Special Places

The Changing Ecosystems of the Toronto Region

By Betty Roots, Donald Chant, and Conrad Heidenreich
Publisher: UBC Press
Hardcover : 9780774807357, 352 pages, October 1999
Ebook (EPUB) : 9780774841818, 352 pages, November 2011
Ebook (PDF) : 9780774856294, 352 pages, May 2000
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Table of contents

Foreword / Dr. Roberta L. Bondar

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part 1: The Broad Physical Basis

1. Physical Setting: A Story of Changing Environments through
Time

2. Climate

3. Watersheds

Part 2: From Wilderness to City

4. Native Settlement to 1847

5. Spatial Growth

Part 3: The Past and Present Natural
Environment

6. Ecology, Ecosystems, and the Greater Toronto Region

7. Vascular Plants

8. Mosses, Liverworts, Hornworts, and Lichens

9. Fungi

10. Invertebrates

11. Insects

12. Fish

13. Reptiles and Amphibians

14. Mammals

15. Birds

Part 4: The Special Places

16. From Acquisition to Restoration: A History of Protecting
Toronto's Natural Places

17. Special Places

Waterfront Ecosystems: Restoring Is Remembering

Toronto's Port Lands: The Significance of the Ordinary

Scarborough Bluffs

The Savannahs of High Park

Oak Ridges Moraine

Credit River

Humber Valley

Don Valley

Duffins Creek

Rouge Valley

18. Discussion and Conclusions The History of the Royal Canadian
Institute Afterword / David Crombie

References and Additional Reading

Contributors' Acknowledgments

Richly illustrated and written for a general audience, this book
celebrates the glory and fragility of these interlocking ecosystems and
helps us appreciate the uniqueness of the "special places."

Description

High Park, Scarborough Bluffs, the Humber Valley, the Port Lands. 
These are among the special places of Toronto.  Each is a unique
ecosystem within the busy urban region. Even though Torontonians think
of the city as almost entirely built up, savannah or wetlands are only
a subway ride away. Special Places explores the changing
ecosystems of the Toronto area over this century, looking at the
environmental conditions that influence the whole region and at the
surprising range of plants and animals you can still find in many of
its natural spaces.

Awards

  • Short-listed, Toronto Book Award, City of Toronto 2000

Reviews

This visually and intellectually attractive volume presents an exquisitely designed natural history of Toronto’s metropolitan area. Elements of the dynamic urban ecosystem are woven together, including vital human and natural environmental components, creating an enlightening depiction of the value of the region’s natural places ... A valuable book for academic audiences.

- M. Evans, SUNY Empire State College

Ideal for anyone in the Greater Toronto Area with an interest in the local environment ... timely ... easy to read.

- Barry Kent MacKay

The Royal Canadian Institute's Special Places: The Changing Ecosystems of the Toronto Region unlocks the doors of Toronto's many secret gardens ... Special Places is far more than a benign statement of scientific facts about the Toronto region. It successfully presents both a tool and a challenge for local policy makers and land developers to incorporate into the future development of Toronto.

- Nature Canada

Special Places endears itself further to the reader by ending not only with a sober assessment of the precariousness of the “Evolving Urban Ecology,” but also with some cautiously optimistic conclusions of we continue to care about our “Special Places.”

- Lothar Honnighausen