People have asked about the safety of the animals in High Park during the traditional and prescribed burn. The prescribed burn in High Park is a low-intensity fire as is appropriate for savannahs and woodlands. Flames stay very low and don’t reach mid-storey vegetation or the crowns of trees, so wildlife in trees are not affected.
Before ignition of any plot, City staff walk through in a line to induce any mammals to run to a place of safety adjacent to the burn site. Any active reptiles are carried to a place of safety. Any reptiles which have not emerged for the season are below the ground where they are safe from the fire (the heat from the fire does not penetrate far enough into the ground to reach turtle nests or snake hibernacula). Birds, like mammals, can move to a place of safety. If any cavity-nesting birds (e.g. wood ducks) are found during the sweep, extra care is taken around that tree. Dormant insects such as pollinators that may be in the leaf litter can’t move, so refugia (unburned portions) are left at the edges of burn sites (and adjacent to unburned sites) for recolonization when the burn site greens up.
In spring 2024, for the first time, community members from Indigenous Land Stewardship Circle, Turtle Protectors, and the High Park Stewards conducted a wildlife sweep of each burn site ahead of the City of Toronto’s own wildlife sweep of the sites. Several garter snakes were moved to safety and a rabbit was flushed and ran away.
