Gulf of St. Lawrence lowland forests


The Gulf of St. Lawrence lowland forests are a temperate broadleaf and mixed forest ecoregion of eastern Canada.

Setting

Located on the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary, this ecoregion covers all of Prince Edward Island, the Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine of Quebec, most of east-central New Brunswick, the Annapolis Valley, Minas Basin and the Northumberland Strait coast of Nova Scotia. This area has a coastal climate of warm summers and mild but snowy winters with an average annual temperature of around 5 °C going up to 15 °C in summer, the coast is hotter than the islands or the sheltered inland valleys.

Flora

The colder climate allows more hardwood trees to grow in the Gulf of St Lawrence than in most of this part of northeast North America. Trees of the region include eastern hemlock, balsam fir, American elm, black ash, eastern white pine, red maple, northern red oak, black spruce, red spruce and white spruce.

Fauna

The forests are home to a variety of wildlife from reptiles including American black bear, moose, white-tailed deer, red fox, snowshoe hare, North American porcupine, fisher, North American beaver, bobcat, American marten, raccoon and muskrat. The area is habitat for maritime ringlet butterflies and other invertebrates. Birds include many seabirds, a large colony of great blue heron, the largest remaining population of the endangered piping plover and one of the largest colonies of double-crested cormorant in the world.

Threats and preservation

Most of this ecoregion has been altered by logging and clearance for agriculture with only 3% of original habitat remaining and that highly fragmented. The only large block of intact habitat remains in the area around Kouchibouguac National Park in New Brunswick, although even here logging is ongoing.