Rouge National Urban Park
| Rouge National Urban Park | |
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IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape)
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Little Rouge Creek
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| Location | Greater Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Coordinates | 43°48′29″N 79°09′04″W / 43.808°N 79.151°WCoordinates: 43°48′29″N 79°09′04″W / 43.808°N 79.151°W |
| Area | 79.1 km2 (30.5 sq mi) |
| Created | May 15, 2015 |
| Operator | Parks Canada |
| Website | http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/on/rouge/index.aspx |
Rouge National Urban Park is a large national urban park under delevlopment in the Greater Toronto Area, covering the cities of Toronto, Markham and Pickering and in the township of Uxbridge in the province of Ontario, Canada. A rich assembly of natural, cultural and agricultural landscapes, Rouge National Urban Park is home to over 1,700 species of plants and animals, some of the last remaining working farms in the Greater Toronto Area, rare Carolinian ecosystems, Toronto’s only campground, and human history dating back over 10,000 years, including some of Canada's oldest known Indigenous sites. Since 2011, Parks Canada has been working to nationalize and nearly double the size of the original 'Rouge Park'. In the coming years, Parks Canada is planning to add several new trails, education and orientation centres and improved signage and interpretive panels and displays throughout the park. Parks Canada has also introduced dozens of new educational programs to the park, including Learn-to-Camp, Learn-to-Hike, fire side chats, and other complimentary programming. Once fully established, the park will span 79.1 km2.
Rouge National Urban Park is located in the Rouge River, Petticoat Creek and Duffins Creek watersheds. The Rouge River remains the healthiest river that flows through the City of Toronto.
The original Rouge Park was established in 1995 by the Province of Ontario in partnership with cities of Toronto, Markham and Pickering, the regional municipalities of York and Durham, and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. The original park consisted of approximately 40 square kilometres of parkland in Toronto, Markham and Pickering.
Parks Canada first committed to work towards the creation of Rouge National Urban Park in 2011, following a review of the former regional Rouge Park’s governance, organization and finance, which recommended the creation of a national urban park.
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