Ellice Swamp [1] | |
---|---|
Location | Perth County, Ontario, Ontario, Canada |
Coordinates | 43°47′N80°10′W / 43.783°N 80.167°W |
Established | 1946 (as Class 2 Provincially Significant wetland) |
Named for | Ellice Township (Ontario) |
Governing body | Upper Thames River Conservation Authority and Grand River Conservation Authority |
Website | www |
Ellice Swamp is a large woodlot in Perth County, Ontario. [2] The swamp covers approximately 856 hectares (2,120 acres). It is located between Stratford and Milverton in the northeastern portion of the Thames River Watershed, between the North Branch of the Thames and the Nith River. [3]
Historically, it was known as Ellice Huckleberry Swamp and was part of the Huron Tract administered by the Canada Company. The wetland is 100% palustrine with 100% organic substrates. [4]
It is primarily owned by the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority; the northern section of Ellice Swamp being owned by the Grand River Conservation Authority. [1]
Although the swamp is covered with sphagnum moss, woody vegetation is replacing the traditional wet bog species. Poplar, black ash and silver maple forest cover most of the area. Although the swamp's historical name "Huckleberry Swamp" suggests the presence of the huckleberry plant, it has been eliminated from the area. [3]
The golden-winged warbler is a New World warbler. It breeds in southeastern and south-central Canada and the Appalachian Mountains northeastern to north-central United States. The majority (~70%) of the global population breeds in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Manitoba. Golden-winged warbler populations are slowly expanding northwards, but are generally declining across its range, most likely as a result of habitat loss and competition/interbreeding with the very closely related blue-winged warbler.
According to the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority, the golden-winged warbler is found only at the Ellice Swamp within Perth County. [3]
A swamp is a forested wetland. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in creating this environment. Swamps vary in size and are located all around the world. The water of a swamp may be fresh water, brackish water, or seawater. Freshwater swamps form along large rivers or lakes where they are critically dependent upon rainwater and seasonal flooding to maintain natural water level fluctuations. Saltwater swamps are found along tropical and subtropical coastlines. Some swamps have hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodic inundation or soil saturation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp forests and "transitional" or shrub swamps. In the boreal regions of Canada, the word swamp is colloquially used for what is more formally termed a bog, fen, or muskeg. Some of the world's largest swamps are found along major rivers such as the Amazon, the Mississippi, and the Congo.
The Avon River is a river in Perth County, Ontario, Canada. The river was named after the River Avon in England when the town of Stratford was founded on its banks in 1832. The Avon River rises northeast of Stratford and flows southwest, entering the North Thames River near St. Marys. It was originally known as the Little Thames River.
The yellow warbler is a New World warbler species. Yellow warblers are the most widespread species in the diverse genus Setophaga. The species can be found throughout most of North America and migrates to wintering grounds from southern California to the Amazon region, Bolivia, and Peru.
The Nashville warbler is a small songbird in the New World warbler family, found in North and Central America. It breeds in parts of the northern and western United States and southern Canada, and migrates to winter in southern California and Texas, Mexico, and the north of Central America. It has a gray head and a green back, and its underparts are yellow and white.
St. Marys is a town in southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is located at the confluence of the north branch of the Thames River and Trout Creek southwest of Stratford, and is surrounded by the Township of Perth South in Perth County, Ontario. St. Marys operates under its own municipal government that is independent from the county's government. Nonetheless, the three entities "enjoy a large degree of collaboration and work together to grow the region as a leading location for industry and people". Census data published for Perth County by Statistics Canada includes St. Marys and most Perth County publications also do, at least in some sections of the document.
The Northeastern coastal forests are a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion of the northeast and middle Atlantic region of the United States. The ecoregion covers an area of 34,630 sq miles (89,691 km2) encompassing the Piedmont and coastal plain of seven states, extending from coastal southwestern Maine, southeastern New Hampshire, eastern Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, southward through Connecticut, New York State, New Jersey, southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland.
The Chequamegon–Nicolet National Forest is a 1,530,647-acre (6,194.31 km2) U.S. National Forest in northern Wisconsin in the United States. Due to logging in the early part of the 20th century, very little old growth forest remains. Some of the trees there were planted by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. The national forest land trees and vegetation are part of the North Woods Ecoregion that prevails throughout the upper Great Lakes region.
