Biospheres

Manicouagan Uapishka

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This UNESCO Biosphere’s most remarkable feature can be seen from space, and you may have wondered about the Eye of Quebec when looking at a map of Canada. Over 200 million years ago a meteor hit here, leaving a 70 mile crater. When the river was dammed for hydropower, the lake in the crater’s ring became permanent with an island in the middle. While it’s possible to drive an electric car up there, I didn’t have a lot of time to hike or kayak around the lake, and, while I support hydropower (with fish ladders), I don’t need to see a dam. I would like to go back to experience Innu culture, but for now I chose to visit the ecologically diverse coastal part of the biosphere.

On the drive here, I saw plenty of rivers, waterfalls, foliage and bays, but this is a particularly good place to get a sense of all of the ecosystems in close proximity, especially near the lowlands that are large enough to have subtle differentiation in plants reflecting how many days per year each part of the land is flooded. Between the Manicouagan River that powers the dam and the Outardes River, there is a delta with Outardes Nature Park on its southwest point. Here there’s a fine visitor center, campsite and good trails to see the different boreal forests, salt marshes and dunes. I saw a Cooper’s Hawk, several Black-bellied Plovers, and a Ruby crowned Kinglet, in just a few minutes. It’s a lovely spot.

Charlevoix Biosphere Reserve

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A couple hours drive northeast of Quebec City, up in the mountains is the Hautes-Gorges-de-la-Rivière-Malbaie park, the core of this pristine UNESCO Biosphere. The landscape is dramatic with high cliff multi-level waterfalls in spring and lovely maple foliage in fall, and above a low dam, there’s a boat (above) that takes sightseers up the lake in summer. Canadians are more fit than Americans, so 5 1/2 hour trails that would be labeled “strenuous” in the US are called “moderate” here. They also bring canoes and bicycles to get around, but I think the best views are found by hiking part way up one of the many trails to get a view of the water from above, such as from the Acropole des Draveurs—the rafter’s Acropolis—that looms over the scene above.

The Biosphere includes a big chunk of land from the mountains to the seaway, and there’s a tourist train in the summer that brings folks up to some of the dozen interesting little towns where they can catch buses to a half dozen parks and reserves. Up here the St Lawrence is less lakes & rivers and more ocean bay, and there are whale watching tours from Saguenay. While the peaks are around 3,000 feet—only a fraction of Colorado’s 14ers—, they’re beautiful with plenty of skiing in the winter.

Lac Saint-Pierre Biosphere Reserve

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Between Montreal and Quebec City is the beginning of the St Lawrence Estuary, near the city of Trois-Rivières. (One of the dozen tributaries here has islands at its mouth, making it look like three rivers). The UNESCO Biosphere includes this large wetland lake and many islands in the seaway and tributaries, making it an excellent site for birds. Its great blue heron rookery is quite famous, but may be difficult to access. I chose to visit the Ecological Park of Anse du Port, because it has a very long boardwalk out through the wetland all the way to the lake, with a three story viewing platform to view container ships passing in the main channel. From the boardwalk, I saw several great blue heron, two beaver, a raccoon, a woodpecker, ducks (above), bittern, and a half dozen other types of birds. Binoculars or a telephoto lens camera would be helpful, but sometimes the birds come quite close.

Mont Saint-Hilaire Biosphere Reserve

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Between Lake Champlain New York and Lac Saint-Pierre Quebec is tiny Lac Hertel (above) in the Gault Nature Reserve of McGill University in this UNESCO Biosphere. The hills are covered in Sugar Maple, Beech and Hemlock, some of which are hundreds of years old, plus some other species that have become quite rare recently. Being close to Montreal, the hiking trails were busy, so I didn’t see much wildlife besides ducks and geese. But there are bats, beavers, red foxes, grass snakes and turtles, among others. Advance, timed entry tickets are required, and there are well developed trails, boardwalks, picnic areas and camp sites. Very pretty nature reserve in the middle of a rural farming river valley.

