The Leslie Street Spit
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As well, the Spit has historical and associative value as it has direct associations with demolition episodes in the city that yield information about development pressure and planning ideals that have impacted the city and its surrounding landscape through time. It is also associated with Ports Toronto and the TRCA, which are significant Toronto agencies that have played a defining role in the development of the waterfront and/or natural landscapes in the city.
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Tommy Thompson Park
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Footbridge on the Leslie Street Spit
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Rick Harris
John Vetterli
And finally, the Spit has contextual value as it is a character-defining part of the Toronto waterfront. Formally identified as an Environmentally Significant Area (by the City of Toronto) and a globally significant Important Bird Area (by Birdlife International), the Leslie Street Spit is an important landform that is valued by the community and is home to a wide variety of wildlife.
The Leslie Street Spit meets all of the high level criteria set out in O. Reg. 9/06 of the Ontario Heritage Act. Designating the Spit as a cultural heritage landscape would give this treasured landscape protection and could result in a strategy that would keep both the ecological and cultural attributes of this landscape intact in perpetuity. Defining it as a heritage resource, as well as an ecological one, would result in the preservation, conservation, and restoration of Toronto’s “urban wilderness.” BIO/
Heidy Schopf is a cultural heritage specialist at Stantec. She has worked in the field of cultural resource management for the past five years as both a research archaeologist and as a heritage specialist. She has been exploring and writing about the Spit since 2009 and continues to research the Spit along with academic co-author Jennifer Foster.
