High Park and South Humber Park to carry out traditional, prescribed burns in April

CBC News

· Posted: Apr 09, 2025 10:29 AM EDT | Last Updated: 32 minutes ago

The City of Toronto volition behaviour accepted and prescribed burns successful High Park and South Humber Park aboriginal this month, continuing an Indigenous signifier that protects uncommon achromatic oak savannah ecosystems.

Prescribed burns person been utilized crossed North America to reconstruct and support fire-dependent ecosystems wherever people occurring fires supply renewal. Toronto has carried retired the burns for implicit 2 decades.

"The accepted and prescribed burns are deliberately acceptable and cautiously controlled fires that pain debased to the crushed to devour dried leaves, twigs, and writer stems," the metropolis said successful a quality merchandise connected Wednesday.

The burns are babelike connected upwind conditions, truthful the day volition beryllium selected 24 to 48 hours successful advance, the metropolis says. 

The metropolis says some burns volition beryllium conducted connected the aforesaid day. The High Park pain volition statesman successful the precocious morning, followed by South Humber Park successful the afternoon. 

On the time of the burn, High Park volition beryllium closed to vehicles and entree volition beryllium constricted to parkland users. South Humber Park volition besides restrict access on the time of the burn. 

People should expect impermanent closures of trails adjacent progressive pain sites successful some locations. The metropolis says notices volition beryllium placed astatine parkland entrances and successful the surrounding assemblage to counsel the nationalist of erstwhile the pain volition instrumentality place. 

The metropolis advises radical with asthma and those who are highly delicate to poison ivy to bounds their vulnerability to the fume by staying wrong and keeping windows closed connected the time of the burn.

"Under perfect upwind conditions, fume from the burns volition not impact surrounding neighbourhoods. However, it is imaginable that immoderate fume volition scope residential areas adjacent the parks," said the city. 

The burn, which the metropolis says is done successful collaboration with the Indigenous Land Stewardship Circle, has been named Biinaakzigewok Anishnaabeg, which means "the work for a cleansing occurrence by each Native Peoples" successful Anishinaabemowin.