This is one of two UNESCO Biospheres in the Mid Atlantic region; the other is Pine Barrens in New Jersey. Dedicated to scientific research, protected for decades by dedicated environmentalists and locals, including Federal, State and Local lands, and managed by the Nature Conservancy, this UNESCO Biosphere protects much of the Virginia part of the Delmarva Peninsula, including its fragile barrier islands. It’s a crucial stop for birds on the Atlantic flyway from the Yucatán, over Florida and up the coast to Canada. And of course, studying these coastal wetlands is critical for combating the effects of the climate crisis.
There’s a nice trail next to the Brownsville HQ with boardwalks out to the Atlantic view below and a similar one facing the inland wetlands. I saw a great blue heron, two large turtles, and many butterflies, spiders and frogs. Frogs were much more common in my youth, so it was a delight to see so many hopping across the trail or grass in front of me.
The highlight of my trip to Baja California last month was seeing Gray Whales (see videos below) in the Ojo de Liebre—hare’s eye—Lagoon, in the northeastern corner of the huge Vizcaíno biosphere and world heritage site in central Baja. I must thank the legendary Shari Bondi for organizing the experience, as there’s an element of magic required to bring people and whales together well. Unlike any whale watching experience I’ve ever had, the gray whales can be quite friendly. One female approached my boat, stuck her nose up and touched my hand.
The rock art mountains are also within the Vizcaíno preserve, along with several other lagoons popular among winter-breeding gray whales and turtles. Since the lagoons are closely regulated, the only way to see these whales is to join a tour. Since the winter season is short, the tour guides typically work with local hotels and add lagoon-side camps. You may find it difficult to book a room in Guerrero Negro around February, unless you book a package tour. Some visitors spend days on site, taking multiple whale watching trips. Enjoy!
Earlier this month, I visited El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar [literally ‘the stink beetle and the great high desert’]. It’s a UNESCO Biosphere and World Heritage Site in Sonora Mexico, and it’s a sister park to Organ Pipe Cactus NM across the border in Arizona. A dozen pronghorn scampered through the various cactus, but unfortunately the border wall prevents many species from moving freely in their natural habitat. The main attraction is ten large volcanic craters, including the deep, symmetrical Elegante below. The landscape is extraordinary and otherworldly, with long black lava walls, cinder cones, sand dunes, various cacti, bushes, shrubs and wildflowers. There is enough rainfall to support birds, reptiles and wildlife like big horn sheep. Some folks camp overnight to experience the vast dark skies, far from large human settlements.
A 2018 movie called Sonora was filmed here, and the movie describes the desert as both the middle of nowhere and ‘the devil’s highway’. A few years ago some criminals moved into the area, but they are gone now. The roads are severely washboarded, sandy and sometimes are blocked by local landholders due to disputes over compensation, so I hired a driver, a van and a guide. There are no facilities to speak of, so you need to bring whatever you need in and pack everything out. From the supercharger in Gila Bend, it’s more than a full charge round trip to Puerto Peñasco or Rocky Point where guided tours depart, so I charged at my hotel on the Playa Bonita. The local economy is still recovering from various border shutdowns and Covid, but the onsite park museum is expected to reopen soon, which will bring more visitors. But for my visit, I was happy to have the whole park to myself.
The Salmon River flows into the Pacific just out of sight between the headland and the beach above. The trail up here to the lower viewpoint starts at the boat launch, climbs through a lovely mossy old growth grove and crosses a few small bridges—the cascades were hidden in the brush—before reaching the meadow where a rare flower and butterfly live. There’s an upper viewpoint some 700 feet further up the hill, but I figured the closer view was better.
This UNESCO Biosphere is mostly on Nature Conservancy land, thanks to concerned citizens who rallied to protect it. Definitely needed the birdsong app: white-crowned sparrow, golden-crowned kinglet, chestnut-backed chickadee, pacific wren and a brown creeper, not to mention the usual coastal waterfowl and some raptor I couldn’t identify. Lovely spot on the Oregon coast with about a dozen other hikers on the trail on a beautiful day last fall.
