A fortuitous urban miracle, Tommy Thompson Park is an oasis of "accidental wilderness" on Toronto’s lakeshore.

Initially created as a landfill site on the city’s rapidly developing waterfront, the Leslie Street Spit, as the park is affectionately known, has seen its physical and ecological footprint grow dramatically over recent decades. Forests, grasslands, and wildlife now thrive – all within a stone’s throw of some of the most densely populated areas of North America’s fourth-largest city/

Accidental Wilderness is a rich and lyrical collection of essays curated by internationally recognized landscape architect and original designer of Tommy Thompson Park, Walter H. Kehm. A stunning collection of photographs by renowned landscape photographer Robert Burley complements these essays, which explore the city’s port origins; the principles and design of the park’s master plan; the native-plant succession process; the park’s unique flora and fauna; public advocacy efforts; and public recreation in the park and its effect on mental, physical, and spiritual health.

In an era when the dangers of climate change have begun to affect daily life, Tommy Thompson Park offers a hopeful narrative about how nature can flourish in, and contribute to, the well-being of twenty-first-century cities.

Walter H. Kehm developed his passion for landscape through bird watching in the Jamaica Bay wetlands surrounding JFK Airport in New York. He is a landscape architect, professor (emeritus), and former director of the School of Landscape Architecture at the University of Guelph. He has an international Practice and taught at many architecture and landscape architecture programs throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. He is the senior principal on the design and construction of the recently completed and award-winning Trillium Park at Ontario Place in Toronto.

Walter H. Kehm's profile page

As an artist working in photography, Robert Burley in his work often explores the transition between city and country. He’s completed a number of long-term projects that investigate the presence of nature in an urban setting, including; Viewing Olmsted: Photographs by Robert Burley, Lee Friedlander & Geoffrey James (MIT Press 1996) and An Enduring Wilderness: Toronto’s Natural Parklands (ECW Press 2017). His photographs have been widely exhibited and can be found in numerous museum collections around the globe. Robert lives in Toronto with his family, teaches at Ryerson University’s School of Image Arts, and is represented by the Stephen Bulger Gallery.

Robert Burley's profile page

• Winner, 2021 Heritage Toronto Book Award
• Winner, Canadian Society of Landscape Architects 2021 Award of Excellence – Research

"This beautifully produced ode celebrates a unique place on the shores of Toronto's Lake Ontario. The Spit, as it is known locally, was a dump site for the city's midcentury building boom, a landform not so much planned as accumulated. But nature arrived uninvited, spurring several decades of local advocacy, and eventually a singular urban park emerged."

<em>Landscape Architecture Magazine </em>

"The Spit is miraculous and amazing, growing out of Toronto like a volcanic island. Accidental Wilderness is a stunningly beautiful and hopeful book that captures with writing that is both technical and romantic the story of how the Spit came to be and what it almost was if not for the interventions of the people who protected it."

<em>Spacing</em> magazine

"The book’s value is the detailed accounting of how the accidental creation of Tommy Thompson Park evolved in concert with Kehm’s park master plan. The planning and design process could be used as a framework for creating and restoring urban wildlands in Great Lakes communities and other coastal ecosystem areas. Such a framework is especially critical given how climate change is shifting weather-induced physical processes and temperature. Burley’s photography provides the reader with an intimate feel for the created park character. The book is recommended for those interested in more ecologically based planning and design processes."

<em>Landscape Journal</em>

"This book will leave readers with a great appreciation of what has been created in Lake Ontario at the end of Leslie Street and what impact that creation could have on the future of wilderness – accidental or otherwise – in Canada."

<em>Ontario Field Ornithologists </em>

"Part field guide, part environmental history, Accidental Wilderness would make an excellent manual for ecological restoration along the entire lakeshore."

<em>Spacing Magazine</em>