The Meadoway is used by ground-nesting birds like the song sparrow.
By Kathryn Stocks
One of the special presentations at our Earth Day event was an interesting discussion on The Meadoway given by TRCA education coordinator Raja Raudsepp. The Meadoway is the transformation of the Gatineau Hydro Corridor, which stretches across Scarborough from the Don Valley to the zoo, into a 16-kilometre stretch of urban greenspace and meadowland. It includes a multi-use trail with lots of thriving meadows on either side of the path.
Right now, The Meadoway is experiencing its spring awakening. The dead stems of native plants, which were left standing over the winter as structural habitat for wildlife, solitary bees and birds, are starting to show signs of life while early spring plants are already blooming.
Raja described how important wildflowers are to the meadows by showing the audience strings that equalled the length of the roots of New England Aster, Common Milkweed and turf grass. Both the Aster and Milkweed strings were quite long, the Milkweed can go down as deep as 12 feet or 3 metres, while the grass root was really short at 4 to 6 inches or 10 to 15 cm. “Think about the benefit of those deep roots in these meadow habitats in the summer, especially if you have a couple of weeks without rain,” she said.
Raja has been education coordinator for The Meadoway since 2019. There are 30 or 40 classes in schools near the hydro corridor that have been growing native meadow plant seeds in their classrooms. “We try to get schools that are really close so they can walk to The Meadoway with their plants in hand and plant them, and really feel part of the project because that is the goal,” she said. “It’s a community space, not only wildlife communities but human communities. We want people to feel they’re invested in it.”
One of the difficulties of The Meadoway is having to work within the parameters of a functioning hydro corridor. Even though large rocks and logs are beneficial for meadow organisms, they can’t be used because they might impede the hydro vehicles.
Since The Meadoway can’t have trees due to the hydro wires above, bird boxes have been installed for bluebirds and swallows. Some birds like song sparrows nest on the ground until the foliage comes up. They might have two or three broods each season, and the first is always on the ground while the second might be in a shrub. These ground spaces in The Meadoway are really significant for ground-nesting birds.
Over the years they have found 158 plant species, 25 butterfly species, 22 nesting birds, and 23 bee species in the meadows. “It’s awesome,” Raja said.
The Meadoway is divided into sections and there are still a few gaps between them. The map on The Meadoway website (meadoway.ca) shows routes you can take to detour around the areas that aren’t connected. The closest section for Centennial residents runs between Conlins Rd. (just north of Highway 401) and Meadowvale Rd.