Your feedback needed now: Let’s keep Tommy Thompson Park an urban wilderness

The City of Toronto and TRCA are now consulting on how to improve the “visitor experience” at Tommy Thompson Park, through a project called the Visitor Experience Plan (VEP). The goal of this project is to “identify and prioritize operational and physical changes to Tommy Thompson Park to manage a growing number of visitors to the park, improve the user experience, reduce conflicts, and protect natural habitats”.

It’s vital that city consultants and staff hear from the nature community that the spit should remain a car-free, pet-free urban wilderness. 

We urge friends of nature at Tommy Thompson Park to speak up at one or more of these consultations in May:

First, a Pop-up on May 9th 11 am to 2 pm at The Spit itself. Please note that is also the day of the Tommy Thompson bird festival so parking may be an issue: if you ride a bike or take TTC, that’s far preferable.

The second event is May 12th, 6:30 to 8:30 pm which will be an Open House Public Meeting held at Ralph Thornton Community Centre, 765 Queen Street East. We look forward to seeing you there, but more importantly, look forward to hearing you express your thoughts about The Spit personally to the consultants and to the City and TRCA staff who will be present.

Thirdly, please do the Survey at this link (deadline is May 18th) and make your wishes and hopes known. The city is asking: What’s working? What’s not working? And What needs improvement? The survey is an interactive map of the Spit, and may take a bit of fiddling about. You may be more successful on your computer or laptop, as the map tends to overwhelm the phone screen.

For context, you can also read TFN’s recent newsletter Lecture Report about the Spit: Nov. 2025, p3, presented by Friends of the Spit.

Ellen S., with thanks to Friends of the Spit

Toronto Field Naturalists wishes to acknowledge this Land through which we walk. For thousands of years, the Land has been shared by the Wendat, the Haudenosaunee, and the Anishinaabe. Toronto is situated on the Land within the Toronto Purchase, Treaty 13, the traditional and treaty Lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. This territory is also part of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum, a covenant agreement between Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Wendat peoples and allied nations to peaceably share the land and all its resources. Today, the Land is home to peoples of numerous nations. We are all grateful to have the opportunity to continue to care for and share the beauty of this Land.