Sturgeon Bay Provincial Park is a

provincial park Ischigualasto Provincial Park A provincial park (or territorial park) is a park administered by one of the provinces of a country, as opposed to a national park. They are similar to state parks in other countries. They are typically open to the ...

on the western shore of

Lake Winnipeg Lake Winnipeg (french: Lac Winnipeg, oj, ᐑᓂᐸᑲᒥᐠᓴᑯ˙ᑯᐣ, italics=no, Weenipagamiksaguygun) is a very large, relatively shallow lake in North America, in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Manitoba, Canada. I ...

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

, Canada. The park is considered to be a Class Ib protected area under the IUCN protected area management categories. It is in size.

History

Sturgeon Bay Provincial Park was designated a provincial park by the Government of Manitoba in 2015.

Geography

The northern boundary of the park follows the shore of Lake Winnipeg along Sturgeon Bay. The Mantagao River flows north through the park into the lake on the southeast corner of the bay between Reedy Point and Poplar Point. The park has no road access and no facilities for visitors within its boundaries. A commercial fishing camp is located on the lake shore within the park. It was established prior to the park inception and continues to be used by commercial fishers on Lake Winnipeg. The park landscape is a generally flat

till plain Till plains are an extensive flat plain of glacial till that forms when a sheet of ice becomes detached from the main body of a glacier and melts in place, depositing the sediments it carried. Ground moraines are formed with melts out of the glacie ...

laid down during the formation and draining of glacial

Lake Agassiz Lake Agassiz was a large glacial lake in central North America. Fed by glacial meltwater at the end of the last glacial period, its area was larger than all of the modern Great Lakes combined. First postulated in 1823 by William H. Keating, it ...

. It is low lying, with a mean elevation of about above sea level, sloping very gently to the lake. Wave action and changes in lake level have created a ridge and swale pattern in the upland areas parallel to the lakeshore. Soils in the park are generally poorly drained organic soils varying in depth over stony calcareous glacial till. The park has a network of small creeks and ponds draining generally towards the north east into the river and the bay. These are fed by precipitation, shallow aquifers of sand and gravel from glacial deposits and some

Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleozo ...

limestone bedrock aquifers. Drainage is slowed by the land profile creating a complex of marshlands, wet meadows,

fens A fen is a type of wetland. Fen, Fenn, Fens, Fenns, may also refer to: People * Fen (name), a Chinese given name and surname * Fen Cresswell (1915–1966), New Zealand cricketer * Fen McDonald (1891–1915), Australian rules footballer * Kees ...

, and

muskeg Muskeg (Ojibwe: mashkiig; cr, maskīk; french: fondrière de mousse, lit. ''moss bog'') is a peat-forming ecosystem found in several northern climates, most commonly in Arctic and boreal areas. Muskeg is approximately synonymous with bog or ...

bogs A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main Wetland#Types, types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, ...

Ecology

The park is considered representative of the ecology of the Mid-Boreal Lowland Ecoregion within the

Boreal Plains Ecozone The Boreal Plains Ecozone, as defined by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), is a terrestrial ecozone in the western Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. It also has minor extensions into northeastern British ...

Black spruce ''Picea mariana'', the black spruce, is a North American species of spruce tree in the pine family. It is widespread across Canada, found in all 10 provinces and all 3 territories. It is the official tree of the province of Newfoundland and Labra ...

grows in stands in low lying areas transitioning to mixed stands of black spruce,

Jack pine Jack pine (''Pinus banksiana'') is an eastern North American pine. Its native range in Canada is east of the Rocky Mountains from the Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories to Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, and the north-central and ...

white spruce White spruce is a common name for several species of spruce (''Picea'') and may refer to: * ''Picea glauca'', native to most of Canada and Alaska with limited populations in the northeastern United States * ''Picea engelmannii'', native to the Ro ...

, and trembling aspen on drier ridges.

Willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...

and

red-osier dogwood ''Cornus sericea'', the red osier or red-osier dogwood, is a species of flowering plant in the family (biology), family Cornaceae, native to much of North America. It has sometimes been considered a synonym of the Asian species ''Cornus alba''. ...

form the shrub layer on wetter sites with

hazel The hazel (''Corylus'') is a genus of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family Betulaceae,Germplasmgobills Information Network''Corylus''Rushforth, K. (1999). ...

and

heaths A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler a ...

on drier sites. Ground cover is composed of mosses and low growing vascular plants. Bogs and

—wetland communities characterized by the presence of

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...

