Burnt Lands Provincial Park | |
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Location | Ottawa and Mississippi Mills, Ontario |
Coordinates | 45°15′40″N76°09′00″W / 45.26111°N 76.15000°W Coordinates: 45°15′40″N76°09′00″W / 45.26111°N 76.15000°W |
Area | 516.00 ha (1,275.1 acres) |
Established | 2003 |
Governing body | Ontario Parks |
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The Burnt Lands is an alvar between Almonte and Ottawa near Upper Huntley, Ontario, Canada. [1] It probably obtained its name from one of the forest fires that swept the area during early European settlement.
It is possible that fires assist in creating or maintaining alvars. However, the shallow soil, with alternating drought and flooding, is likely the main factor. The main point is that in a land that is typically covered in forest, alvars provide small area of open prairie-like conditions for plants that require such conditions.
This alvar is one of the best examples of this habitat type in Lanark County and in southern Ontario. It has been the subject of numerous scientific studies. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Because of its significance, The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources has designated ca 610 hectares (1,500 acres) of the alvar as an Area of Natural and Scientific Interest. A smaller parcel of several hundred hectares is protected within the Burnt Lands Provincial Park (Nature Reserve). [8]
It is a popular destination with local naturalists, including bird-watchers and photographers. [9]
Some of the distinctive plants found here include Cooper's milk vetch [10] and Ram's-Head Ladyslipper. There are 82 breeding bird species and 48 butterfly species. The alvar is thought to have existed in some form since the end of the last ice age, since it has globally rare snails ( Vertigo hannai ) and even a kind of carabid beetle found nowhere else in the world. [11]
The CFS Carp Almonte Detachment (Almonte Antennae Yard), a decommissioned military radio receiver, was located in the alvar. [12]
Threats to the alvar include urban sprawl, subdivisions, quarries, illegal dumping of household trash and construction materials, illegal sand quarrying, and all-terrain vehicles. [12] There is also a problem with jack pine trees, once planted by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, that are now shading out some of the rare plant species; some experts suggest that these trees need to be removed. [13] A fire in 1999 removed some of the encroaching forest and produced open meadows, which, in 2008 had nearly twice the number of plant species as in adjoining unburned areas. [14]
The alvar is protected within the Burnt Lands Provincial Park. [15] The park consists of two non-contiguous parcels of land, totaling 516 hectares (1,280 acres) of land. [8]
It is a non-operating park without any visitor activities or facilities. [8]
Carleton Place is a town in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in Lanark County, about 46 kilometres (29 mi) west of downtown Ottawa. It is located at the crossroads of Highway 15 and Highway 7, halfway between the towns of Perth, Almonte, Smiths Falls, and the nation's capital, Ottawa. Canada's Mississippi River, a tributary of the Ottawa River flows through the town. Mississippi Lake is just upstream by boat, as well as by car.
The Thousand Islands – Frontenac Arch region or the Frontenac Axis is an exposed strip of Precambrian rock in Canada and the United States that links the Canadian Shield from Algonquin Park with the Adirondack Mountain region in New York, an extension of the Laurentian mountains of Québec. The Algonquin to Adirondacks region, which includes the Frontenac Axis or Arch, is a critical linkage for biodiversity and resilience, and one with important conservation potential. The axis separates the St. Lawrence Lowlands and the Great Lakes Lowlands. It has many distinctive plant and animal species. It is one of four ecoregions of the Mixedwood Plains.
An alvar is a biological environment based on a limestone plain with thin or no soil and, as a result, sparse grassland vegetation. Often flooded in the spring, and affected by drought in midsummer, alvar support a distinctive group of prairie-like plants. Most alvars occur either in northern Europe or around the Great Lakes in North America. This stressed habitat supports a community of rare plants and animals, including species more commonly found on prairie grasslands. Lichen and mosses are common species. Trees and bushes are absent or severely stunted.
Beckwith is a township in eastern Ontario, Canada. It is located in Lanark County on the Mississippi River. It is located within Canada's National Capital Region.
The Mississippi River is a tributary of the Ottawa River in Eastern Ontario, Canada which has no relation with the Mississippi River in the United States. It is 200 kilometres (120 mi) in length from its source at Mackavoy Lake, has a drainage area of 4,450 square kilometres (1,720 sq mi), and has a mean discharge of 40 cubic metres per second (1,400 cu ft/s). There are more than 250 lakes in the watershed.
Lanark County is a county located in the Canadian province of Ontario. Its county seat is Perth, which was first settled in 1816. Most European settlements of the county began in 1816, when Drummond, Beckwith and Bathurst townships were named and initially surveyed. The first farm north of the Rideau was cleared and settled somewhat earlier, in 1790. The county took its name from the town of Lanark in Scotland. Nearly all the townships were named after British public and military figures from the era of early settlement.
Drummond/North Elmsley is a township in eastern Ontario, Canada in Lanark County. It is situated on the north shore of the Rideau River between the town of Perth and the town of Smiths Falls. It is a predominantly rural municipality. The township offices are located in the hamlet of Port Elmsley.
