Minesing Wetlands | |
---|---|
Nearest city | Barrie |
Area | 60 square kilometres (23 sq mi) |
Official name | Minesing Swamp |
Designated | 31 October 1996 |
Reference no. | 865 [1] |
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. [2] It was identified and classified through the International Biological Program. It is "the largest and best example of fen bog in southern Ontario", [3] one of the "most diverse undisturbed wetland tracts in Canada" [4] and is a provincially significant Area of Natural and Scientific Interest. [5] 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. [6]
The swamp's hydrology "provides for an interconnected network of swamps, fens, bogs and marshes". [7] It acts as a reservoir that absorbs floodwater during spring thaw, from which a slow and steady flow is released throughout the summer into the Nottawasaga River system. [2] This also prevents spring flooding of Wasaga Beach. [2]
Approximately 39 square kilometres (15 sq mi) of the 60 square kilometres (23 sq mi) is owned or managed by the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority. [6] The remainder is owned by the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Simcoe County, and private landowners. It straddles the three townships of Clearview, Essa and Springwater. [6]
It provides habitat to over 400 plant species, of which 11 are provincially rare. [4] Minesing Wetlands is an important staging area for thousands of migratory waterfowl, [7] and is the largest wintering ground for white-tailed deer. [7] It supports numerous plant species which are at the extremities of their natural range, including those indigenous to the arctic tundra in the north and the Carolinian forests to the south, and is home to the "largest pure stand of silver maple in the province". [7] Provincially rare birds indigenous to the swamp include the blue-winged warbler, prothonotary warbler, cerulean warbler, golden-winged warbler and the blue-grey gnatcatcher. [8]
Minesing Wetlands is a popular recreation area which draws many tourists. Canoeing is a common activity in the area, though inexperienced canoeists should be wary of spring flooding.
A number of research projects are conducted throughout Minesing Wetlands. An analysis of the hydrology of wetland systems in the swamp began in the mid-1990s, with primary goals to "characterize the water balance of a selected plot within the fen" and to examine "the correlations between vegetation and hydrology". [9]
A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally for a shorter periods. Flooding results in oxygen-poor (anoxic) processes taking place, especially in the soils. Wetlands form a transitional zone between waterbodies and dry lands, and are different from other terrestrial or aquatic ecosystems due to their vegetation's roots having adapted to oxygen-poor waterlogged soils. They are considered among the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as habitats to a wide range of aquatic and semi-aquatic plants and animals, with often improved water quality by the plants removing excess nutrients such as nitrates and phosphates.
The Nottawasaga River is a river in Simcoe County and Dufferin County in Central Ontario, Canada. It is part of the Great Lakes Basin, and is a tributary of Lake Huron. The river flows from the Orangeville Reservoir in the town of Orangeville, Dufferin County, through the Niagara Escarpment and the Minesing Wetlands, the latter a wetland of international significance, and empties into Nottawasaga Bay, an inlet of Georgian Bay on Lake Huron, at the town of Wasaga Beach, Simcoe County.
The Bad River is a river flowing to Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin in the United States. It flows for 119.6 kilometres (74.3 mi) in Ashland County, draining an area of 1,061 square miles (2,750 km2) in portions of Ashland, Bayfield and Iron counties. The Bad River sloughs were designated a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance on February 2, 2012.
The Nariva Swamp is the largest freshwater wetland in Trinidad and Tobago and has been designated a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention. The swamp is located on the east coast of Trinidad, immediately inland from the Manzanilla Bay through Biche and covers over 60 square kilometres (23 mi2). The Nariva Swamp is extremely biodiverse, being home to 45 mammal species, 39 reptile species, 33 fish species, 204 bird species, 19 frog species, 213 insect species and 15 mollusc species. All this contained in just 60 square kilometers.
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 Oak Ridges Moraine lies in Southern Ontario, Canada. It contains the headwaters of sixty-five rivers and streams. It has a wide diversity of woodlands, wetlands, watercourses, kettle lakes, kettle bogs, and significant flora and fauna. It is one of the few remaining continuous green corridors in southern Ontario: it remains thirty percent forested and is one of the last refuges for forest birds in all of southern Ontario.
