Unplanned Planned Burn

The weather was beautiful, I was going stir-crazy, I needed to get out in it.

I’ve been making occasional trips across town to High Park to check on the possibility of hooded mergansers there. And maybe some pickups of chickadees, since the High Park population are basically tame from feeding. But more than anything, I just wanted to be outside in the sunshine. It was spur of the moment, throw-dart-at-dartboard-and-it-hits-high-park.

I got off at the subway stop closest to the west side of the park where the manicure gives way to wilder woods and Grenadier Pond. But as I headed across the street, I noticed an odd haze coming from the east combined with that unmistakable whiff of campfire.

Odd…

I’m so glad my brain connected the dots quickly. This was an event I had wanted to capture for years - which you’d think would mean I was a little more on the ball about it. But I had no idea it was happening, and was only at High Park at all, as I said, because of conveniently good weather and too long sitting in front of a screen. 

As I hoofed it in the direction of the haze while frantically googling, my suspicions were confirmed: it was prescribed burn day!

High Park is home to a rare ecosystem: Black Oak Savannah. It’s a subject I’ve wanted to do an episode on for a long time. It’s fallen victim to two things. One, High Park is so accessible that it’s always easy to put it off, because it’ll always be right there. Two, I knew to do it justice, I’d have to catch the annual prescribed burn which I had been terrible at doing. 

Because one of the most interesting things about the black oak savannah is it needs periodic cleansing by fire to stay healthy. And so the city has made this an annual routine. 

I missed the main event. Opening ceremony had been at 9:45, the actual lighting of the fires after that. I was there late afternoon as crews were hosing down whatever was still burning.

I got a curtain of smoke, charred ground, some stubborn flames, and a lot of people in orange. It was both an incredibly lucky break and had me kicking myself for not staying more vigilant on the event so I could have been there for the whole thing.

It also definitely renewed my interest in the black oak savannah as a subject. Frankly, I have too many on the go at the moment which is maybe the blessing in disguise here. I can probably afford to wait a year and try to be more on top of attending the burn next spring. But it may be worth a day or two there in the summer to capture the savannah itself. After all, it’s right there.

Once I’d shot everything I could at the tail end of the burn, I did head down for my initial target, the wetlands at the north end of Grenadier pond, but found them surprisingly barren. I think there’d been some landscaping and cutting back done, they felt a little more pruned than the last time I’d been. No mergansers - fewer ducks than usual, and all mallards. Some cormorants squabbling over perches and a mute swan who I think was nesting - that was as exciting as the wetlands got.

I can kick myself for not being at the prescribed burn from the get-go, or just appreciate the serendipity of catching any of it at all. And regardless, the trip certainly fulfilled its real purpose: sun and- I was about to say fresh air, but… sun and smoke inhalation.