Cottonwood Flats is a 7-hectare site with a rich and varied history, including use as a City snow dump until 1999. This, of course, was a terrible idea with polluting elements of the melting snow entering the Don River.
After much flooding here during Hurricane Hazel in 1954, many fragments from buildings being torn down were placed here to bolster the river banks.
Nowadays, ecological restoration has transformed the area into natural parkland.
Recently some ponds have been added:
This now being perfect habitat for the Eastern Cottonwood Tree, the area is dominated by them.
Nearby views:
Some botany:
NATURE POETRY
And from the hot field’s farthest edge
The cricket’s soft refrain
With mellow accent tells the tale
That August’s here again. – Helen Maria Winslow (1851–1938)
Miles Hearn