Hay Swamp is a provincially significant wetland complex, 1839 hectares in size, located in parts of the central land areas of the municipalities of Bluewater and South Huron, in southwestern Ontario, Canada. Approximately 13 kilometers (8.1 mi) in length and 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) in width, at its widest point; it consists of 15 extensively forested individual wetlands, situated on either side, of sections of both the upper drainage of the Ausable River and its tributary, Black Creek.
The Zapata Swamp is located on the Zapata Peninsula in the southern Matanzas Province of Cuba, in the municipality of Ciénaga de Zapata. It is located less than 150 kilometres (93 mi) southeast of Havana.
Cold Creek Conservation Area, usually referred simply as Cold Creek, is an ecologically diverse protected Area of Natural and Scientific Interest in south-central Ontario, Canada. The 190-hectare (470-acre) conservation area was opened on 20 June 1962 by Wilf Spooner and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. It is located on the western end of King Township, overlapping the Oak Ridges Moraine. The Government of Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources classifies the area as a provincially significant Area of Natural and Scientific Interest for its "provincially or regionally significant representative ecological features". The area was also a site classified for the International Biological Program. The Life Science area, known as Cold Creek Swamp, is composed of a swamp and forest.
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.
There are numerous natural areas in King, a township in Ontario, Canada. These areas are zones officially designated by the Government of Ontario that are within the township and exhibit provincially or regionally significant features representative of the region. The list of zones is defined and maintained by the provincial Ministry of Natural Resources Natural Heritage Information Centre.
Matchedash Bay is a bay and Ramsar wetland in Simcoe County in Central Ontario, Canada. It is the "final inland extension of Severn Sound" on Lake Huron's Georgian Bay, and is "situated at the interface between the Saint Lawrence Lowlands and the Canadian Shield ". It exhibits geologically unique features at the junction of the Canadian Shield and southern Ontario limestone. Wetland habitats in Matchedash Bay are varied, and include swamps, fens, cattail marshes, wet meadows and beaver ponds. Other features include "permanent freshwater lakes; upland hardwood forest, agricultural lands, native grass meadows and a unique, coniferous wetland forest".
Southern James Bay is a coastal wetland complex in northeastern Ontario, Canada bordering James Bay and Quebec. It was designated as a wetland of international importance via the Ramsar Convention on May 27, 1987. The shallow waters of the James Bay region represent an important late autumn staging area for migratory, Arctic-breeding waterbirds.
Heron Pond – Little Black Slough Nature Preserve is a parcel of protected wetland property located in Belknap, Illinois, approximately 5 miles (8 km) southwest of Vienna, in Johnson County. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1972. As part of the Cache River basin, it is classified as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.
Odaesan (also known as Mt. Odae) is located in the Taebaek Mountains, the longest mountain range in Korea. It is named Odaesan because it has five big mountain peaks (O means "five" in Korean). Odaesan National Park Wetlands has an area of 1.7 hectares and consists of three small fens: Jilmoeneup, Sohwangbyeongsanneup, and Jogaedongneup. This site was registered as a Ramsar Wetlands on October 13, 2008, at the 10th Ramsar Convention.
The Edithvale–Seaford Wetlands is a collection of principally freshwater swamps and marshlands totalling 261 hectares in southeastern Melbourne, Australia, about 30 km (19 mi) southeast of Melbourne CBD. It is the largest natural wetland of its type in the Port Phillip and Western Port basins, and is all that remains of the historic Carrum Carrum Swamp, which once covered more than 4,000 hectares from present-day Mordialloc in the north to Frankston in the south.
The Whangamarino Wetland in the Waikato District is the second largest wetland complex of the North Island of New Zealand. Encompassing a total area of more than 7200 hectares, the Department of Conservation Te Papa Atawhai manages 5,923 hectares of peat bog, swamp, mesotrophic lags, open water and river systems listed as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention. Fish and Game New Zealand are the second largest landowner, managing 748 hectares of the wetland primarily as gamebird hunting habitat.
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