Bruce Peninsula
Part of the Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere Reserve, the peninsula has the largest remaining area of forest and natural habitat in Southern Ontario[2] and is home to some of the oldest trees in eastern North America.
An important flyway for migrating birds, the peninsula is habitat to a variety of animals, including black bear, massasauga rattlesnake, and barred owl.
Attracted by the rich fisheries and lush forest, settlers found the land known then as the "Indian or Saugeen Peninsula" to be irresistible.
[4] Today, in Ontario, the Escarpment contains more than 100 sites of geological significance,[5] including some of the best exposures of rocks and fossils of the Silurian and Ordovician periods (405 to 500 million years old) to be found anywhere in the world.
[6] The Niagara Escarpment has origins dating to the Silurian age some 430 to 450 million years ago, a time when the area lay under a shallow warm sea.
Known geologically as the Michigan Basin, the outer rim of this massive saucer-shaped feature governs the location of the Niagara Escarpment, which is shaped like a gigantic horseshoe.
The Escarpment can be traced from near Rochester, New York, south of Lake Ontario to Hamilton, north to Tobermory on the Bruce Peninsula.
As occurs with present-day water bodies, such as Hudson Bay or the Gulf of Mexico, rivers flowing into this ancient sea carried sand, silt and clay to be deposited as thick layers of sediment.
Over millions of years these materials became compressed into massive layers of sedimentary rocks and ancient reef structures now visible along the Escarpment.
Today, fossil remains illustrating the various life forms can be found in many of the rocks as they are slowly exposed by the action of wind, water and ice.
Under the Saugeen Tract Agreement, the portion south of Owen Sound was ceded to the Crown, with reserves later established on the Bruce Peninsula.
The Saugeen is now determined to establish its claim to the waters of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay and any Crown Land remaining on the peninsula.
Other lighthouses include: There are many varieties of wildlife on the Bruce Peninsula, such as the northern flying squirrel, black bear, chipmunk, fisher, long-eared bats, red squirrel, fox, massasauga rattlesnake, red-shouldered hawk, barred owl, hermit thrush, black-throated blue warbler, scarlet tanager and yellow-spotted salamander.
The Bruce Peninsula is located on a major northern migration route, so many species of birds, such as the bald eagle, have their wintering grounds here.
Hawks travel during the day, and can be seen in the vicinity of Cabot Head in the open areas west of Dyers Bay, and near Tobermory, in April.