This large UNESCO biosphere near Edmonton Alberta includes Elk Island National Park, which has hundreds of plains and wood bison. But Elk Island is fenced, so, as important as that park is for restoring the bison population, I came to see beaver. And on the Beaver Hills Biodiversity Trail, I saw several large beaver dens, like the one above.
Beaver are quite destructive, and their homes are surrounded by felled and drowned trees and pointy stumps. But they also create year round dens and dams with ponds and small lakes for many other species. Besides the many waterfowl, blue dragonflies, and chattery squirrels, I saw a magnificent golden eagle circle above the pond. And of course, I saw five or six beaver, swimming far from their dens, playing and occasionally climbing on branches to dry off, scratch or hang out.
When humans create zoos, safari parks or even national parks with fences, it’s not right to call the enclosed animals ‘wild’. Some may have been born wild, but as long as they’re locked up, they’re no longer wild animals. Humans make the rules in those spaces, so, no matter how we try to copy nature, the spaces are artificial. But when beaver fell trees, build dams and create lakes, they make the rules. And the species gather there naturally. Beaver Hills is a natural area, filled with wild animals, and it is delightful to pause here and take in the peaceful balance of life.
I saw ducks and geese in the thousands, a flock of whooping cranes, a pair of sharp-tailed grouse, and many other birds, but they kept their distance from me. Saskatchewan has many lakes, and occasionally one will be full of birds. I also saw a young moose walking near the road, and there were bison behind fences. Since I was there during harvest, I could see the giant combines gathering grain. The self-guided driving tour gives several suggestions for exploring the area, which is mostly farms and First Nation communities. I believe there’s a visitor center opening soon.
The lake is at the center of a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, but there’s also a popular state park camping and recreation area. So there are RVs, cabins, a beach below with a playground, mini golf, a golf course, a boat launch and even a few JetSkis, which hardly seem compatible with an internationally important bird refuge. Humans have trouble sharing our world with all the other species.
The view above of Clear Lake from the wishing well is beautiful. The Canadian biosphere includes Riding Mountain National Park and environs, including many ranches, homes and towns that proudly support the local species and clean environment around them.
I enjoyed a few hikes in the park, including a lovely marsh with floating boardwalks and over a dozen bird species, like swamp sparrow, black billed magpie and yellow-rumped warbler. (Love that birdsong app!)
Another hike took me to a lake near Grey Owl’s cabin, before he moved to Prince Albert National Park in Saskatchewan. He was an Englishman who reimagined himself as part Native American and who spent his life advocating for wilderness conservation, especially the beaver. Interesting stories about him. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any beaver, but I did see the moose below.
Ignore the famed waterfalls and focus on Goat Island cliff in the middle. That wall is the Niagara Escarpment, caused by relatively hard rocks at the top holding the land underneath together, until it erodes away from the side. This two level land break—all erosion and not earthquake fault—is the key geologic feature to understanding the Great Lakes.
Much of the escarpment is in Canada, and even where it crosses the border to form Niagara Falls, it’s easier to see from the Canadian side as above. It runs along the south shore of Lake Ontario, across Niagara Falls (above) where it sets the level of Lake Erie, northwest through Ontario where it guides the Bruce Trail, up along the north shore of Lake Huron where it splits off Georgian Bay and shapes Lakes Huron and Michigan, along Michigan’s Upper Peninsula where it separates Lake Superior, and down the Door Peninsula past Green Bay in Wisconsin. After driving around the Great Lakes, it’s apparent how the water levels depend on the escarpment: Superior is the highest above both ends, Michigan and Huron are the same level in the middle, and shallow Erie is a little lower, held back at Niagara Falls, before that river drains into the lowest lake, Ontario.
