Gravel River Provincial Park is a nature reserve in the

Thunder Bay District Thunder Bay District is a district and census division in Northwestern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. The district seat is Thunder Bay. In 2016, the population was 146,048. The land area is ; the population density was . Most of ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. It protects an unusual birds-foot delta at the mouth of the Gravel River.

Location

Gravel River Provincial Park covers . The park is in the

of Ontario, Canada, on Nipigon Bay,

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

, at the mouth of the Gravel River. The park also includes the Little Gravel River and the Naomikan (Dead) River, which may be the course of the Gravel River before the railway line was built. The

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway ( French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean o ...

(Highway 17) runs through the park from east to west. A power transmission line crosses the northern end of the park, and a snowmobile trail runs parallel to the power corridor. A Canadian Pacific railway line crosses the park from east to west. There was an MNR waste disposal site in the park, but it has been closed and moved to a new location. The park covers the east and center of Gravel Point, projecting into Lake Superior, but the western side of the point is a cottage subdivision that is not included in the park. The cottages are accessed by Mountain Bay Road, which runs south through the park from Highway 17.

Park

The park was established in 1985, and is classified as a Nature Reserve. It is in the Ministry of Natural Resources' Nipigon District of the Northwest Region. There are no visitor facilities and camping is not allowed. The park may be used during the day for canoeing, fishing, walking, nature appreciation and wildlife viewing.

Environment

The park is well-forested, and protects the land around the mouth of the slow-moving river, which meanders through the sands of its bird's foot deltaic fan. This is one of a small number of active deltas of this type in the Canadian Great Lakes. The park is in the boreal forest ecosystem. Controlled burning may be used as a substitute for natural forest fires, which are necessary for maintenance and renewal of the vegetation. The peninsula is visited by many seasonally migrating waterfowl, and is used for nesting by shore birds. There is a nesting colony of

great blue heron The great blue heron (''Ardea herodias'') is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North America and Central America, as well as the Caribbean and the Galápagos ...

(''Ardea herodias''). Animal species include

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

(''Odocoileus virginianus''),

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult mal ...

(''Alces alces''), snowshoe hare (''Lepus americanus'') and Canada lynx (''Lynx canadensis''). Lake sturgeon (''Acipenser fulvescens'') are thought to spawn in the lower Gravel River, and

northern brook lamprey The northern brook lamprey (''Ichthyomyzon fossor'') is a freshwater fish in the family Petromyzontidae. It is closely related to the silver lamprey (''I. unicuspis'') and may represent an ecotype of a single species with ''I. unicuspis''. Desc ...

(''Ichthyomyzon fossor'') have been found in the river.

Notes

Sources

* * * {{authority control Provincial parks of Ontario Parks in Thunder Bay District