Rouge National Urban Park

The land that is now Rouge National Urban Park has a layered protection history. Rouge Park was established by the Province of Ontario in 1995, governed by a multi-party Rouge Park Alliance. A 2010 governance review recommended Parks Canada take over stewardship, leading to the Rouge National Urban Park Act, which came into force on May 15, 2015 — officially making it Canada's first National Urban Park, a new category of federally protected area distinct from a traditional national park.

A different kind of national park

Rouge National Urban Park spans roughly 79 square kilometres across the valleys of the Rouge River and Little Rouge Creek, straddling Toronto, Markham, Pickering and Uxbridge Township — one of the largest urban parks in North America. Unlike most national parks, it deliberately includes a mosaic of forests, wetlands and roughly 4,700 acres of active farmland, some of Ontario's last class 1 farmland within an urban region, reflecting a mandate that pairs ecological protection with continued agriculture. Parks Canada cites well over 1,700 species of plants and animals within the park.

Sources

• Parks Canada — Canada's First National Urban Park Turns 10
• The Canadian Encyclopedia — Rouge National Urban Park

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