Friends of the Don East

Friends of the Don East (FODE) is an Canadian non-governmental organization based in Toronto, Ontario. They are an environmental group whose goal is to preserve and protect natural areas in the Don River watershed.

History

FODE was created in 1993. They were based in the pre-amalgamation borough of East York. Their original name was "Friends of the Don East York". The name was shortened in 1998 after amalgmation eliminated East York as a separate municipality. The group was modelled after the Task Force to Bring Back the Don which at the time was limited to the area within the borders of the old city of Toronto.

As an NGO, they lobbied East York Council to be more environmentally aware especially in the East York Official Plan and other planning issues. On environmental issues they were opposed to building of the Leslie Street extension. During this time they persuaded the TRCA to designate Crothers' Woods as an "Environmentally Significant Area (ESA)". This was important because Crothers' Woods lay directly in the path of the planned extension. It still is but that plan is now called Redway Road and is part of a plan to build a bus-only road as part of the "Don Valley Transportation Master Plan".

Locally they started a program called "Another Yard for the Don" which encouraged home owners to grow native plants and to create pesticide free zones. Another program called "Tree Count" used an urban forest initiative called "Neighbourwoods" to perform a survey of street trees. It highlighted the problem of even aged street trees which may start dying off all at the same time, leaving local streets without their leafy canopy. It also recommended places where new trees could be grown.

One of the ongoing projects has been the restoration of the Taylor-Massey Creek watershed. Some of their naturalization projects include the Goulding Estate on Dawes Road and parts of Warden Woods.

In 2003 they have started a project called the "Taylor-Massey Project". The project's main goal is to highlight the issues and concerns that are sprinkled throughout the watershed. Under TMP, FODE created a web-based portal that divides the watershed into 12 parts called reaches. Each reach is described using a series of aerial photos. Another project goal is to create a walking trail along the entire length of Taylor-Massey Creek.

Recently FODE has attained charitable status. While this limits their ability to perform advocacy work (Canadian charities are not supposed to be politically active), it does allow it to raise funds more easily. They now have a grant from the Trillium Foundation [http://www.trilliumfoundation.org/cms/en/index.aspx] which allows them to hire additional staff.

Activities

FODE hosts tree planting events and neighbourhood park cleanups. They also hold walks and bicycle rides that highlight the natural areas in lower Don watershed. FODE also sponsors workshops that assist local communities to engage in sustainable living practices. FODE produces a newsletter twice per year called "At the Forks", a reference to the Forks of the Don which is the confluence of the East and West Branches of the Don as well as Taylor-Massey Creek.

Governance

FODE is governed by a board of directors. The first chair was Stephen Peck who stayed until 1999. He resigned to focus more attention on his business to advocate for green roofs.

Controversy

In 2004, a former executive director, Andrew McCammon, resigned from FODE and started his own group called the "Taylor-Massey Project". He claimed that FODE had given him permission to take control of TMP. However, FODE denies this. McCammon setup his own website [http://www.thetmp.org/index.htm] and copied the entire TMP web-portal from the FODE website to his own. He also co-opted FODE volunteers and sponsors. Various attempts to reach reconciliation between the two groups have failed. Both groups continue to operate independently, even though they have the same general goals.

External links

* [http://www.web.net/~fode/ Friends of the Don East website]
* [http://www.toronto.ca/planning/dvp.htm Don Valley Transportation Master Plan]
* [http://www.efi.fi/projects/neighbourwoods/ Neighbourwoods website]
* [http://www.web.net/~fode/taylor/index.htm Taylor Massey Project web-portal]