Tierra del Fuego National Park

Tierra del Fuego National Park () is a national park on the Argentine part of the island of Tierra del Fuego, within Tierra del Fuego Province in the ecoregion of Patagonic Forest and Altos Andes, a part of the subantarctic forest. Established on 15 October 1960 under the Law 15.554 and expanded in 1966, it was the first shoreline national park to be established in Argentina.

The park has dramatic scenery, with waterfalls, forests, mountains, and glaciers. Its include parts of the Fagnano and Roca lakes. The Senda Costera (Coastal Path), connecting Ensenada Bay to Lapataia Bay on Lago Roca, is a popular hiking trail within the park. Forests of Antarctic beech, lenga beech, and coihue in the lower elevations of the park are home to many animal species. There are 20 species of terrestrial mammals, including the guanaco, Andean fox, North American beaver, European rabbit and muskrat. Among the 90 species of birds are the kelp goose, torrent duck, austral parakeet, Andean condor, blackish oystercatcher, and Magellanic oystercatcher.

The southernmost national park in Argentina, it is listed as an IUCN category II park. The park stretches north from the Beagle Channel along the Chilean border. Ushuaia, the capital of Tierra del Fuego Province, is from the park. The park can be reached by car or by train. The southern terminus of the Pan-American Highway is located within the park, as is the ''El Parque'' station of the End of the World Train.

Geography

The park forms the southern portion of the subantarctic forest and is known for its biological richness.

Flora

The subantarctic forest vegetation is dominated by tree species of coihue, nires, and lenga (a tree or shrub native to the Andes and also known as lenga beech) apart from a profusion of massbed. The flora that characterizes the "Andino-Patagonico" forests, the lenga, is well distributed over the mountain slopes above sea level to a height of . Above elevation, the flora consists of altoandina with small little bushes, plants and grasses.

IUCN has reported forests of southern beech species of '' Nothofagus pumilio'', '' N. antarctica'' and '' N. betuloides''. Other species include '' Berberis buxifolia'', ''Embothrium coccineum'', winter's bark ''Drimys winteri'', and Crowberry, ''Empetrum rubrum'' and mosses. Magellan coihue (''coihue de Magallanes'') is found in the wettest parts of the Beagle channel coast of the park. Lenga is found in the Pipo River Valley and some parts of southern mountain slopes and may be thickly set and reach great heights. Chinese lantern, hemiparasite and ''Pande Indian'' or ''Llao Llao'', which are fungus parasites, are found over the branches of the trees. Cinnamon is also reported in many small forest areas of the park. Peat bogs are extensively found in the park. These are made up of sphagnum moss and aquatic grasses in damp valleys where low temperatures and slow-moving acidic waters prevent decomposition.

The flower varieties found are calafate, chaura and michay, which are orange coloured. Flag tree, strawberry devil and little ferns, yellow orchids and luzuriagas are seen in the understory of forest cover. Black bush, caulking, grill, and '' Embothrium cocci'' with red tubular flowers are typically seen in the Beagle Channel coast and the western part of Lapataia Bay. Also found is the chocolate scented '' Nassauvia''.

File:Drimys winteri.jpg, ''Drimys winteri'' flowers
File:Nothofagus antarctica D.jpg, '' Nothofagus antarctica''
File:Nothofagus pumilio.jpg, '' Nothofagus pumilio''
File:Nothofagus betuloides.jpg, '' Nothofagus betuloides''
File:Calafate-Berberis buxifolia.jpg, Calafate (''Berberis buxifolia'') plant west of Ushuaia

Fauna

Settlers from Europe and North America introduced many species of animals into the area, such as the European rabbit, North American beaver, muskrat, and chilla, which rapidly proliferated and caused significant damage to the environment.

Avifauna includes three types of cauquenes ( sheldgeese) namely, ''cauquen comun'' (upland goose or Magellan goose), ''cauquen real'' ( ashy-headed goose) and caranca (kelp goose
), found in open places and beaches. Other birds include Patagonian woodpeckers, notably the spectacular Magellanic woodpecker, ''maca común'', ''common maca'', heron, ''pato creston'' (crested duck), ''duck overo'', corn duck, eagle, ''southern carancho'', ''chimango''. Condors are seen flying on the peaks and valleys of Tierra del Fuego. It is also home to the austral parakeet, ''Enicognathus ferrugineus'', a species of parrot.

Aquafauna consists of scallop, moon snail, spiral tooth, few crustaceans like crabs and fishes such as sardines, Falkland sprat, Fueguina, merluza and ''Robalo de cola'', jellyfish concentrations, steamer ducks and cormorants. Guanaco ''Lama guanicoe'' and South American sea lions are reported in the park.

Sea birds reported include petrels and albatrosses. Other notable fauna reported are several species of penguins, the South Andean deer or ''Huemul'' ''Hippocamelus bisulcus'', and the southern river otter ''Lutra provocax.''

File:Black Necked Swan.jpg, A pair of black-necked swans in the park
File:Podiceps major.jpg, ''Podiceps major'' – great grebe- Tierra del Fuego National Park
File:Magellanic Woodpecker Male (Campephilus magellanicus).jpg, A Magellanic woodpecker (''Campephilus magellanicus'') near Ushuaia
File:IslaLosLobos.jpg, Sea lions at the Beagle Channel near Ushuaia
File:Canal de Beagle - Illa pingüins.jpg, Cormorant colony on the shores of the Beagle Channel

Features

Tierra del Fuego National Park contains mountains, lakes, rivers, and valleys. It is bounded on the west by the Chilean border, on the north by Lago Fagnano, and on the south by the Beagle Channel, which forms the shoreline. It encompasses an area of and represents two ecoregions: the Altos Andes and the Patagonian Forest. While the former ecoregion is made up of hill ranges and slopes, the latter has high and jagged mountains, glacier valleys, and semi-deciduous forests. The landscape of the park is the result of glacial erosion, which has created bays and beaches against a backdrop of rugged mountains and valleys.GreenJani2006,p.494

The park is located to the west of the city of Ushuaia, on National Road 3. Ushuaia provides the main approach to the park through the highway or through the Southern Fuegian Railway.

Beagle Channel

The Beagle Channel or strait in Tierra del Fuego National Park is named after the British ship HMS ''Beagle'', which sailed with the naturalist Charles Darwin aboard in 1833–34. The channel separates islands of the Tierra del Fuego Archipelago, in extreme southern South America. It separates Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego from the islands of Nueva, Picton, Navarino, Hoste, Londonderry, Stewart, and other smaller islands to the south. It is oriented in an east-west direction, and runs for a length of . Its width varies from . The biggest settlement on the channel is Ushuaia in Argentina followed by Puerto Williams in Chile, two of the southernmost settlements in the world. Ancient middens where Yaghan tribes lived are seen on the beaches around the Beagle Channel.

Lago Fagnano

Lago Fagnano (named after the Salesian monk José Fagnano), also known as Cami Lake, the southernmost lake of its size outside Antarctica, is the largest lake in Tierra del Fuego and flows southward along the eastern slope of the Andean Cordillera of Patagonia into the Magellan Strait through the Azopardo River. It is hemmed in the active tectonic plate (linked to the Magallanes-Fagnano fault) boundary between the South American and Scotia plates. Its East-West orientation in the southern part of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego

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