ADVENTURES IN THE URBAN FOREST

First there were forests here.

Deep ravines that guarded their rivers with crenelated walls of cedar and pine and oak and willow. Steep hills, cloaked in winter snow, steal the light of the sun, parcelling it out to fall on fallen trees, black water moving fast over gravel beds, clots of ice caught in the stream bends

This big city is built around the ravines and the rivers, for all the condos and shopping malls and highways, the forests are still here, still alive, still places unto themselves. In my neighbourhood, the green belt of Forest Hills sprawls along the northern part of Toronto, sometimes corralled into a park or a nature preservation area but always going the way it has gone for a long time

During this crazy winter of ice storms and arctic temperatures and streets too clogged with ice and fallen trees to drive across, Terra and I have taken the opportunity to move away from the roads and explore this urban forest

Terra is a border collie and a border collie is a sight dog, she relies upon her vision and her stare to control sheep and cattle. Well, Terra has never seen a sheep so she has become convinced that she is a scent dog. She jams that nose in the snow and begins to actively hunt .. something. Earlier this summer up north she discovered frogging, put your paw down and a frog will jump out. Now she has evolved it into snow frogging ... what she is catching only Terra knows but she is dedicated I'll give her that

If there is a frog under that snow, she will root it out

Her real strength as a hunter, though, is her ability to hunt sticks. That is her true prey. She will hunt them everywhere; forest glens, river banks, she is particularly skilled at trapping them on bridges

And if sticks become scarce, there are always ducks. There is a lot of wildlife in the urban forest. Most of it Terra has no hope in hell ever catching. She will never catch a duck, but she has learned that ancient mantra "If you bark at them, they will fly"

Here is a video compilation of our exploration of the urban forest. The song here is by Dallas Green, also known as City and Colour. Some of the lyrics seemed very appropriate. The first few shots of the video, under the titles were recorded with my little Nikon underwater cam, the rest of the video was shot on a 5th gen iPod

Storm Woods: A Trek Through Forest Hills Nature Centre from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.