One of Four UNESCO World Biosphere Reserves in Ontario - Long Point

The four UNESCO World Biosphere Reserves in Ontario are among 700 worldwide protected natural spaces.  Each one contains unique land and water ecosystems, maintain a sustainable balance between the environment and human beings, protect at-risk species, contain important Indigenous and heritage sites, and focus on eco-education.

Today I am going to tell you about Long Point which is a giant sand spit deposit that extends 40 km into Lake Erie.  

First of all I looked up the meaning of a sand spit.  A sand spit is an accretionary feature formed by littoral drift.  Yikes, that doesn’t help much.  What do the words accretionary and littoral mean?  Accretionary means materials deposited over the surface of an existing structure and littoral means an area situated on the shore of the sea or a lake.  Ok, so the Long Point UNESCO Biosphere Reserve is a long narrow accumulation of sand or gravel lying in line with the coast, with one end attached to the land and the other projecting into Lake Erie.

The landscape at Long Point is diverse.  There are woodlands, sand dunes, marshes, meadows and beaches shaped around this giant sand spit deposit projecting into Lake Erie. The area is teeming with flora and fauna. There are over 350 species of birds making it a globally significant birding area.

There are several things you can do in this Biosphere Reserve. You can hike or bike through the undisturbed marshlands in Big Creek National Wildlife Area which is located on the north shore of Lake Erie, in Ontario at the base of the Long Point Peninsula. The Big Creek Unit of the NWA is 608 hectares and includes two man-made wetlands that are maintained by a system of dykes and water pumps to protect the habitat for migratory birds and other wildlife. 

Birds, frogs, turtles, amphibians, and insects rely on wetland habitats.  The marshes at the mouth of Big Creek are a major staging area for waterfowl and other bird species which use the area during their spring and fall migrations. Big Creek NWA also shelters a number of endangered and threatened species. You may see the king rail, the prothonotary warbler, the eastern hog-nosed snake, the least bittern, Blanding’s turtle, the eastern foxsnake, Fowler’s toad, a red-headed woodpecker, a short-eared owl, an eastern ribbonsnake, the milk snake, monarch butterfly, swamp rose mallow.

The Waterford Heritage Trail is close to the Long Point Biosphere Reserve.  Views from the century-old Black Bridge on the Waterford Heritage Trail are spectacular. The bridge connects the two ends of the Waterford Heritage Trail and features a decked surface, guard rails, and three lookout points. 

Another adventure one can enjoy is a zipline ride through the deciduous forest region found in this area of Ontario.  There are a variety of camping options available in this area too.  There are rustic camping pods as well as luxury wilderness suites with an outdoor shower.  If you like you can suds up under the stars.

At the tip of the sand spit is a lighthouse.  A circular, stone tower fifty feet high was built and completed in 1831. The lantern room had twelve lamps and sixteen-inch reflectors topped by a lightning rod. Thomas Price was appointed its first official keeper.  By 1832, the foundation of the lighthouse was already being damaged by the waves hitting its base.  The Long Point Lighthouse was taken down and in 1843 a new tower and keeper’s dwelling were built near the tip of Long Point. In 1890 it was decided to erect a steam foghorn at the east end of Long Point. The fog alarm building was 200 yards south of the lighthouse and the foghorn was placed in service in 1891. The foghorn sounded seven-second blasts separated by thirty seconds of silence when needed. The present concrete, octagonal tower on Long Point was completed in 1916.

The bright beam from a lighthouse can be deadly to migrating birds.  Keeper Lorne Brown found hundreds of dead or injured birds at the base of the tower one day in early September 1929. He called William E. Saunders, an avid naturalist, who arrived the next day accompanied by a fellow naturalist. The pair counted 823 birds killed during the previous two nights. Keeper Brown later sent more birds in late September to Saunders who published a paper noting that 1,237 birds of 55 types had been killed at the lighthouse that September. 

In 2003 another paper was published showing the number of bird kills at Long Point Lighthouse between 1960 and 2003.  It concluded that the character of the light had a drastic impact on avian mortality.  Long Point Lighthouse was automated in 1989, and the study showed automation of the light led to a great reduction in the number of kills. 

Much of Long Point became the Long Point National Wildlife Area in 1978 and in 1866 the wildlife area was designated a biosphere reserve by UNESCO. The only way to see the Long Point Lighthouse is by boat.

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