This is the second story in a series called ‘Earthprints’ that will document human impact on the planet with a story a week in the run-up to the global climate summit in Paris in December.

Toronto's Leslie Street Spit is an unexpected urban oasis whose narrow escape from development has brought marshes, lagoons and forests to the center of Canada's largest city. Jutting into Lake Ontario just minutes from the worst of Toronto traffic, the more formally named Tommy Thomson Park was created over 60 years ago by the dumping of dredged sand, concrete chunks and earth fill, expanding what was once just a thin strip of land in the city's busy harbor.