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Pukaskwa National Park

National park in Ontario, Canada

Field	Value
name	Pukaskwa National Park
alt_name	Parc national Pukaskwa
iucn_category	II
photo	Pukaskwa National Park southern headland trail.JPG
photo_caption	Southern Headland Trail
map	Canada##Canada Ontario
map_caption	Location in Canada##Location in Ontario
relief	yes
location	Ontario, Canada
nearest_city	Marathon
coordinates
area_km2	1,878
established	1978
visitation_num	17,285
visitation_year	2022–23
governing_body	Parks Canada
mapframe	yes
mapframe-zoom	7
mapframe-wikidata	yes

| mapframe-zoom = 7 | mapframe-wikidata = yes Pukaskwa National Park ( ) is a national park located south of the town of Marathon, Ontario in the Thunder Bay District of northern Ontario, Canada. Established in 1978, Pukaskwa is known for its vistas of Lake Superior and boreal forests. The park covers an area of 1,878 km2, and protects a part of the longest undeveloped shoreline anywhere on the Great Lakes.

The Hattie Cove Campground is located at the north end of the park and can be accessed via Highway 627, the only road access into the park. There are also a number of backcountry campsites located along the 60 km Coastal Hiking Trail which follows the north shore of Lake Superior. The Coastal Hiking Trail has two suspension bridges; one across the White River at Chigaamiwinigum and one across the Willow River. The Coastal Hiking Trail is part of the long-distance Voyageur Hiking Trail. Backcountry campsites are also located along the Coastal Paddling Route, the White River, and the Pukaskwa River. In 2017, the 24 km Mdaabii Miikna ("go to shore trail" in Ojibwe) was opened as a shorter backcountry alternative to the Coastal Hiking trail. It follows the coastline of Lake Superior in the sheltered Picture Rock Harbour.

Puskaskwa is an Indigenous word with a debatable meaning. Its possible meanings include "eaters of fish," "something evil," or "safe harbour." However, the Ojibway and Cree nations maintain "Pukasu" is the correct spelling. "The word "Pukasu" describes what people do when they cook the marrow inside the bones of animals. Remnants of a carcass are thrown into an open fire and left until any remaining meat has all burned away leaving the marrow cooked.

Flora

Pukaskwa National Park is located in the heart of Canada's boreal forest ecozone. Common tree species in this area include black spruce, white spruce, jack pine, trembling aspen, Eastern white cedar, and white birch. Many plants that grow inside Pukaskwa National Park are typically found in Arctic alpine regions, including encrusted saxifrage, birds-eye primrose, and butterwort. Pukaskwa is home to the northernmost populations of Pitcher's thistle in Canada, with four colonies of the plant existing and self-sustaining on the coastal dune areas within the park. Other rare plant species include Franklin's lady-slipper and mountain huckleberry. Many plants within Pukaskwa also have medicinal and ethnobotanical uses. Eastern white cedar, Labrador-tea, and Chaga all grow within Pukaskwa's area and can be boiled into tea for physical and spiritual health. Pukaskwa is also home to numerous lichen and moss species, including sphagnum, reindeer moss, and lungwort species.

Fauna

Black bears, moose, beavers, peregrine falcons, river otters, lynx and timber wolves are found in this park. The park is also home to bald eagles. There was also a small population of woodland caribou but their numbers declined from 30 caribou in the 1970s to about four in 2012 mainly due to wolf predation. In early 2017, after previous failures to locate any remaining caribou, researchers turned to advanced thermal imaging technology to survey the area for caribou. This survey revealed caribou are now extirpated from this park. Cougars may also be in the park, but numbers are not yet known.

Climate

The park has a humid continental climate (Dfb) under the Köppen climate classification that is strongly influenced by Lake Superior. |Jan record high C = 6.0 |Feb record high C = 10.0 |Mar record high C = 17.0 |Apr record high C = 27.0 |May record high C = 29.0 |Jun record high C = 30.7 |Jul record high C = 30.5 |Aug record high C = 32.0 |Sep record high C = 25.3 |Oct record high C = 21.0 |Nov record high C = 16.5 |Dec record high C = 9.2 |year record high C = 32.0 |Jan record low C = −40.0 |Feb record low C = −39.0 |Mar record low C = −35.0 |Apr record low C = −21.0 |May record low C = −7.5 |Jun record low C = −4.5 |Jul record low C = -4.5 |Aug record low C = -2.0 |Sep record low C = −7.0 |Oct record low C = −11.5 |Nov record low C = −28.5 |Dec record low C = −39.5 |year record low C = −40.0 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200714071822/ftp://ftp.tor.ec.gc.ca/Pub/Normals/English/ | archive-date = 2020-07-14 | url-status = dead | access-date = September 29, 2013}}

Rivers in the park include the:

Pukaskwa River
Cascade River
North Swallow River
Swallow River
White River
Willow River The Pic River enters Lake Superior just north of the park.

The highest point in the park is the peak of Tip Top Mountain which rises to 641 meters / 2106 feet.

Thousand year old rock structures known as Pukaskwa Pits which were created by the original inhabitants of this area can be found on many of the park's cobblestone beaches.

The most recent State of the Park Report for Pukaskwa National Park was published in 2008.

[[Image:Cascade Falls.jpg	thumb	x140px	left	Cascade River Falls]]	[[Image:HorseshoeBayPukaskwaPark23.jpg	thumb	x140px	right	Horseshoe Bay on Lake Superior]]

Footnotes

References

Pukaskwa National Parks’ population has "declined from approximately 30 caribou in the 1970s to an estimated four currently, largely due to predation by wolves and possibly black bears."

References

Canada, Parks. "Parks Canada attendance 2022_23 - Parks Canada attendance 2022_23 - Open Government Portal".
(March 31, 2016). "The Pukaskwa Coastal Trail: a hike that's breathtaking in more ways than one". [[The Independent]].
Parks Canada Agency, Government of Canada. (2020-07-30). "Backcountry hiking - Pukaskwa National Park".
(27 January 2017). "Origin of the name Pukaskwa - Pukaskwa National Park".
Parks Canada Agency, Government of Canada. (2020-12-22). "Forests - Pukaskwa National Park".
Parks Canada Agency, Government of Canada. (2017-01-25). "Pitcher's Thistle restoration - Pukaskwa National Park".
(2012-01-30). "Traditional use of medicinal plants in the boreal forest of Canada: review and perspectives". Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine.
Brinker, Samuel. (September 2018). "Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment of Species in the Ontario Great Lakes Basin. Climate Change Research Report CCRR-48".
Parks Canada Agency, Government of Canada. (2018-02-22). "Bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) - Pukaskwa National Park".
(2022-07-21). "Rare cougar spotting in northwestern Ontario national park like 'needle in a haystack'".
[http://peakbagger.com/peak.aspx?pid=5956 Tip Top Mountain - Peakbagger.com]

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

national-parks-in-ontario parks-in-algoma-district protected-areas-established-in-1978 parks-in-thunder-bay-district

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