—predominate away from the shores of Lake Winnipeg and the Mantagao River. Bogs are characterized by

ombrotrophic Ombrotrophic ("cloud-fed"), from Ancient Greek ὄμβρος (''ómvros'') meaning "rain" and τροφή (''trofí'') meaning "food"), refers to Soil, soils or vegetation which receive all of their water and nutrients from precipitation, rather ...

conditions—isolated from groundwater, acidic and low in nutrients. Fens are

minerotrophic Minerotrophic refers to environments that receive nutrients primarily through groundwater that flows through mineral-rich soils or rock,Environment Canada (2014). Ontario wetland evaluation system: Northern Manual, 1st edition, version 3.2. Queen’ ...

—the minerals in the groundwater modify the chemistry of the water. In the park where the groundwater is in contact with bedrock or till containing

lime Lime commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Botany ...

, water is mildly acid to alkaline. In some areas, the ridge and swale topography lead to a patterned bog called a

string bog A string bog or string mire is a bog consisting of slightly elevated ridges and islands, with woody plants, alternating with flat, wet sedge mat areas. String bogs occur on slightly sloping surfaces, with the ridges at right angles to the directio ...

. In other areas, flat bogs develop in low-lying flat land. Plateau bogs develop slowly over time and can stand up to above the surrounding ground level. Water track fens are found where groundwater flows are stronger; horizontal fens where groundwater slowly seeps from the mineral soil below the peat. Vegetation associated with these wetlands in the park include

tamarack ''Larix laricina'', commonly known as the tamarack, hackmatack, eastern larch, black larch, red larch, or American larch, is a species of larch native to Canada, from eastern Yukon and Inuvik, Northwest Territories east to Newfoundland, and als ...

swamp birch ''Betula pumila'' (dwarf birch or bog birch) is a deciduous shrub native to North America. Bog birch occurs over a vast area of northern North America, from Yukon in the west to New England in the east and all the way to Washington and Oregon, i ...

Labrador tea Labrador tea is a common name for three closely related plant species in the genus ''Rhododendron'' as well as an herbal tea made from their leaves. All three species are primarily wetland plants in the heath family. The herbal tea has been a ...

leatherleaf ''Chamaedaphne calyculata'', known commonly as leatherleaf or cassandra, is a perennial dwarf shrub in the plant family Ericaceae and the only species in the genus ''Chamaedaphne''. It is commonly seen in cold, acidic bogs and forms large, spread ...

bog rosemary ''Andromeda polifolia'', common name bog-rosemary, is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae, native to northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere. It is the only member of the genus ''Andromeda'', and is only found in bogs in ...

sedges The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' wit ...

grasses Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns and ...

, and mosses ( particularly

sphagnum ''Sphagnum'' is a genus of approximately 380 accepted species of mosses, commonly known as sphagnum moss, peat moss, also bog moss and quacker moss (although that term is also sometimes used for peat). Accumulations of ''Sphagnum'' can store wa ...

, feather mosses and brown mosses). The Mantagao River provides spawning habitat for

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus '' Esox'' (the pikes). They are typical of brackish and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). They are known simply as a ...

walleye The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the yellow pike or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States. It is a North American close relat ...

lake whitefish The lake whitefish (''Coregonus clupeaformis'') is a species of freshwater whitefish from North America. Lake whitefish are found throughout much of Canada and parts of the northern United States, including all of the Great Lakes. The lake white ...

and

freshwater drum The freshwater drum, ''Aplodinotus grunniens'', is a fish endemic to North and Central America. It is the only species in the genus ''Aplodinotus'', and is a member of the family Sciaenidae. It is the only North American member of the group that ...

. The park is located within the Boreal Taiga Plains Bird Conservation Region. The abundance and variety of water habitats in this region provide breeding habitat for waterfowl. The river mouth and the adjacent bay are used as staging areas in the fall for migrating waterfowl. Birds found in this region include: Large mammals known to occur in the park include

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 ...

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 ...

, and

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...

References

External links

iNaturalist: Sturgeon Bay Provincial ParkeBird Hotspot: Sturgeon Bay Provincial Park

History

Geography

Ecology

See also

References

External links

Further reading