'A superb piece of habitat': Aurora honours wildlife park champion

Town unveils David Tomlinson Nature Reserve Trailhead sign

Yorkregion.com
October 30, 2020

David Tomlinson, an environmentalist and landscape architect, proposed Aurora develop a nature reserve recognizing the town’s wildlife and vegetation back in 1998.

Tucked between two housing developments on the north side of Wellington Street, between Bayview Avenue and Leslie Street, the first phase of the Aurora Wildlife Park is now underway.

A large corridor of grasslands, marsh and wetlands, the park will be a destination for people interested in experiencing nature.

Twenty-two years after Tomlinson first pitched the idea, the town unveiled the David Tomlinson Nature Reserve Trailhead sign on a park trail in front of the Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex.

“This sign will be one of many way-finding signs within Aurora’s Wildlife Park,” Mayor Tom Mrakas said at the sign unveiling Oct. 23.

“David was studying and monitoring these lands before residential development started and he has an enhanced knowledge of the flora and fauna residing on the lands. He was also instrumental in the success of the park being designated as a provincially significant wetland.”

Coun. John Gallo, who proposed the sign, said he was struck by Tomlinson’s humility in initially declining the honour until he was convinced otherwise.

In fact, Tomlinson still downplays his part, saying many hands have gone into creating the park.

“I don’t want you to think it’s my nature reserve. It’s been a massive effort by a lot of people,” he said as he stood in front of the sign beside his wife, Dierdre.

That includes Jim Spring and his family who donated land, volunteers with Nature Aurora and town staff.

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Many residents don’t know about the park, Tomlinson said after the ceremony.

“I think when they do find out, though, they’re going to be amazed. It really is a superb piece of habitat. It has a bit of everything, a bit of grassland, a bit of woodland, wetlands, marshland. Every habitat, it has an example of it,” he said.

“I think when they find out it’s there and the trails are up and they can actually see it, it will become really popular in the future. And I think it will also become the standard for other municipalities to build urban nature reserves based on it.”