UNESCO defines the Biosphere as the mostly forested area of Ontario between Niagara Falls and Tobermory on the tip of the Bruce Peninsula next to Georgian Bay, roughly 500 miles along the escarpment. The geologically interesting landscape holds great biodiversity in wetlands, coastline, deciduous & conifer forests, and rocky bluffs, perhaps the most in Canada. And there are many opportunities to explore, photograph wildlife, hike, drive or boat nearby. I hiked on the Cup & Saucer Trail on Manitoulin Island, the world’s largest freshwater island, when traveling around the Great Lakes. There, the escarpment is eroded on both sides, providing many views along its edge, including Lake Manitou below.
Much of upstate New York belongs to the Adirondacks, with old mountains, lakes, forests, wildlife and scenery. Two of the more famous tourist spots are the High Falls Gorge (above) and the Ausable Chasm (below), both on the Ausable River—from the French ‘au sable’ meaning ‘sandy’—which is fed from Lake Placid and flows down to Lake Champlain. Since they’re well developed old trails, walking along the secure walkways and overlooks costs about $20 each, but I think they’re still worth it, though neither is quite the scale I imagined for the ‘Grand Canyon of the East’.
Lake Champlain is part of the water route from New York City to Quebec, so several key battles were fought in the area, including at Saratoga and during the War of 1812. The British were winning in 1814, having sacked DC, but Thomas Macdonough won the Battle of Lake Champlain aboard his ship, the USS Saratoga, thwarting a British invasion down the Hudson in 1814.
This National Heritage Area preserves both history and beautiful nature, including Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller in Vermont. The Champlain-Adirondack Biosphere is also recognized by UNESCO for its forests, wetlands and mountains in both upstate NY and about 1/2 of Vermont. Unfortunately, the Trump administration ended the only other UNESCO Biosphere in the North Atlantic Region at New Hampshire’s Hubbard Brook hardwood forest research. Still, there are many other fascinating places to visit in this diverse heritage area, such as the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton New York on the St Lawrence River, as well as the scenic homelands of the Algonquin and Iroquois people near the Canadian border.
This year I completed loops around all the Great Lakes, crossing the Canadian border in Minnesota, upper & lower Michigan, and western & northern New York, visiting biospheres in both countries. In Canada, UNESCO Biospheres are tourist destinations, where you can hike and see and learn about wildlife, in addition to and separately from their wonderful national and provincial parks. In the US, while some national parks are also internationally recognized biospheres, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, is hardly mentioned.
Obtawaing Biosphere is a university project, not well known despite its international scientific research cooperation. Isle Royale National Park attracts many midwestern volunteers for its prey-predator study (see tagged moose above), but even if you ask a ranger, you’re unlikely to learn much about the site being a UNESCO Biosphere. And it took some research for me to learn that Sleeping Bear Dunes is also part of the larger global biosphere network.
Many Americans view our parks as recreation areas for workers to take vacations and spend money as tourists. That nature thrives there is taken for granted. What’s important for most is that you can exercise by climbing a dune, hiking across an island, renting a kayak or biking on a trail. If science is considered at all, it should be presented to the kids in an entertaining, limited format, where kids can learn about ‘weird’ or ‘cool’ animals.
Canada has all of that too, but they also cooperate in international scientific efforts to protect nature. Adults are encouraged to increase their scientific understanding of species too. Their Great Lake biospheres have online visiting information, campgrounds, cooperative agreements with First Nations, birding resources, museums, and both areas that are closed to the public and where the public is welcome. UNESCO is on the signs and in the exhibits.
Sadly, a few Americans believe stupid conspiracies about UNESCO, and some leaders disparaged the science group over an unrelated Israel/ Palestine dispute. As President, Trump removed 17 US Biospheres from the UN program, including Konza Prairie in Kansas. Kansas may not be demographically diverse, but its Tallgrass Prairie is ecologically important to species diversity on earth. The research at Konza used to receive international funding and cooperate with UN scientific efforts, including climate and wildfire research.
There is no logic behind stopping us from receiving funding from the UN for many of our critically important research biospheres, when we need international cooperation to fix the climate crisis. Humans impact nature, and if we’re not careful, we will irrevocably destroy much of our natural environment. Americans should learn about and celebrate our UNESCO biospheres. Please support scientific research and the environment.
Zero Carbon Travel 