Pukaskwa National Park ( ) is a

national park A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual ...

located south of the town of Marathon, Ontario in the Thunder Bay District of northern

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 Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

. Established in 1978, Pukaskwa is known for its vistas of

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 ...

and

boreal forest Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruc ...

s. The park covers an area of , and protects part of the longest undeveloped shoreline anywhere on the Great Lakes. The Hattie Cove Campground is located at the north end of the park and can be accessed via Highway 627, the only road access into the park. There are also a number of backcountry campsites located along the 60 k
Coastal Hiking Trail
which follows the north shore of Lake Superior. The Coastal Hiking Trail has two suspension bridges; one across the White River at Chigaamiwinigum and one across the Willow River. The Coastal Hiking Trail is part of the long-distance Voyageur Hiking Trail. Backcountry campsites are also located along th
Coastal Paddling Route
the White River, and the Pukaskwa River. In 2017, the 24 km Mdaabii Miikna ("go to shore trail" in

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

) was opened as a shorter backcountry alternative to the Coastal Hiking trail. It follows the coastline of Lake Superior in the sheltered Picture Rock Harbour. Puskaskwa is an Indigenous word with a debatable meaning. Its possible meanings include "eaters of fish," "something evil," or "safe harbour." However, the Ojibway and

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations. In Canada, over 350,000 people are Cree o ...

nations maintain "Pukasu" is the correct spelling. "The word "Pukasu" describes what people do when they cook the marrow inside the bones of animals. Remnants of a carcass are thrown into an open fire and left until any remaining meat has all burned away leaving the marrow cooked.

Flora

Pukaskwa National Park is located in the heart of Canada's boreal forest ecozone. Common tree species in this area include

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 Lab ...

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 ''Picea engelman ...

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 ...

, trembling aspen,

Eastern white cedar ''Thuja occidentalis'', also known as northern white-cedar, eastern white-cedar, or arborvitae, is an evergreen coniferous tree, in the cypress family Cupressaceae, which is native to eastern Canada and much of the north-central and northeastern ...

, and white birch. Many plants that grow inside Pukaskwa National Park are typically found in Arctic alpine regions, including encrusted saxifrage, birds-eye primrose, and

butterwort ''Pinguicula'', commonly known as the butterworts, is a genus of carnivorous flowering plants in the family Lentibulariaceae. They use sticky, glandular leaves to lure, trap, and digest insects in order to supplement the poor mineral nutrition ...

. Pukaskwa is home to the northernmost populations of Pitcher's thistle in Canada, with four colonies of the plant existing and self-sustaining on the coastal dune areas within the park. Other rare plant species include Franklin's lady-slipper and mountain huckleberry. Many plants within Pukaskwa also have medicinal and

ethnobotanical Ethnobotany is the study of a region's plants and their practical uses through the traditional knowledge of a local culture and people. An ethnobotanist thus strives to document the local customs involving the practical uses of local flora for m ...

uses. Eastern white cedar, Labrador-tea, and

Chaga The Chaga or Chagga (Swahili language: WaChaga) are Bantu languages, Bantu-speaking Indigenous peoples of Africa, indigenous Africans and the third-largest ethnic group in Tanzania. They traditionally live on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro ...

all grow within Pukaskwa's area and can be boiled into tea for physical and spiritual health. Pukaskwa is also home to numerous lichen and moss species, including

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 ...

, reindeer moss, and lungwort species.

Fauna

Black bears,

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 ma ...

beaver Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers a ...

peregrine falcon The peregrine falcon (''Falco peregrinus''), also known as the peregrine, and historically as the duck hawk in North America, is a cosmopolitan bird of prey (raptor) in the family Falconidae. A large, crow-sized falcon, it has a blue-grey bac ...

s, river otters,

lynx A lynx is a type of wild cat. Lynx may also refer to: Astronomy * Lynx (constellation) * Lynx (Chinese astronomy) * Lynx X-ray Observatory, a NASA-funded mission concept for a next-generation X-ray space observatory Places Canada * Lynx, ...

and timber wolves are found in this park. The park is also home to bald eagles. There was also a small population of

woodland caribou Woodland caribou may refer to two North American reindeer (''Rangifer tarandus'') populations: * Boreal woodland caribou * Migratory woodland caribou See also * Woodland Caribou Provincial Park Woodland Caribou Provincial Park is a provi ...

but their numbers declined from 30 caribou in the 1970s to about four in 2012 mainly due to wolf predation. In early 2017, after previous failures to locate any remaining caribou, researchers turned to advanced thermal imaging technology to survey the area for caribou. This survey revealed caribou are now extirpated from this park. Cougar may also be in the park, but numbers are not yet known.

Climate

The park has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freez ...

(''Dfb'') under the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

that is strongly influenced by

. Rivers in the park include the: *

Pukaskwa River The Pukaskwa River is a river in Thunder Bay District and Algoma District in Northern Ontario, Canada. It is in the Great Lakes Basin and is a tributary of Lake Superior, which it enters at the south end of Pukaskwa National Park. It is a remote ...

* Cascade River * North Swallow River * Swallow River * White River * Willow River The

Pic River The Pic River is a river in the east part of Thunder Bay District in northwestern Ontario, Canada. It flows from McKay Lake (Pic River), McKay Lake southeast of the community of Longlac, Ontario, Longlac and empties into Lake Superior southeast of ...

enters Lake Superior just north of the park. The highest point in the park is the peak of Tip Top Mountain which rises to 641 meters / 2106 feet.Tip Top Mountain - Peakbagger.com
/ref> Thousand year old rock structures known as

Pukaskwa Pit Pukaskwa Pits are rock-lined depressions near the northern shore of Lake Superior dug by early inhabitants, ancestors of the Ojibwa, named after the Pukaskwa River in Ontario, Canada. Estimates of their age range from as recent as 1100-1600 CE, to ...

s which were created by the original inhabitants of this area can be found on many of the park's cobblestone beaches. The most recent State of the Park Report for Pukaskwa National Park was published in 2008.

External links

Official Parks Canada site
*Watch the short documentary by Bill Masonbr>''Pukaskwa National Park''2008 State of the Park Report

Footnotes

References

* * Pukaskwa National Parks’ population has "declined from approximately 30 caribou in the 1970s to an estimated four currently, largely due to predation by wolves and possibly black bears." {{Ontario parks National parks in Ontario Parks in Algoma District Protected areas established in 1978 Parks in Thunder Bay District