One freezing winter day, with plumes of smoke escaping chimneys, three environmental advocates gathered to chat about volunteering with Ward 15’s Don Valley West for Environmental Action (DVW4EA).
This congenial band of DVW4EA activists – Janet Young, Jonathan Dostrovsk, and Karen Mergler – along with other volunteers are dreaming of warmer days and anticipating dozens of green space photos that will arrive in DVW4EA’s inbox to be entered in their annual photo contest. Opened March 21st, you have until June 21st to submit your entry with a maximum of five photos of ravines and wild spaces in Ward 15 taken in spring 2026. Full contest rules and guidelines are on DVW4EA’s site.
The contest was created to highlight what’s beautiful and unique in our ward’s parks and ravines, the places we know and the ones we may not yet have discovered. Head out into Ward 15’s and surrounding ravines like the Don Valley system, Toronto Botanical Gardens to E.T. Seton Park, Moore Park ravine to Don Valley Brickworks, and Lawrence Park ravine where the green space was officially unveiled as Jaye Robinson Park last year. Create your masterpieces and see your photos posted on their website’s map.
In conversation, the DVW4EA activists lamented the environmental and housing costs of heating poorly insulated homes and buildings in Leaside and beyond. They all agreed, “We’re thrilled that, along with the many other Green Neighbours Network organizations, we’ve influenced Toronto’s decision-makers resulting in the City committing to a number of environmental actions.”
Among them is this initiative, described on the City’s site: “The TransformTO Net Zero Strategy: Action Plan (2026-2030) was approved by Council on December 17, 2025. Informed by the public consultation, the report focuses on opportunities with greater impact on greenhouse gas emissions reductions and advances critical steps to net zero.” (View the staff report at IE26.3: https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.IE26.3.)
Karen, Janet and Jonathan praised our local eco-conscious politicians for their enthusiastic and continued support of environmental initiatives: MP Rob Oliphant, MPP Stephanie Bowman and Councillor Rachel Chernos Lin, who was singled out for her tireless environmental committee work with Toronto’s Infrastructure and Environment Committee and new tree protection initiative.
The DVW4EA trio invite more Leasiders to consider joining them as volunteers and to keep an eye out for a repair café soon to be announced on their website.
Links:
Don Valley West for Environmental Action:
https://dvw4ea.ca/
Green Neighbours Network: https://gnntoronto.ca/
City of Toronto: https://www.toronto.ca/services-payments/water-environment/net-zero-homes-buildings/key-city-strategies-for-net-zero-buildings/.
