Falling in love with the 'Spit'

By Dave Milne / Staff Writer

Few man-made creations can boast of friends, particularly 1,200 of them, who will fight hammer and tong to preserve and protect.

But the Leslie Street Spit is not your every day man-made creation. An urban wilderness jutting some five kilometres out into Lake Ontario, the spit is Toronto's own version of Kuwait; A small, strategic resource-rich area, seemingly ripe for exploitation.

But like Kuwait, the spit also has watchful and powerful allies, willing to jump in and defend at a moment's notice.

But perhaps none are more powerful than the Friends of the Spit, a grassroots, non-partisan advocacy group that has been successfully rebuffing spit development challenges since its formation in 1977.

"I don't think a week passes that a telephone rings with someone saying 'I've got this grand scheme for the spit,'" Friends of the Spit co-chair Jacqueline Courval said. "For some people the spit is one big empty space where people can make their pet project come about.

"It goes from the sublime to the ridiculous."

There was the man who wanted to build a house out of old tires, a proposal for a casino, an archery range and even a native sweat lodge. Wind turbines in the area - which Friends of the Spit believe may adversely affect bird migration - represent the latest challenge, but Courval insists her group is up for yet another call to arms.

Made up of people from all parts of the city, all walks of life and all professions, Friends of the Spit are about as green a grassroots movement as you will ever find. The association has a telephone and a Web site, but that is about the extent of its resources, Courval said.

Instead, the group lives and dies by the sheer willpower and dogged determination of its members. Their mandate: To maintain the spit as a public, urban wilderness, free for all to enjoy.

With no cars, no services and no pets allowed, the spit - which originally found life 40 years ago as a breakwater for harbour expansion - remains a natural bastion of calm and tranquillity. It is home to nationally and provincially significant plants and is a bird-watcher's paradise.

It is exactly those qualities which make Friends of the Spit the kind of group that can easily attract new members and hold on to the old ones. In fact, Courval said about half of the original 200 or so people that originally started Friends of the Spit are still involved.

"That's pretty good," she said. "To keep 50 per cent of the original membership a quarter of a century later."

Her own love and admiration of the spit is what Courval said initially drew her to the group. She moved to the Beach in the 1970s, and heard about the spit through word of mouth. She and her husband went out to see for themselves one day, and have been hooked ever since.

"We both said, 'Wow,' she said. "You don't have to go to the cottage country. It's right here on your front doorstep."

So what makes Friends of the Spit so successful? According to Courval, the answer is a simple one. It is the overwhelming desire of the membership to see the spit protected in its current form.

"I think it's the spit that does it," she said. "People go there, and they just fall in love with the place. It sort of spurs people to greatness."

John Carley, the group's other co-chair agrees. There is strength in the group's numbers, but those numbers can be attributed to an attachment much stronger than could ever be formed with any of the city's manicured parks.

"We've had a consistent, strong, large membership," Carley said. "But I think the larger issue is it is the only spot like it in Toronto. The members are not all that articulate about it, it's more like something they feel. It's an emotional thing."

Local councillor Jack Layton (Don River) said the group has provided an important service to the city by advocating on behalf of the spit.

As a member of Metro Council and the harbour commission in the mid-1980s, Layton said he worked with the group to help prevent the north side of the spit from being turned into a series of yacht clubs. He said the group was also instrumental in limiting the size of a marina that was built about 15 years ago between the spit and Cherry Beach.

Although Layton said he believes the group's position on the wind turbines lacks environmental foresight, he said Friends of the Spit continue to be a beneficial force.

"They've provided a marvellous service to the city over the years, keeping the spit as a wilderness area.

"It's one of my very own favourite places. I'm very thankful to people like Jackie Courval and John Carley."

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