About the project
The Rubble to Refuge project unites researchers from York University with managers from Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) to address pressing issues on Toronto’s Leslie Street Spit, one of Canada’s most celebrated “urban wilderness” landscapes.
The Leslie Street Spit is also known as Tommy Thompson Park. It is a 5-kilometer long former dump that is also a world-famous bird habitat. It hosts astounding biodiversity. The substrate is composed of broken telephone poles, crushed sidewalk, rebar and other artefacts of the city.
Hundreds of thousands of people visit the Leslie Street Spit each year. This project explores park users’ activities, preferences and ideals. Who visits the Spit? Where do they go, and what do they do? How can we understand relationships with this landscape in order to be more ecologically respectful?
The research team employs multidisciplinary methods to understand how people interact with this fascinating landscape. Interviews in situ, data from motion cameras, site surveys, an online survey and other research methods combine to elucidate interactions with nature at the Spit.
There is a critical need for publicly-accessible information about historic and ongoing research and arts projects on the Leslie Street Spit. TRCA maintains a very useful web page, and this project supports and supplement that database by updating and expanding the range of titles and electronic links.