John Routh, Task Force Member

Nestled in the valley just south of Leaside is a beautiful mature woodland known as Crothers' Woods. A beech-maple climax forest, these woods are remnant Carolinian forest that was once found throughout southern Ontario. The value of this forest has led the Toronto Region Conservation Authority to designate this forest as an Environmentally Significant Area.

The forest is located on a steep hillside intersected with steep gullies. Over the course of several decades, informal trails have been created throughout the area. The undulating terrain has attracted mountain bikers who are looking for a challenging ride. Hikers, dog walkers and trail runners also use the trail network regularly. This has led to increased use of trails that were never designed at all, let alone designed to be sustainable. Many of the trails are in bad shape, seriously eroding hillsides and gullies and degrading the forest habitat.

Both the Task Force to Bring Back the Don and the City of Toronto have been concerned with the situation for sometime. A project to close some of the worst trails was started in the mid 1990's but was discontinued due to amalgamation. Mountain bikers are also voicing concern about the increasing degradation of the trails and have approached the City of Toronto looking to help the situation. Recently a new initiative has started to bring all interested parties together to try and reach a consensus on appropriate uses for Crothers' Woods.

As a result of these meetings, a new partnership has been created. A group of mountain biking enthusiasts called the Don Valley Trail Users Club (DVTUC) and the City of Toronto hosted the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) to hold a weekend workshop in May 2004 on how to build and maintain sustainable multi-use trails.

Mark Schmidt and Lora Woolner from the Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew started with a Saturday morning seminar on how to build 'sustainable trails'. Sustainable trails are built to withstand human use and won't deteriorate due to water erosion. IMBA has built trails all over the United States and in various parts of Canada. They have a solid relationship with the US forestry service and have built trails in several US national parks.

The seminar covered the do's and don'ts of trail building, and the use of specialized tools for construction. About 30 people attended the workshop including representatives of the City of Toronto, the Task Force and the Don Council.

After lunch, the workshop reconvened in a section of Crothers' Woods where we participated in a trail realignment. There was a section of trail that went down and up through a steep gully and was badly eroded. The day before, a trail realignment was proposed by IMBA with help from city staff and Steve Smith, a local forest expert. Care was taken to avoid specific understorey plants or mark them for transplanting.

Click here for more pictures of the trail work.

The first task was to transplant valuable ground cover such as trout lily, jack-in-the-pulpit, false Solomon's-seal, and some sedges. Debris was cleared and then the trail was roughly cut out of the hillside. After the initial cut, soil was packed down for stability, stones were added to protect tree routes and add some technical difficulty for bikers.

On Sunday we spent most of the morning decommissioning the old trail. This meant breaking up the compacted soil, replanting the saved ground cover plants and transplanting some small trees onto the old trail route. Everything was covered with loose leaves and pieces of wood debris. Once the disguising task was finished it was very difficult to see the route of the old trail. We also cleaned up the construction zone next to the new trail to make sure users of the new section didn't venture off the intended route.

Also on Sunday work was done to repair another section where a small rivulet was running. Branches, logs and pieces of wood had been piled across the water making for a very muddy mess. This was removed and replaced by a stone bridge using a method called 'stone pitching'. This technique, developed by the ancient Romans uses stones placed on end to form a border at the low end and then other stones placed behind them in progression creating a solid base. This construction allows the water to flow through it and people to pass over it without any degradation.

Mark left us with drawings to show us how to build a small bridge over the gully to complete the trail construction. This was built the following week.

Although it was hard work, everyone who participated was very satisfied with the results. The expertise of the consultants and the enthusiasm of the participants gives me plenty of optimism that this will provide a solid basis for improvements to the trail system in Crothers' Woods. If you are interested in participating in the Don Valley Trail Users Club please visit their website.