Category: Ecology

Quetico celebrated its 100th Anniversary last year. Quetico was originally set aside in 1909 as the Quetico Forest Reserve, became a Provincial Park in 1913, logging was banned in 1972 and it was declared a wilderness park in 1978. Quetico is characterized by towering cliffs, rocky islands and sandy beaches in a watery landscape of clear… Continue reading Quetico Park: Twelve Thousand Years in the Making – A Century of Protection

Prelude (excerpt) QUETICO — ONE HUNDRETH ANNIVERSARY OF A “MAGIC LAND” In 1909, Ernest Oberholtzer, a pioneer in preserving the Quetico-Superior region, made a canoe trip in Quetico with his Ojibwa friend Billy Magee. They saw moose almost every day; they were intrigued by the pictographs they encountered; they marvelled at the beauty of Rebecca… Continue reading Excerpts from chapters in Quetico: Near to Natures Heart.

During the winter, all life under the ice has to adapt to conditions that are strikingly different from those found in the summer. In the summer, our lakes are layered with the warmest water on top and the coldest on the bottom. As you descend, the temperature slowly decreases until you reach the thermocline where… Continue reading Life Under the Ice

The high number of rapids and waterfalls in Quetico Park is primarily due to the large amount of exposed bedrock combined with numerous creeks and rivers. Three images of these rapids and waterfalls are shown below. A Gallery of images of waterfalls and rapids in northwestern Ontario is found in the Photography section. A number… Continue reading Rapids and Waterfalls in Quetico

When I first came to the Boundary Waters I was mainly interested in going canoeing and seeing a new landscape very different from the farm country where I grew up in southern Minnesota. I kept coming back primarily because of the wildlife and it is still thrilling to see moose, wolves, otters, bald eagles, ospreys… Continue reading Paddling to the McNiece Lake Pines

It’s not hard to find lichens, you simply have to look where other forms of life find the conditions too harsh. Sheer cliff walls, the surface of large boulders, tree trunks, the branches of living and dead trees, and the shaded acidic soils under pines, are all places where lichens thrive. They have even been… Continue reading Lichens: Unusual Partners

  Quetico Park contains a wide variety of different habitats: large stands of mature red and white pine, even-aged jack pine and poplar stands (the result of recent fires), wet areas with an understory of moss and overstory of black spruce, and open bogs composed of leather leaf, sphagnum moss and orchids. These and a… Continue reading Ice Age Journey

  I love watching ravens fly. They seem to delight in performing a wide variety of aerial acrobatics. Other birds seem to fly primarily for practical purposes: searching for food, avoiding predators, or simply moving from place to place. Ravens, however, often seem to cavort in the air with joyous abandon simply because it is… Continue reading A Raven’s Knowledge

Winter is the time of year when everything seems to slow down in the Boundary Waters area. It is much quieter in the woods since most of the birds have left for warmer climates where food is more abundant in the winter. Animals o various sizes, from black bears to least chipmunks, have retreated to… Continue reading Pukak: Life Under The Snow