All UN Sites in Canadian Maritimes

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New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, the three provinces known as the Maritimes, have three world heritage sites and three biospheres recognized by UNESCO. Well, almost all the sites are in Nova Scotia, but I enjoyed driving around all three provinces.

With plenty of great seafood, hiking, Celtic & Acadian culture, wildlife, history and miles of picturesque coastline, this region is highly rewarding for travelers, especially an electric road tripper. With a CCS adapter and the ChargeHub app, it’s not difficult to explore the entire region and well worth the drive.

World Heritage Sites

Grand Pré conveys the tragic history of the British expulsion of the Acadians. The landscape is lovely, and be sure to try the Tidal Bay local wine in a coastal town like Wolfville home to Acadia University.

Joggins Fossil Cliffs reveals an impressive geologic record of the coal age. Take a hard hat tour at low tide and find fossils.

Lunenburg is a beautiful, well-preserved seafaring and fishing port. Spend the night and eat all the local seafood you can.

Biospheres

Bras d’Or Lake is open to the sea through small channels making it an important fish and bird habitat. Try a local restaurant and maybe listen to some Cape Breton fiddle at a céilidh (kay-lee).

Fundy has the world’s largest tides with dramatic coastline, shorebirds and forests. The biosphere is on the New Brunswick side of the bay around the eponymous national park.

Southwest Nova protects many species, including the piping plover and blanding’s turtle. The biosphere has both a coastal and a forest component with plenty of hiking.

Bonus: Green Gables is home to LM Montgomery and her beloved characters. Prince Edward Island is the smallest province but very charming.

New Brunswick also has Kouchibouguac and Fundy National Parks, plus Campobello. Nova Scotia has Kejimkujik and Cape Breton Highlands National Parks. And Prince Edward Island has the new Pituamkek and Prince Edward Island National Parks.

Bras d’Or Lake

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Bras d’Or Lake Biosphere Region is the brackish waters and surrounding land that takes up much of the middle of Cape Breton Island in northeast Nova Scotia. The ‘Golden Arm’ lake area is famed for beauty, boating and seafood. There are many narrow channels dividing the lake restricting the tides which are extreme in the surrounding area, and several rivers reduce the salt content. Above is the Little Narrows cable ferry.

Alexander Graham Bell lived and worked here for many years, and his family still own his beautiful home on the lake. Among many inventions, he designed a hydrofoil that broke the world speed record here in 1919, and it can be seen at his historic site in Baddeck. I enjoyed a day here exploring and admiring the views. Many folks venture up into the highlands on the Cabot Trail or attend ceilidhs (‘kayleez’) to listen to Gaelic music. I enjoyed a couple fine seafood meals and some good local music in Baddeck.

Southwest Nova

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Much of southern Nova Scotia belongs to this UNESCO Biosphere, and the at the center is Kejimkujik Lake, historic site and national park above. My cousin was instrumental in gaining early recognition for the area’s exceptional starlight and dark skies, making it a great place to stargaze. The visitor center has a couple beautiful birchbark canoes and exhibits on the First Nation people who have lived in the area since time immemorial.

Due to extreme fire conditions, the backcountry was closed during my visit, but a few lakeside trails were open. The lake was low, the air and forest dry, but the day was lovely and quiet. The climate change is even more visible to the north, and there were many fires burning in Newfoundland in September. The national park includes a seaside section on the southeast coast with nesting piping plovers on a (closed) beach from April to September, but the biosphere covers far more land, outside the core park, from Yarmouth to both southwest and southeast Nova Scotia.

Fundy

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This UNESCO Biosphere Reserve is in New Brunswick Canada, although the Bay of Fundy is also formed by Nova Scotia to the east. The photo is from the north end at Fort Beauséjour looking south towards where the water comes rushing in with the highest tides in the world. The shape of the bay both funnels the water and creates oscillation that magnifies the tidal surge. The tide is fairly low at this time but already covering some of the vast mudflats that attract thousands of shorebirds, especially sandpipers in mid summer that bulk up on mud shrimp to fly to South America.

