Geese rescued from rooftop GRIT Lab at U of T

Rescued goslings on the rooftop GRITLab on Friday, April 29. (Photo by Prof. Jennifer Drake)

A family of geese was successfully relocated from a rooftop lab at U of T.

Led by the Toronto Wildlife Centre, CivMin’s Professor Jennifer Drake and MASc candidate Jad Saade assisted with the rescue the afternoon of Friday, April 29. The operation resulted in the successful rescue of two adult geese and their five goslings, to be relocated to a Toronto shoreline.

The nest was first noticed just over three weeks ago by researchers using the Green Roof Innovation Testing Laboratory (GRIT Lab) on top of the Student Commons building on College Street. The same geese have visited the rooftop to nest since 2015, and were relatively undisturbed during a period of a few years of construction, but have not been successful in keeping their goslings alive.

“They’ve continued to be a bit silly, in not thinking through their needs each year,” says Prof. Drake. “There’s no water source for them up there, so in the past the goslings have not survived. We had to take action this year. I’m glad it worked out so well.”

Once the five goslings hatched on Thursday, April 28, the Toronto Wildlife Centre was contacted and the operation plan was itself hatched and completed Friday.

Two adult geese with their five goslings shortly after hatching on Thursday, April 28. (Photo by Jad Saade)

There are two GRIT Lab sites – one on the Daniels Building and one on the Student Commons Building. Established in 2010 on the roof of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at 230 College Street in Toronto, the Green Roof Innovation Testing Laboratory (GRIT Lab) is a state-of-the-art facility — and the only one of its kind testing the environmental performance associated with green roofs, green walls and solar photovoltaic technologies in Canada. GRIT Lab is led by professors Liat Margolis (Landscape Architecture).

By Phill Snel

Geese rescue underway on Friday, April 29 at the Green Roof Innovation Testing Laboratory (GRIT Lab) on top of the Student Commons Building at U of T. (Photo by Prof. Jennifer Drake)