Presqu'ile Provincial Park is a park in southeastern Northumberland County on the north shore of Lake Ontario near the town of Brighton in Ontario, Canada. The park occupies an area of 9.37 km2 (3.62 sq mi). The name of the park is the French word for peninsula, or literally "almost island", and was believed to be named by Samuel De Champlain on his second expedition. The peninsula was formed when a limestone island was connected to the mainland by a sand spit; this kind of formation is referred to as a tombolo.
An Area of Natural and Scientific Interest is an official designation by the provincial Government of Ontario in Canada applied to contiguous geographical regions within the province that have geological or ecological features which are significantly representative provincially, regionally, or locally. Some sites with this designation were assessed through the International Biological Program between 1964 and 1974. As of 2014, over 1000 sites covering 460,000 hectares (4,600 km2) have been designated in the province.
Westmeath Provincial Park is a provincial park on the Ottawa River in Renfrew County, Ontario, Canada. Located on the section of the river known as Bellows Bay, it features a long sandy beach and an active sandspit. It is one of the most pristine sand dune and wetland complexes along the southern Ottawa River.
Paul A. Keddy is a Canadian ecologist. He has studied plant population ecology and community ecology in wetlands and many other habitats in eastern Canada and Louisiana, United States.
Mississippi Lake is a lake in Lanark County in Ontario, Canada. Ontario's Mississippi River flows northeast and north through the lake. Several small creeks including Cranberry Creek, McCrearys Creek, and McGibbon Creek drain into the lake from adjoining forest and agricultural land. The lake is distinctive for having one side that is part of the Canadian shield, while the other is mostly limestone. The lake is a remnant of the old Champlain Sea, which flooded eastern Ontario at the end of last ice age. The former shoreline of the sea can still be traced inland from the north shore of the lake.
White Lake is a medium-sized lake of Ontario, Canada. It is located in Renfrew County, 60 kilometres (37 mi) west of Ottawa, Ontario near Calabogie to the west and Arnprior to the north. It may be accessed via Highway 417 from Ottawa or Renfrew Country Road 511 from Perth. The town of White Lake lies on the northern shore of the lake.
The White Lake fen is a small wetland on the shore of White Lake in Lanark County, Ontario in Canada. It has been designated both an Area of Natural and Scientific Interest and a Provincially Significant Wetland; it is also listed as a Special Place in Lanark County. Fens are a relatively rare wetland habitat in the region of Lanark County; they can occur on either marble or limestone bedrock. White lake has a granite dome along its north shore, while it spreads over marble bedrock to the south. A number of calcareous fens have developed along the south shore. The largest of these has developed in a long narrow arm of the lake, where it stretches for nearly two kilometers and covers 90 ha.
The Almonte Detachment was a military-operated radio communications receiver station linked by land line to CFS Carp located in Burnt Lands alvar off Lanark County Road 49 East of Almonte, Ontario, Canada. A second antenna receiver site was located further east near Dunrobin, Ontario; the Dunrobin Detachment. Both of these sites were linked to CFS Carp Richardson Detachment, which was a remote-operated transmitting site. CFS Carp Almonte Detachment was unmanned and the location primarily used as a remote antenna farm. After the end of the Cold War, CFS Carp was decommissioned and the antenna site was no longer needed.
Lanark was a provincial riding in Ontario, Canada, that was created for the 1934 election. In 1987 there was a minor redistribution and the riding was renamed to Lanark-Renfrew. It was abolished prior to the 1999 election. It was merged into the riding of Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke.
The Keddy Nature Sanctuary consists of approximately one square mile of forest and wetland on the very edge of the Canadian shield, just an hour west of Ottawa on the east side of Lanark County, in Ontario, Canada. It is mostly second growth temperate deciduous forest, interspersed with wetlands and beaver ponds, as well as sedge-dominated rock-ridges. A central ridge has more than twenty hectares of hemlock forest. There are also old fields that remain from pastures created in the previous century. Parts of this property, as well as adjoining lands, are designated as the Scotch Corners Provincially Significant Wetland. The property is one of several protected by the Mississippi Madawaska Land Trust.
Scotch Corners Wetland is a provincially significant wetland complex located in Lanark County, Ontario, Canada. The 202 hectares area has a wide array of wetland types including swamps, marshes, vernal pools, beaver ponds and seepage areas. It forms the headwaters of several creeks that drain into Mississippi Lake.
The Panmure Alvar is an alvar that lies on a limestone plain straddling the north eastern edge of Lanark County and the western boundary of the City of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, east of the town of Pakenham. In alvars, shallow soil with alternating drought and flooding conditions creates open clearings with distinctive plant and animal communities. Fire may also play a role.
Carden Alvar Provincial Park is a provincial park located in the Kawartha Lakes in Central Ontario, Canada. Alvars are globally rare ecosystems found exclusively in Northern Europe and the Great Lakes region of North America. The park is classified as a non-operating, natural environment park and was established in 2014. Natural environment parks protect outstanding landscapes, ecosystems and other elements of the province's wilderness to provide high quality recreational and educational experiences for visitors.
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