The Tobeatic Wilderness Area is the largest protected area in the Canadian Maritimes, located in southwestern
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland".
Most of the population are native Eng ...
. It contains nearly 120,000 hectares of land and spans parts of five counties, Annapolis, Digby,
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
, Shelburne and Yarmouth.Tobeatic Wilderness Area Government of Nova Scotia Located adjacent to
Kejimkujik National Park
Kejimkujik National Park () is a National Park of Canada, covering in the southwest of Nova Scotia peninsula. Located within three municipalities, Annapolis, Queens, Digby, it consists of two separate land areas: an inland part, which is coinc ...
, it was formerly known as the Tobeatic Wildlife Management Area, and the Tobeatic Game Reserve.
History
The name Tobeatic is derived from "Place of the Alder" in the Mi'kmaq language. Archaeological research shows that the Mi’kmaq people were present in the Tobeatic at least 4500 years ago.
In 1927, a portion of the area was designated as a game sanctuary. In 1968, it was designated as a Wildlife Management Area. In 1998 it was designated as one of 31 Wilderness Areas in the province. It is managed by the Department of Environment and Climate Change for the province in partnership with the Department of Natural Resources and Renewables.Focus on the Tobeatic Government of Nova Scotia In 2015, nearly 16,000 hectares were added to the wilderness area.
Geography
It contains large areas of Acadian forest. The geography is varied, consisting of
wetland
A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...
s,
woodland
A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (se ...
s, scrublands and barrens. The landscape was shaped by the last glaciation, which left glacial barrens, erratics,
drumlin
A drumlin, from the Irish word ''droimnín'' ("littlest ridge"), first recorded in 1833, in the classical sense is an elongated hill in the shape of an inverted spoon or half-buried egg formed by glacial ice acting on underlying unconsolidated ...
s,
esker
An esker, eskar, eschar, or os, sometimes called an ''asar'', ''osar'', or ''serpent kame'', is a long, winding ridge of stratified sand and gravel, examples of which occur in glaciated and formerly glaciated regions of Europe and North Ame ...
s,
moraines
A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a glacier or ice she ...
,
hummocks
In geology, a hummock is a small knoll or mound above ground.Bates, Robert L. and Julia A. Jackson, ed. (1984). “hummock.” Dictionary of Geological Terms, 3rd Ed. New York: Anchor Books. p. 241. They are typically less than in height and ...
,
outwash plain
An outwash plain, also called a sandur (plural: ''sandurs''), sandr or sandar, is a plain formed of glaciofluvial deposits due to meltwater outwash at the terminus of a glacier. As it flows, the glacier grinds the underlying rock surface and c ...
s and
kettle lake
A kettle (also known as a kettle lake, kettle hole, or pothole) is a depression/hole in an outwash plain formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters. The kettles are formed as a result of blocks of dead ice left behind by retreating g ...
s. It is composed of several geological units including the
Goldenville Formation
Goldenville is a small community located near to Sherbrooke, Nova Scotia in the Municipality of the District of St. Mary's. The community is mainly a forestry community but also has a gold mining museum.
History
Nelson Nickerson found gold in ...
, the
Halifax Formation
Halifax commonly refers to:
*Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
*Halifax, West Yorkshire, England
* Halifax (bank), a British bank
Halifax may also refer to:
Places Australia
*Halifax, Queensland, a coastal town in the Shire of Hinchinbrook
*Halifax ...
monzogranite
Monzogranites are biotite granite rocks that are considered to be the final fractionation product of magma. Monzogranites are characteristically felsic (SiO2 > 73%, and FeO + MgO + TiO2 < 2.4), weakly leucomonzogranite.
Wildlife includes
eastern moose
The eastern moose (''Alces alces americana'') is a subspecies of moose that currently ranges throughout Eastern Canada, New England and northern New York State. It inhabits boreal forests and mixed deciduous forests. It is the third largest North ...
and
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 ...
.
The region has many lakes and rivers including the Shelburne,
Clyde Clyde may refer to:
People
* Clyde (given name)
* Clyde (surname)
Places
For townships see also Clyde Township
Australia
* Clyde, New South Wales
* Clyde, Victoria
* Clyde River, New South Wales
Canada
* Clyde, Alberta
* Clyde, Ontario, a tow ...
, and
Tusket
Tusket is a small fishing community located in Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia on route 308.
History
"Neketaouksit", the Mi'kmaq word for the "Great Forked Tidal River", evolved to what is now called Tusket. The village was originally settled by ...
rivers.
Public access
Primitive hunting and public leasing of land is allowed, with hunters only allowed to hunt for six consecutive days commencing on the third Monday in October each year with only a muzzleloader, bow or crossbow.
Campsite
A campsite, also known as a campground or camping pitch, is a place used for overnight stay in an outdoor area. In British English, a ''campsite'' is an area, usually divided into a number of pitches, where people can camp overnight using te ...
s, canoe routes, and portages are not as developed or maintained as the nearby Kejimkujik. Motorized vehicle use within the reserve is not permitted. Along with Kejimkujik, the Tobeatic is part of the UNESCO designated
Southwest Nova Biosphere Reserve
The Southwest Nova Biosphere Reserve was designated in 2001 under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme. The Southwest Nova Biosphere Reserve spans over 1.54 million hectares consisting of five counties in Nova Scotia, Canada: Annapolis, D ...
.
In popular culture
The area is the setting for the 1908
Albert Paine
Albert Bigelow Paine (July 10, 1861 – April 9, 1937) was an American author and biographer best known for his work with Mark Twain. Paine was a member of the Pulitzer Prize Committee and wrote in several genres, including fiction, humor, and ...
novel, ''
The Tent Dwellers
''The Tent Dwellers'' is a book by Albert Bigelow Paine, chronicling his travels through inland Nova Scotia on a trout fishing trip with Dr. Edward "Eddie" Breck, and with guides Charles "the Strong" (Charlie Charlton of Milford, NS) and Del "the ...