Tag Archives: DOLA

Off-Leash Area, six years later.

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The Raymore Park dog off-leash area (DOLA) was opened with some fanfare by Premier Doug Ford’s nephew six years ago. Its design followed standard Toronto Parks and Forestry protocols, namely removal of vegetation and topsoil then replacement with pea-gravel and fenced with rustic poles and rails backed up by a wire containment fence. The aim was to provide an off-leash area where dogs could exercise and socialize safely. The idea, sold at a community presentation was that the DOLA would be used mainly by local residents and that any extra traffic would be minimal.

The site of the present-day DOLA back in October 2008 looking south-west..
The DOLA under construction in February 2017 looking north-west.
Then councillor (red top) Mike Ford at the opening ceremony on July 10, 2017.

The DOLA was built with several design flaws.

1. The small dog enclosure is only accessible by passing through the large dog enclosure.

Small dogs must run the gauntlet to get to their enclosure. July 2017.
The small dog area with landscape fabric in the foreground. July 2023.

2. The pea gravel surface irritates dog paws making exercise out of the question for most.

3. No shade for dogs and owners. A few trees have been planted but these will take many years to mature.

Some trees have been planted but no shade – and harsh pea gravel. July 2023.

4. The space is totally alienated from nature and looks more like a cattle feedlot.

The DOLA and remaining (unused) baseball diamond just north of Emmet Waterfall. Google Maps.

A few observations:

  1. The DOLA is empty most of the day.
  2. The DOLA is popular with commercial dog walkers but a majority of individual owners seem to prefer other parts of Raymore park.
  3. Commercial dog walkers are banned from November through May but many of them use the park year-round.
  4. Compared to the rest of the park, the off-leash section is a barren wasteland.
  5. Thanks to pea gravel making running uncomfortable, dogs get little exercise.
  6. Many people ignore leash by-laws in the park.
  7. The DOLA has done little to protect park wildlife from off-leash dogs.
  8. By-law enforcement seems to have disappeared since Covid.
  9. The DOLA seems to have been a huge waste of money and resources.

Overall Grade: D-

Public Consultation:

A Toronto-wide consultation process was begun in June 2019 to gather feedback on how to improve DOLA design with stakeholder meetings and public surveys. The effort seems to have ground to a halt during Covid as there are no updates beyond this one in 2020.

My two cents: The DOLA should never have been built as there was no demand for it – especially for one so flawed. Far better, cheaper and less disruptive, to have allowed the huge open space between the two unused baseball diamonds to be planted with native trees and create a woodland / wildlife corridor that would join with the one south of the weir.

What might have been – extending the woods north beyond the falls to form a wildlife corridor. Google Maps.

Extra Credit: Read Maria Kwok’s thorough review of Raymore Park’s DOLA here.

Billions of trees!

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Trees are great at cleaning the air and capturing carbon. They also moderate the extremes of weather and keep wind speeds down year-round. They also smooth out temperatures, keeping them lower in summer and higher in winter. Recognizing this, Prime Minister Trudeau promised that Canada would plant 2 billion trees by 2030. This was during the 2019 election campaign and we all know the value of campaign promises.

From Democrat and Chronicle.

The idea for a mass tree planting may have come from New Zealand and Australia which had announced similar ambitious goals in 2018 and 2019. The U.S. is also promising to plant 4.1 billion trees in the same timeline as Canada. All told, Canada has around 318 billion trees so adding two billion to the total won’t be a big increase. In fact it won’t even replace the trees that will be cut down by then. Even so, two billion has a nice ring to it.

Presumably the Liberals thought they would be safely out of office by 2030 and wouldn’t have to worry about actually achieving the target. According to lots of news outlets, the number of trees planted thus far is pretty dismal. The government says it planted about 29 million trees in 2021. At that rate the two billionth tree will be planted around the year 2092. The job of planting and monitoring the trees has been entrusted to Natural Resources Canada but tellingly, the 2BT initiative isn’t high enough of a priority to make the front page of their website.

Obviously vast tracts of land will need to be planted in order to achieve the two billion target. Even so, Raymore Park stands ready to play its part – there’s lots of room at the park entrance and around the dog off-leash area (both of which could do with some shade in summer).

Looking south towards the dog off-leash area. April 16, 2023.

Whatever we do, let’s make sure we protect any new trees from our local beavers!

UPDATE, June 14, 2023:

According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the federal government was never in a position to plant billions of trees as it’s the provinces that do most of the tree planting in Canada. On June 13, 2023, Environment Commissioner Jerry DeMarco testified at the Commons natural resources committee that, “We found that given the number of trees planted so far, this program is unlikely to succeed unless significant changes are made.”

Auditor Kimberly Leach said that provinces would have to do most of the planting and that Cabinet had not signed up all provinces to do so.

According to Blacklock’s, “The program originally budgeted at $3.16 billion over ten years is now expected to cost $5.94 billion, by Budget Office estimate.”

Pea gravel an issue for Leslieville dog owner.

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Raymore Park’s DOLA and its pea gravel at the official opening in July 2017.

A couple of things that seemed clear when the Raymore Park dog off leash area (DOLA) was first proposed were;

1. The DOLA was a done deal regardless of input.

2. Pea gravel would be the surface of choice rather than more paw-friendly wood chips.

At the community meetings to discuss the DOLA, residents brought up the issue of the pea gravel as being irritating.

SInce the DOLA was constructed, two main issues have been pointed out to Toronto Parks directly and also through Councillor Mike Ford, namely that the pea gravel irritates dog paws to the point where some simply shut down. The other issue is that access to the small dog enclosure requires running the gauntlet through the large dog area. These two factors may well explain the unexpectedly low numbers using Raymore Park’s DOLA.

Neither issue seemed likely to be acted upon but now there is a glimmer of hope at least for those who dislike the irritating pea gravel.

According to the Toronto Star, a partially blind woman in the east end of Toronto found the pea gravel of her local DOLA irritating to her dog and also fell and broke her cane on the uneven surface. Instead of using the DOLA, she regularly allowed her dog to run off-leash outside the permitted area and eventually received a $261 ticket.

The lady has decided to take the city to court over the fine stating that the gravel is an unsuitable surface and has demanded that it be replaced. Ironically, the local park association raised $20,000 in order to replace the original but unsuitable crushed granite surface. The city opted to spend the community’s money on pea gravel.

The whole point of a leash free zone is to allow dogs to socialize and get some playful exercise. While pea gravel may be wonderful for drainage, if dogs can’t or won’t use the surface, there’s no point in having a DOLA.

If this lady wins her argument in court, there may be a case for replacing the pea gravel throughout Toronto’s DOLAs.

A close-up of the non-rounded ‘pea gravel’ used with a pair of husky paws for scale.