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.
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 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.
UNESCO recognized Lunenburg Nova Scotia for being a well-preserved example of a British planned town, including many lovely, colorful historic buildings. I think that’s missing the point. The town was a success due to its natural harbor, grew quickly and earned its fine buildings by fishing and trade during the age of sail. Plenty of other towns have grid streets and colorful Victorian architecture. But the beauty of the place is its harbor, where two large sailing ships were docked when I arrived. One, the Picton Castle, is a training ship (in background above), and the other is the Bluenose II (foreground), a replica of one of the fastest fishing sailboats in the world. The Bluenose won 5 consecutive world fishing ship races during the 1920s and 30s, before being lost in the Caribbean in the 40s.
If landlubbers come here to see an old church and some other old buildings, then they’re missing the best of Lunenburg. Sit by the harbor and watch the boats. Eat some locally caught seafood in one of the many harborside restaurants. Go to the maritime museum and learn about fishing during the age of sail. My hotel room had a view of tall ship masts to help me dream of adventures, and I caught the Bluenose II on its way out to sea early in the morning, below. This is one of my favorite places to visit.
UNESCO chose to emphasize the land reclaimed by the Acadians, but the emotional power of the place is conveyed in Longfellow’s epic poem, Evangeline. The British, often at war with their rivals the French, gathered up thousands of neutral Acadian civilians, many whose families had lived in Nova Scotia (and nearby areas) for a hundred years, loaded them on ships and forcibly deported them to France and various colonies. The Grand Dérangement began in 1755, lasted 9 years, deported over 80% of the 14,000 Acadians, and 5,000 of those died due to shipwrecks, disease and starvation. A cross marks the spot where families were loaded into small boats, often separated, and taken on the dramatic tides out to ships in the bay.
The land is important too. The British certainly wanted control of the productive farming land that the Acadians had reclaimed from the sea using a remarkable system of dykes and aboiteaux or sluice gates. Tens of thousands of acres of farmland lies below high tide here, drained by one way gates in massive 17th century dykes. The replacement English speaking settlers, many from New England, maintained the dykes, and today’s warming climate allows vineyards on the surrounding hills. My cousin kindly showed me a working sluice gate, now operated remotely, and we walked along one of the dykes, appreciating the innovation and contemplating the rich red mud cut in deep channels.
Through our inaction on carbon pollution, we cause the sea to rise and claim our productive land. We cause hundreds of millions to be displaced, forcing refugees to move inland. We cause huge economic costs and more deaths due to disease, heat, pollution, starvation and storms.
It is easy today to say that the British were wrong to deport the Acadians. Yes we must admit that we’re committing a far worse global atrocity through our indifference to our carbon emissions.
This is a model of the Gemeinhaus or community house of the Moravians in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, built between 1741 and 1743. The model is inside the original building, the largest 18th century log structure in continuous use in the US. There are several Moravian buildings from the same period in the historic district in Bethlehem, including housing for men and women, a pump house—the first municipal water system in the US—, a chapel, and a tavern, and all are now recognized as part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site that includes similar Moravian sites in the Denmark, Germany and the UK. Their school buildings are now part of Moravian University here.
The Moravians, a Protestant sect that predated Martin Luther, originally came from Moravia, now the Czech Republic, but their prime benefactor was a Saxon (German), Count von Zinzendorf, so their Bible is in old, low German. They created settlements around the world in order to do Missionary work, and in Pennsylvania, they were famous for their hospitality, music and for their early efforts to learn Native American languages and hold peaceful conferences with both native and colonial leaders.
The Gemeinhaus was multifunctional, especially before other buildings were finished, and one use was as an inn. The knowledgeable docent led me into the large simple chapel on the second floor, a music room with various instruments that predate the famed Bach Choir of Bethlehem, and explained various exhibits with original items, including fine silk needlework, kitchen items and more. While many of the later buildings are still in use by the University and as housing, the core building’s remarkable preservation makes this is an exceptional way to step back over 250 years into colonial, and early American history. But also walk around the fascinating historic town, which includes an 18th century Native American house.
But my favorite building is the Sun Inn tavern from 1758, where George & Martha Washington stayed, Sam Adams drank ale, and an impressively long list of revolutionaries met over many years. It seems likely to me that Ben Franklin would have met members of the Iroquois Confederacy here, along with Moravian translators, inspiring him to incorporate their ideas into his design of our US democracy which balanced the needs of both the states and the country. There’s no better way to experience history than to raise a glass to our founders in one of their favorite drinking establishments!
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.
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!
The full name of the world heritage site is ‘Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California’, and the UNESCO site covers much of the old Sea of Cortez which Jacques Cousteau once called ‘the world’s aquarium’. Many of the mountainous islands in the gulf are home to unique species—including a rattle-less rattlesnake—and are protected from development, including the island of Espíritu Santo near La Paz. Last month I visited many of the gulf’s bays on the Baja peninsula, including Bahías de Los Ángeles, Concepción, Loreto and La Paz. In the Loreto national marine park, I saw bottlenose dolphin and fin, humpback and blue whales, including those blues in the videos below.
Zero Carbon Travel 