake rose and the ravine bottom was filled with soil washed down from the upper Don watershed.