The Upper Thames River Conservation Authority is a body based in London, Ontario, Canada. It was created in 1947. It was responsible for the construction of the Fanshawe Dam, completed in the 1950s, to control flooding from the Thames River, which runs through London. During the last ice age, the site of London was the terminus of a large glacier. When the region warmed at the end of the ice age, the glacier melted and receded North, leaving behind a drainage ditch and features such as Sifton Bog. As such, the Thames is a watershed for most of Western Ontario, and is therefore highly susceptible to seasonal flooding. In 1937, such flooding had devastating consequences, destroying over 1,000 homes, and causing millions of dollars in damage.
Pottageville is an unincorporated community located in northeastern King Township, in Ontario, Canada. It is near Schomberg. It is named for one of its early settlers, Edward Pottage.
The Tay River is a river in Lanark County in Eastern Ontario, Canada. It is in the Saint Lawrence River drainage basin and is a left tributary of the Rideau River.
The Township of Perth East is a municipality in Perth County, Ontario, Canada and situated north of Stratford. It was created in 1998 when the Ontario government amalgamated the village of Milverton with the surrounding former townships of Ellice, Mornington, North Easthope and South Easthope.
The Thames River is located in southwestern Ontario, Canada.
The Tannersville Cranberry Bog or Cranberry Swamp is a sphagnum bog on the Cranberry Creek in Tannersville, Pennsylvania. It is the southernmost boreal bog east of the Mississippi River, containing many black spruce and tamarack trees at the southern limit of their ranges. Technically, it can be classed as an acid fen, as it receives some groundwater flow. The site was designated a National Natural Landmark in December 1974. It was purchased by The Nature Conservancy and the Conservation and Research Foundation in 1957. Like many bogs, its terrain presents an image of solidity, but a liquid mass of decaying peat lies beneath a six-inch (152 mm) layer of sphagnum and a network of supporting tree roots. However, this bog may be viewed from a floating walkway.
Conservation Ontario is the network of Ontario’s 36 Conservation Authorities.
Minesing Wetlands, previously known as Minesing Swamp, is a Ramsar boreal wetland in central Ontario, Canada stretching from the western periphery of Barrie to Georgian Bay. It was identified and classified through the International Biological Program. It is "the largest and best example of fen bog in southern Ontario", one of the "most diverse undisturbed wetland tracts in Canada" and is a provincially significant Area of Natural and Scientific Interest. The term minesing is of Ojibwe origin and means "island", referring to an island located within Lake Edenvale, which encompassed the present-day wetlands and surrounding areas.
The Sifton Bog Environmentally Significant Area is a wetland jointly administered by the city of London, Ontario and the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority. It is located west of Hyde Park Road and south of Oxford Street inside the city limits of London, Southern Ontario, Canada. It is a Class 2 provincially significant wetland.
The Huron Tract Purchase also known as the Huron Block, registered as Crown Treaty Number 29, is a large area of land in southwestern Ontario bordering on Lake Huron to the west and Lake Erie to the east. The area spans the counties of Huron, Perth, Middlesex and present day Lambton County, Ontario in the province of Ontario.
King's Highway 83, also known as Highway 83, was a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. The route travelled inwards from the shores of Lake Huron, beginning at Highway 21 north of Grand Bend and travelling eastward to Highway 23 in Russeldale. Today the route is known by the local names Dashwood Road and Thames Road, as well as by county-assigned designations Huron County Road 83 and Perth County Road 20.
The Alfred Bog is a domed peat bog in Eastern Ontario, Canada, about 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) south of Alfred and 70 kilometres (43 mi) east of Ottawa. The bog is considered the largest high-quality bog in Southern Ontario, and was designated by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources as a "Class 1 Wetland" and an "Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI)" in 1984. It is home to rare animal species and a healthy moose population.
Sturgeon Bay Provincial Park is a provincial park on the western shore of Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada. The park is considered to be a Class Ib protected area under the IUCN protected area management categories. It is 144.9 km2 (55.9 sq mi) in size.