Due to the silty water, tidal power has not been harnessed here yet. The Acadians built aboiteaux or sluice gates and dykes here to reclaim some of the nutrient-rich salt marsh land for the fields below. The star fort was taken by the British during one of their conflicts with the French, played a role in the expulsion of the Acadians, and was successfully defended against the Patriots during the American Revolution. But I visited the Bay of Fundy mainly to see the tides, and one of the few places in the world that you can actually see the tide rising is where the rivers empty into the bay. I watched the tidal bore come in near Maitland Nova Scotia, creating waves as the tide forced its way up river.

Apalachicola Biosphere

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This remote basin along the Apalachicola River of the Florida panhandle is a UNESCO protected biosphere and, along with Okefenokee in Georgia, is the main production area for Tupelo honey. The Peter Fonda movie Ulee’s Gold is set here, and beekeepers frequently boat around keeping track of their bees. Many of the stumps in the photo are white tupelo gum trees, while others are cypress. Tupelo means ‘swamp tree’ in Muskogee, and Elvis’ hometown of Tupelo Mississippi has black gum trees.

Technically the photo shows the Dead Lakes on the outskirts of the preserve, but a bit past the Chipola River Bridge is the Gaskin Park boat ramp, where you can access the core area. Due to the high density of large reptiles, I decided against kayaking. But the river, swamp, floodplains, estuary, mudflats, forest, seagrass beds and barrier islands here comprise a uniquely diverse, remote, and unpolluted ecosystem, supporting many unusual and endangered species, including more reptiles and amphibians than anywhere else in the country, black bear, manatee, hundreds of species of birds, and a critical nursery for fish and shellfish. ⭐

This post marks the end of my trip to Florida and the Southeast region of the contiguous US. Next Monday I’ll post about a world heritage site in the Mid Atlantic region.

Everglades National Park

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The southern end of Florida is home to Everglades National Park, which is also a UNESCO Biosphere and a World Heritage Site. Since 1900, the area has been both protected and threatened, with political battles needed to protect bird plumage, to create the park, and to protect the large, diverse ecosystem here. Marjory Stoneman Douglas wrote a book to explain how the Shark Valley River Slough runs as a “river of grass” through the Everglades. When summer rains fill Lake Okeechobee, a sheet of water overflows the low bank and floods the flat grasslands, revitalizing fish eggs and a whole ecosystem. A cross Florida road called the Tamiami Trail prevented that flow, and a political battle was fought to restore it partially. The fresh water eventually sinks through the limestone, filling the Biscayne Aquifer to provide drinking water for Miami. There are also canals crisscrossing lower Florida, including here, and that’s where these two young alligators were hanging out. Alligator Alcatraz, a temporary migrant detention center, is in the Everglades ecosystem, but it’s not in the national park. Alligator Alcatraz is north of the Tamiami trail in Big Cypress National Preserve.

The park is 1.5 million acres, including the mangrove islands that form the southern end of Florida, before the Keys. The best place to see the mangroves is by boat, either from Everglades City west of Big Cypress or by driving to Flamingo. I took my family to the latter, and we saw a large crocodile near the dock, plus much more wildlife on a quick cruise in the “submerged wilderness” of Florida Bay. Personally, I wouldn’t kayak these waters, but many people do, camping on the Chickees or raised bits of ground where natives camped seasonally and for different purposes for centuries at least. There’s even a paddling waterway to go between Everglades City and Flamingo. Before the highway was built out to Key West, visitors commonly took a similar route by boat.

The work of environmental protection is never done. Burmese pythons entered the park in the 1970s—likely as discarded pets—, and now they’ve wiped out most of the native animals, threatening the Florida panther with extinction. I was disappointed to see the dramatic decline in wildlife evident from the Shark Valley Tower, since I first visited decades ago and even since I visited again with my family not so many years ago. And since last year, the state government is not allowed to mention climate change, global warming or sea level rise, but that obviously won’t do anything to prevent rising sea levels from submerging much of southern Florida, including most of Miami and almost 1/2 the park in the coming decades. Especially if the government refuses to take action, climate science clearly shows that the environment will only continue to worsen more rapidly.