Rouge National Urban Park is a national urban park located in Ontario, Canada. The park is centered around the Rouge River and its smaller streams in the Greater Toronto Area. The southern part of the park is near the river’s mouth in Toronto and extends north into Markham, Pickering, Uxbridge, and Whitchurch-Stouffville.

Since 2011, Parks Canada has worked to make the park a national urban park and increase its size almost twice as large as the original Rouge Park. Parks Canada plans to add more trails, education and orientation centers, better signs, and interpretive panels and displays throughout the park. New educational programs, such as Learn-to-Camp, Learn-to-Hike, fire side chats, and other activities, have been introduced. The park now covers 79.1 square kilometers (30.5 square miles) or about 19,500 acres. As of June 15, 2019, Parks Canada managed 95% of the area, with the remaining portion expected to be transferred in the future. Of this, 46 square kilometers (18 square miles) had been officially designated under the Rouge Urban National Park Act.

History

Water from glaciers that melted 12,000 years ago formed an ancient lake called ancestral Lake Ontario, which covered this area. A thick ice lobe, about 20 meters thick, blocked the lake from draining eastward, causing water levels to stay high as the lake slowly drained south toward what is now the Mississippi River. Later, the ice lobe moved away, allowing the lake to drain into the St. Lawrence River and forming the Great Lakes as they appear today.

Rock formations created during the last ice age, found in Rouge National Urban Park, are important for geologists studying earthquake risks in the Greater Toronto Area. Evidence of faults shows that strong earthquakes happened between 80,000 and 13,000 years ago.

People have lived in Rouge National Urban Park for more than 10,000 years. Early groups, such as Paleolithic hunters, Iroquoian farmers, European explorers, and today’s diverse suburban communities, all contributed to the area’s history. Many groups lived in the lands and waters now protected in Rouge Park. Rivers, valleys, forests, wetlands, and the plants and animals here supported small groups of people and later larger, permanent communities before the 20th century brought rapid urban growth.

F.H. Varley, a famous painter from the Group of Seven, painted the banks of the Rouge River in Markham in the 1950s to capture the natural beauty of the area.

The Rouge River was once a portage route connecting Lake Ontario to Lake Simcoe, created by Indigenous Peoples and later used by European traders and settlers. While the route is not marked by a federal historical marker, a marker near the Humber River recognizes part of the path. The Toronto Carrying-Place Trail was officially named a National Historic Event in 1969.

Bead Hill is a 17th-century Seneca village site, declared a National Historic Site in 1991. The area also includes an older Archaic campsite from about 3,000 years ago. Because the site is archaeologically significant, it is not open to the public and is not clearly marked in the park.

The original Rouge Park was created in 1995 by the Province of Ontario and local partners, covering about 40 square kilometers in Toronto, Markham, and Pickering.

Parks Canada began working to create Rouge National Urban Park in 2011 after reviewing the original park’s management. Over 20,000 Canadians and 200 organizations, including Indigenous groups, governments, and conservationists, were involved in planning the park.

Parts of the original Rouge Park near the Toronto Zoo and Rouge Beach remain open and are managed by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. As Rouge National Urban Park expands, these areas will eventually be managed by Parks Canada. The park was officially established in 2015 and is now the largest urban protected area in North America, stretching from Lake Ontario to the Oak Ridges Moraine.

In 2017, Ontario transferred 22.8 kilometers of land to Parks Canada, including areas managed by the province, conservation authority, and the City of Markham. Farmers on the land received long-term leases. By 2025, the last remaining land from the Pickering Airport area was transferred to the park.

The park is free to visit year-round, though camping fees apply. Currently, there are over 12 kilometers of hiking trails in Toronto and Markham, with plans to expand them to connect Lake Ontario to the Oak Ridges Moraine. Public transportation, including TTC and GO Transit, provides access to the park.

Civil society groups helped protect the park by using scientific knowledge to support their arguments for conservation. Their involvement in ecological restoration and monitoring contributed to long-term efforts to preserve the area.

Initiatives

Many projects and plans are happening as part of creating the Rouge National Urban Park.

The Beare Road Park Master Plan was suggested in 2013. It supports turning the closed Beare Road Landfill into a park named Beare Hill Park, which will be part of the Rouge National Urban Park. The landfill closed in 1983 and has been partly turned into a forest and wetland since then. The area is now surrounded by the park on the west, north, and east sides. There is an official trail in the Rouge National Urban Park where people can see the hill, but this trail does not go to the landfill. Some visitors have made dirt trails to reach the hill for better views of Eastern Greater Toronto, as it is one of the tallest points in the area. There is no solid wall between the park and the landfill, so animals and people can move freely between the two areas, thinking it is part of the park. The wetlands at the site are important for many animals, including bobolinks, milk snakes, and Blanding’s Turtles (a species at risk in Ontario). Conservation workers from the Rouge Park often help protect these areas. On June 27, 2017, the City of Toronto held a meeting to talk about the progress of Beare Hill Park and confirmed its inclusion in the Rouge National Urban Park. Work has started on the area, and it is expected to open to the public in 2019. Plans for the site include trails for recreation, an observation deck, and educational programs about how landfills are managed and restored.

