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Canada National Parks & Lakes

Canada National Parks

National Parks in Canada are protected areas under the jurisdiction of Canada National Parks Act, owned by the Government of Canada. These national parks set aside lands representing the country’s 39 distinct natural regions described in the National Parks System Plan, primarily to protect the ecological integrity of the land.

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Facts About Canada’s National Parks

  • If we go by count, there are more than 40 national parks and national park reserves in Canada. The smallest one, Georgian Bay Islands National Park is under 14 square kilometres, whereas the largest park is the Wood Buffalo Park that covers nearly 45,000 square kilometres. It is also the second – largest national park in the world.

  • Millions of wild Bison were reintroduced in the Banff National Park after a century of their absence. These American buffalos have now been transported from Elk Island Park to Banff National Park and are under observation ahead of their re-establishment in the ecosystem.

  • The Fundy National Park gets the highest tides up to fifteen metres during high tide in the Bay of Fundy region, which is often the height of a four-storey building! These powerful tides carve out steep cliffs and tall rock formations known as sea stacks.

  • The tiny Sable Island National Park is a haven situated in the Nova Scotia coast. The wild space is populated by 500 wild horses and is dedicated to their preservation.

  • The Fathom Five National Marine Park is a National Marine Conservation Area in the Georgian Bay region of Lake Huron, Ontario. Many untold stories and secrets are seized under these ancient underwater trees. The Marine Park is an amazing place to explore the underwater treasures.

  • Canada is also abode to the largest known polar bear maternity denning areas. Female polar bears give birth to and nurture their offsprings in the Wapusk National Park dens. There are more than 900 polar bears in the park! It is also home to Cape Churchill, which is renowned as the best location in the world to view and photograph wild polar bears.

  • Wild horses can be spotted in the Sable Island National Park Reserve that is home to around 500 of them. These wild horses feed upon grass, island plants, and eat kelp and seaweed that washes up on the beach. Since 1583, around 350 shipwrecks were recorded in the region, earning it the title of ‘Graveyard of the Atlantic’.

Canada Lakes

Canada has an extremely large number of lakes, with the number of lakes larger than three square kilometres being estimated at close to 31, 752 by Atlas of Canada. Of these lakes, 561 have a surface area larger than 100km2, including four of the Great Lakes.

Facts About Canada Lakes

  • Archaeological evidence show traces of human activity preserved beneath Lake Huron. Researchers found what they believe to be caribou-hunting structures and camps used by the early hunters of the period.

  • Medicine Lake, located within Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada is approximately 7 km and is a relatively shallow lake. The lake is a geologic anomaly in the sense that it is actually not a lake but rather an area in which the Maligne River backs up and suddenly disappears underground as a losing stream.

  • Out of all the natural lakes in the world, more than 50 per cent are situated in Canada.

  • Lakes Superior and Huron are examples of a lake within a lake.

  • The Spotted Lake is in general, a drainage basin with no outflow, located in British Columbia, Canada. The lake holds a rich concentration of minerals and very little water. During extreme temperatures, the liquid evaporates away and only the colourful mineral deposits are left over resulting in the unusual aftermath view.

  • The Lake Ontario is considered the most polluted out of the five Great Lakes. All of the other lakes flow into it, thus polluting it even more. Remains from farms, industries, and businesses around it also drain their trash making it reach a level beyond acceptable.

  • Alberta’s Maligne Lake has a fair share of glacial mountain views, and this lake in Jasper Park is considered as one of the most photographed natural places in the world and is enlisted among the awesome stretches of water!

  • Lake Superior is by far, the largest freshwater lake in the world in terms of the surface area covered. Its area is greater than the combined areas of Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire.