Strange things can happen in big cities, and TFN has now witnessed a scenario that leaves the local nature community shaken and angry.
Cottonwood Flats is a much-loved nature spot in the Don Valley, where, for eight years now, TFN has run projects in partnership with the City of Toronto, involving both citizen science monitoring and active land restoration work. The projects have been possible thanks to hundreds of volunteers, devoting countless hours of effort, both in monitoring and documenting the slow progress of ecosystem restoration, and also in the sweaty labour of digging up invasives and settling in native perennials, shrubs and young trees.
Imagine the dismay of all those volunteers to discover their loving efforts at Cottonwood Flats site have suddenly been trashed, with years of work destroyed by large crowds of rave fans who descended on the site over several nights in late August. The rave events were illegal, with no permits issued by the city. The damage was shocking enough to make the front page of the Toronto Star, September 7 2025.
The Star article accurately described the extent of damage; with vegetation flattened under tire tracks and strewn with toilet paper, feces, cigarette butts and much other waste. The Star reporter also interviewed and quoted our president Lynn Miller, who aptly described her devastation at the extent of the damage. One key point missed by the Star’s coverage is that the damage actually affected two different but connected TFN projects: The first project, launched 2017, is the Cottonwood Flats Monitoring Project, (CFMP). CFMP harnesses citizen science power to track natural regeneration of a floodplain area, and publishes annual progress reports. For the past several years, TFN and the City have added a restoration component, empowering volunteers to plant native plants and remove invasive species, under the umbrella of the Community Stewardship Program.
What can we do? To start, we hope you’ll read the Star article, and share the story and your views with friends. This is not an isolated case; raves have also damaged sites at Tommy Thompson park in recent years, prompting local councillor Paula Fletcher in 2021 to ask city staff for an enforcement plan. Please also email your councillor and ask for enforcement to address raves in natural areas. Every councillor in every ward needs to hear that this situation is unacceptable.
In any case, rest assured that TFN will continue its projects at Cottonwood Flats. TFN will not give up on this site, where years of dedicated work by volunteers have showed so much promise. TFN will be taking up this issue with our partners at the city, both at the staff level and with the local councillor. TFN’s position is firm: natural lands and raves don’t mix.
Ellen Schwartzel for TFN’s Take Action team