Parks Canada is working with 10 First Nations that have historical or current connections to the park through the Rouge National Urban Park First Nations Advisory Circle. These groups help with all parts of park operations, such as restoring ecosystems and farmland, sharing traditional stories and food at events, and helping with archaeological work in the park.

In 2016, Parks Canada held more than 300 free public events in the park, including Frog Watch, Hoot and Howl, guided walks, Art in the Park, the Fall Walk Festival, BioBlitz, Learn-to-Camp, and Taste of the Trail.

Several education centers, signs, and interpretive panels are being planned in the Toronto and Markham areas of the park.

Parks Canada plans to greatly expand the park’s trail network from 12 kilometers by adding many new kilometers of trails to create a continuous path from Lake Ontario to the Oak Ridges Moraine. Plans are also being made to connect park trails with trails outside the park in Toronto, Markham, Pickering, and Uxbridge.

In 2016, Parks Canada partnered with OCAD University to hire the park’s first “Photographer-in-Residence,” Heike Reuse. Her work was shown in the Toronto Star, CBC, Metro, and in an exhibition in downtown Toronto.

Parkbus provides a seasonal shuttle service to the park.

Technology

Beginning in 2016, students from the University of Toronto Scarborough (The Arts & Science Co-op and Masters of Environmental Science Departments) and the Hub (the university's center for entrepreneurship) worked together with Parks Canada to create the Rouge App. This app helps park visitors learn about the park through an interactive guide on their phones. Information for the app was gathered from Parks Canada staff, Indigenous communities, local people, scientists, and historians. Features of the app include trail and landscape details, landmarks, cultural and historical information, a GPS distance tracker, safety tips about harmful plants and animals, a memory game for children, rewards for walking distances, and a way to report problems. The app was released on October 21, 2017, and is available on iOS and Android phones in English, French, and Simplified Chinese.

Parks Canada partners with iNaturalist, an online platform and app where people can share observations of plants, insects, and animals in their area to help with scientific research. Through this partnership, Parks Canada hosts BioBlitz events in national parks. BioBlitz events are activities where visitors and scientists work together to find and record specific species of plants, insects, or animals. In June 2017, the Rouge National Urban Park held its first BioBlitz event, which took place on June 24 and 25. During this event, participants recorded 43 different mammal species on the iNaturalist website.

Two tools being used to support sustainability efforts are GIS mapping and spatial analysis. GIS is a technology that helps create maps and analyze geographic data. The TRCA (Toronto and Region Conservation Authority) has layers of data about watersheds that can be connected by geography. These layers help make decisions about ecological restoration, buying land, managing fish populations, planning, and mapping flood areas.

The TRCA and the City of Toronto have a detailed digital map of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) with a resolution of 0.5 meters. This is the most accurate and complete digital map of the GTA. The map is used by TRCA biologists and the City of Toronto Natural Heritage Study to identify and map natural habitats. This data is then analyzed in relation to nearby land uses, the size and shape of habitats, and other factors.

GIS was also used to study the master plan for the Rouge Park Trails. A sensitivity analysis was done to identify areas of the park that are important for wildlife and plants. This involved mapping the locations of rare species, wetlands, and other sensitive habitats, as well as nesting and breeding areas for animals. The mapping process used geographic data from sources like MNR, TRCA, and Rouge Park, which was placed on digital aerial photos of the park. This helped locate specific areas with sensitive species and habitats. The mapped data includes plant and animal sightings, wetlands, vegetation types, environmentally significant areas, and forest habitats.

The David Suzuki Foundation also used GIS and spatial analysis to map the value of natural resources in the Rouge National Park. The foundation studied the types of land cover and land use in the Rouge Park and nearby watersheds. They also calculated the average value of ecosystem services per hectare based on land cover types. The data used for this study came from the Southern Ontario Land Resource Information System (SOLRIS) between 2000 and 2002.

Biodiversity and wildlife

This urban park is home to many animals, including white-tailed deer, mice, opossums, raccoons, hawks, coyotes, skunks, ducks, beavers, bald eagles, bears, shrews, red foxes, turkeys, weasels, golden eagles, river otters, kestrels, moles, swans, minks, bats, woodchucks, and porcupines. The park has over 1,700 species of plants, animals, and fungi, as found during the 2012 and 2013 Ontario BioBlitz surveys. It is known to be one of the most diverse areas in Canada because many different species live there.

• 1,006 plant species, including 6 that are nationally rare and 92 that are regionally rare.
• 261 bird species, 5 of which are nationally rare breeding birds, 4 other breeding birds of special concern, and many locally rare, area-sensitive raptor and colonial birds.
• 65 fish species, 2 of which are nationally vulnerable.
• 40 mammal species, some of which are locally rare.
• 21 reptile and amphibian species, some of which are locally rare.

