With the help of the government of Canada, the Nature Conservancy of Canada has acquired land to protect 48 hectares along the Rideau Waterway near Lake Ontario. The land is comprised of towering granite ridges, rich forests and pristine shoreline. It is at the heart of the Frontenac Arch which is a key wildlife corridor that connects the Algonquin Highlands to the Adirondack Mountains.
Gary Bell says this area is one of the most diverse regions in Canada and a place of great beauty. (S. Bertheau)
‘The only unbroken forest corridor’
“This little slender thread of granite…only about 10 or 15 km wide joins the immense forests of the Canadian shield in central Ontario and Manitoba and Quebec (provinces) to the Appalachian Mountains with a forest connection that’s the only essentially unbroken forest corridor remaining in eastern North America,” says Gary Bell one of the conservancy’s program directors.
A wide variety of animals including white-tailed deer make this area home. (Nature Conservancy of Canada)
Area is a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve
The Frontenac Arch is warmer than the surrounding area and, as a result, the forests there are very rich biologically, in both vegetation and animal life. In fact, the Arch has been declared a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve.
The property features trees more commonly found in the Appalachian Mountains to the south, such as pitch pine, shagbark hickory, rock elm and black maple. The area is also home to waterfowl, black bears and a fisher which is a large kind of weasel.
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