The Long Point area, comprising 26,250 hectares, was designated as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in April, 1986, the third in Canada. Today it is one of 15 biosphere reserves in Canada. It provides an example of the Great Lakes coastal ecosystem and a unique blend of habitats – long uninterrupted beaches, undisturbed sand dunes, grassy ridges, wet meadows, woodlands, marshes and ponds, coldwater streams, and the shallow Inner Bay.

• Download the Long Point World Biosphere Reserve pamphlet (945 K)

Our Board of Directors consists of volunteers that share the vision and objectives of the Foundation. Our directors represent a broad spectrum of professions, including local business people, farmers, foresters, biologists, engineers, nurses, teachers, writers, civil servants, retirees and others.

• Peter Black (President)
• Scott Peck (Vice President)
• Paul Givens (Treasurer)
• Colleen Dale (Secretary)
• Paula Jongerden
• Nick Wilson
• Arden Koptik
• Jody Bodnar
• Brian Craig
• Mike McArthur
• Dave Pond
• Dale Vranckx
• Tom Bradstreet
• Janice Gilbert

Biosphere Reserve Coordinator

• Bernie Solymár

Advisors to the Board

• Paul Gagnon

  Long Point Region Conservation Authority

• Jeff Robinson

  Canadian Wildlife Service

• George Francis

  University of Waterloo

• Scott Peck

Organizations as well as individuals are invited to join the Long Point World Biosphere Reserve Foundation which is incorporated as a charitable organization. The support, both moral and financial, of all those in harmony with the Biosphere concept is essential to its future and effectiveness.

If you would like to join our organization or contribute a donation, please download our membership form. Print this form, fill it out, and mail it to the address printed on the bottom.

The Long Point area, comprising 26,250 hectares, was designated as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in April, 1986, the third to be named in Canada and one of 15 biosphere reserves found in this country today. It provides an example of the Great Lakes coastal ecosystem and a unique blend of habitats – long uninterrupted beaches, undisturbed sand dunes, grassy ridges, wet meadows, woodlands, marshes and ponds, coldwater streams, and the shallow Inner Bay. Its delicate dunes and marshes teem with songbirds, spawning fish, turtles and frogs.

Long Point is a world-renowned refuge and stopover for migrating birds in fall and spring, and waterfowl viewing is excellent in March and April. In August and September tens of thousands of Monarch Butterflies congregate on Long Point, briefly resting before continuing on their way to their Mexican wintering grounds.

• Download a printable map of the Long Point biosphere

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The Old Cut Lighthouse built in 1879 and still standing just outside the boundary of the Provincial Park. Photo courtesy of Flora Aker.

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Photo courtesy of Haldimand/Norfolk Development

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(Source: Long Point Environmental Folio 1996)

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Long Point area was inhabited by the Neutral Indian Nation or the Attiwanderons, as the Hurons to the north named them, meaning ‘people whose speech is different’. They traded with the Hurons and the Iroquis peoples, as they were skilled at working with flint. For three hundred years they sustained this way of life until 1650 when the Iroquois defeated them (Big Creek Valley Conservation Authority, 1963). For many years afterward the area was known as “the beaver hunting grounds of the Iroquois”, but gradually tribes from the north migrated into the area. One of these tribes, the Mississaugas, eventually occupied the Long Point area. Although they were a semi-nomadic people, fairly permanent villages apparently existed at Port Dover and Turkey Point (Big Creek Valley Conservation Authority, 1963). The Neutrals and Mississaugas relied entirely upon natural resources (fishing and hunting) and agriculture for their survival. Important crops were corn, squash, beans and tobacco (Chanaysk, 1970). These agricultural activities allowed large numbers of individuals to occupy villages. For example, when Jesuit Priests first visited south western Ontario they reported about 40 villages and estimated that they contained at least 12,000 individuals.

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Kids for Turtles is a symbolic name – it combines children, who are our future, and turtles from our past – to form a promising outlook for our environment. Turtles have lived on earth for over 250 million years without becoming extinct, unlike many species.

Within the past few decades, human activity has had a devastating impact on turtles. Turtles are a “canary in the coal mine.” Our children will live in the world we have left to them and they will be responsible for it. This is why it is essential that our young people learn about our natural environment.

• Download the Kids for Turtles pamphlet (600 K)

You may also view a slightly smaller version of the pamphlet here.

If you would like to support Kids for Turtles by becoming a member, please download our membership form. Print this form, fill it out, and mail it to the address printed on the bottom of the form.

Biosphere Reserves are areas of terrestrial and coastal ecosystems promoting solutions to reconcile the conservation of biodiversity with its sustainable use. They remain under sovereign jurisdiction of the states where they are located. Biosphere reserves serve in some ways as “living laboratories” for testing out and demonstrating integrated management of land, water and biodiversity. Each biosphere reserve is intended to fulfill three basic functions, which are complementary and mutually reinforcing:

• A conservation function – to contribute to the conservation of landscapes, ecosystems, species and genetic variation;
• A development function – to foster economic and human development which is socio-culturally and ecologically sustainable;
• A logistic function – to provide support for research, monitoring, education and information exchange related to local, national and global issues of conservation and development.

Biosphere Reserves are not covered by an international convention but must simply meet a set of criteria allowing them to fulfill properly their three functions. Collectively, biosphere reserves form a World Network. Within this network, exchanges of information, experience and personnel are promoted. 

Biosphere Reserves are designed to meet one of the most challenging issues that the World is facing today: How can we conserve the diversity of plants, animals and micro-organisms which make up our living “biosphere” and maintain healthy natural systems while, at the same time, meet the material needs and aspirations of an increasing number of people? How can we reconcile conservation of natural resources with their sustainable use? Biosphere reserves have been designed as tools for reconciling and integrating the conflicting interests and pressures that characterize land-use planning today.

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