Physical geography

Rouge National Urban Park is located in the Rouge River, Petticoat Creek, and Duffins Creek watersheds. The Rouge River is the healthiest river that flows through the City of Toronto. The ravine system around the Rouge River is part of the larger Toronto ravine system, which includes the ravines surrounding other rivers and creeks in the city.

The created wetlands in the Rouge Park watershed help the environment by reducing flood force, lowering extreme nutrient levels, and providing habitat for semi-aquatic organisms. However, a problem has been found in these wetlands related to their potential to produce methyl mercury (MeHg). After testing water, sediment, and invertebrates from the wetlands, it was found that MeHg concentrations decrease as wetlands age. Newly created wetlands produce the most MeHg. This happens because younger wetlands may have iron-reducing bacteria that add a methane group to inorganic mercury, increasing MeHg production. In older wetlands, organic matter accumulates and binds inorganic mercury, preventing bacterial methylation.

People have farmed in the Rouge Valley for thousands of years, including Indigenous People and European settlers. Rouge National Urban Park protects large areas of Class 1 farmland, which is the rarest and most fertile soil in Canada.

Since 2015, Parks Canada has worked with farmers, Indigenous partners, and conservation groups to complete 31 conservation and agricultural projects in the park. To date, over 32 hectares of wetland and riparian habitat and 20 hectares of forest have been restored, with more than 38,000 native trees and shrubs planted.

Parks Canada is committed to preserving the park’s farmland and working farms to support the park’s health and provide unique visitor experiences. The park includes two well-known farmers markets in Markham: Whittamore’s Farm (closed in 2017) and Reesor’s Farm Market.

Conservation

Friends of the Rouge Watershed is a non-profit, community-focused group that works to protect and restore the Rouge Watershed in Scarborough, Ontario. They help ecosystems in the area by building structures such as raptor posts, which provide places for owls and hawks to rest. These birds help control rodent numbers in the region.

The Rouge National Urban Park Act, also known as Bill C-40, is a specific plan to protect the Rouge. It works with Ontario's Greenbelt Act and adds new rules that require the Canadian government to safeguard the park, its ecosystems, cultural items, and native wildlife. The act also plans to hire wardens who will protect the park and patrol it throughout the year. These wardens will team up with local police to ensure the safety of visitors and the park's resources. The plan also includes efforts to restore natural habitats and wildlife areas.

Since 2014, Parks Canada has partnered with the Toronto Zoo to raise and release 113 baby Blanding’s turtles into the park. This species was once thought to have only seven individuals remaining in the area before this project began.

Starting in 2015, Parks Canada began working with farmers in the park and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority to complete projects that help protect the environment and improve farming practices in Rouge National Urban Park.

Urban pollution

Rouge Park is a protected area located in the middle of a large city. It is home to many wildlife species that are at risk of disappearing. Because the park is near a busy city, it is exposed to different types of pollution. For example, a major highway runs through the park. To protect the park's environment and the animals that live there, it is important to understand the pollution sources and manage them carefully. The following list describes some of the pollution sources in the park and the risks they cause:

Years of city development have caused soil to wear away more quickly, making streams less stable. This can lead to more dirt and other materials entering waterways, which can harm fish and other aquatic life. Development practices have also left large areas of soil exposed, increasing erosion.

Many wetlands in the park were drained and cleared for farming. Farms can add harmful substances like nutrients, bacteria, and pesticides to rivers. In the park, average levels of phosphorus in the Little Rouge River are 0.02 mg/L, while in the Main Rouge River, they are 0.05 mg/L (the provincial guideline is 0.03 mg/L).

There are 24 golf courses in the area, which can release pesticides and nutrients into the environment. These courses also use a lot of water for irrigation, which can harm streams. However, many golf courses have taken steps to follow environmental rules.

Six old landfills are located in the Rouge watershed. These landfills can leak harmful pollutants, so it is important to monitor them closely to prevent contamination.

A recent study found that between 1988 and 2000, there were about 300 oil spills and 90 chemical spills in the park. Most of these happened on roads or from factories, storage areas, and trucks. A recent oil spill in the Little Rouge River killed fish up to 4 kilometers downstream.

In cities, much of the ground is covered with pavement and concrete, which makes it hard for rainwater to soak into the soil. During heavy rain, pollutants like oil, rubber, and metals can quickly run off roads and into streams. In 1970, a heavy rainstorm in Malvern caused the Morningside Stream to become polluted with oil, rubber, and metals from roads and parking lots. This pollution harmed a nearby area where salmon and trout breed. Rainwater can also carry road salt, which can pollute groundwater and release harmful metals.

A major highway and railway pass through the park, both of which harm the environment. Highway 407 increases air pollution, smog, and greenhouse gas emissions. In winter, salt used on roads adds more pollution to the area. Water in Rouge Park has higher levels of chloride than before. The noise from the highway can also disrupt the natural sounds in the park.