• Minutes for Sustainable Tourism Workshop, Jan 12, 2010.pdf
• Norfolk Tourism Initiatives
• Norfolk Trails Presentation
• Ontario Outdoor Adventure Calendar
• Strategic Planning for Sustainable Tourism
• Sustainable Tourism in Biosphere reserves
• Update – Sustainable Tourism Meeting

• Your Biosphere Reserve — Creating a Sustainable Future (Canadian Biosphere Reserves Association)
• Biosphere Reserves in Canada: Exploring ideals and experience (Environments: a Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies)

Long Point Biosphere Reserve

• Long Point Biosphere Reserve Periodic Review Report, 2001
• Long Point Environmental Folio

Monitoring and Surveys in Norfolk County

• Waterfowl and Wetlands of Long Point Bay and Old Norfolk County (Long Point Waterfowl and Wetlands Research Fund)
• Forest Monitoring Status Report (Long Point Biosphere Reserve Foundation)
• Salamander Monitoring at Backus Woods Report, 1999-2003 (Long Point Biosphere Reserve Foundation and University of Western Ontario)
• 2008 Marsh Bird and Anuran Species Occurance and Abundance at Long Point Inner Bay Wetland (Bird Studies Canada)

Research Studies

• Rapid Increase in The Great Lakes Population of Mute Swans (Bird Studies Canada)
• Spring Banding of American Black Ducks (Bird Studies Canada)
• Phragmites Research (Bird Studies Canada)

Project Reports

• Long Point Habitat Restoration Project (Long Point Biosphere Reserve)

Rural Landowner Stewardship

• Caring for Nature in Norfolk (Carolinian Canada Coalition)
• Wanted! Species at Risk in Norfolk poster (Carolinian Canada Coalition)
• Growing Native Tallgrasses and Wildflowers for Prairie Restoration (Long Point Biosphere Reserve Association)
• Rural Landowner Stewardship Guide for Ontario Landscapes (University of Guelph)
• Grasslands Stewardship Guide for Framers and Rural Landowners (Ontario Barn Owl Recovery Project)
• A Guide to Stewardship Planning for Natural Areas (Ministry of Natural Resources)

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

• 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

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.

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

The Core

Core Area: Consists of one or more protected areas, such as a national or provincial park, migratory bird sanctuary or other protected area. The Core Area acts as a reference point on the natural state of the ecosystem(s) that the biosphere reserve represents.

The Core Area of the Long Point World Biosphere Reserve is officially the 3,250 hectare (8,000 acre) Long Point National Wildlife Area, administered by the Canadian Wildlife Service of Environment Canada since 1979. The Core lies on the outer half of the Long Point peninsula, which is a fragile sand spit that has formed during the last 4000 years and is still changing to-day. This formation; has provided protection from the prevailing winds and allowed for the formation of the great marshes bordering the Inner Bay, as well as a safe harbour. From pre-settlement time onward the resources of the area have attracted people.

We owe a great debt to the twelve businessmen/sportsmen who, in 1866, purchased from the Crown almost all of the centre and eastern part of the Point with its great marshes. They established the first management plan for the area at a time when it was threatened by market hunters, poachers and a public that paid little attention to sustainable use. After maintaining fine stewardship of the resource for over a century the Long Point Company donated about half of its holdings to the people of Canada, with a provision that the government would continue to protect the area.

Distinctive plant communities in the core support a great diversity of vegetation and wildlife and, together with the Buffer Area, provide one of the best waterfowl staging areas in all of Ontario during migration. Long Point is on a major flyway, especially for song birds. The area is also important in that the northern distributional limits of some southern species and the southern limits of some northern species overlap there. Several of these species are rare or threatened in Canada.

The Buffer

Buffer Area: Surrounding or adjacent to the Core Area, this area is managed in ways that support the conservation objectives of the Core. Examples may include a municipally regulated floodplain, a woodland special management area, or a conservation easement on private land.

The north shore the Buffer Area extends from the outer tip of Turkey Point to the western edge of the Hahn Marsh: its other limits are the 100 year flood line and the 10 metre depth contour of Lake Erie. It includes all of the Inner Bay and all of the Turkey Point marshes.

The diversity of human influence in the Buffer area is significant – boating, construction, cottagers, dredging, fishing, hunting, nature study, swimming, water supply, wildlife habitat etc. contribute to this diversity. Among Canadian Biosphere Reserves management of Long Point is very complicated, as 19 government agencies have administrative responsibilities in it. There are at least 22 government policy and planning documents relating to Long Point and 30 different organized stakeholder groups, local, provincial, and government.

Private landowners of sections of the marsh areas have, in general, demonstrated stewardship of the resources that is in harmony with Biosphere purposes. One of the major objectives of the LPWBRF is to promote public information and education regarding the nature of the Biosphere Reserve program and its significance to the public in general. WE continue to partner with local citizens and organizations on a diversity of sustainable community projects.

The Area Of Cooperation

Area of Cooperation: Usually the largest part of the biosphere reserve, surrounding the Core and Buffer areas, this is where most of the residents live and work, using natural resources in a sustainable manner.

The Southern Norfolk Sand Plains that lie immediately to the north of Long Point are well-known for their rich agricultural lands, tallgrass prairie and oak savanna remnants, wetlands and Carolinian forests. Farmers, woodlot owners and other rural property owners living here take great pride in practicing sound land stewardship practices and value the interaction they have with the biodiversity in this special part of Ontario.

In a geographical sense the Big Creek and Dedrick Creek watersheds are considered part of the Area of Cooperation, since land use there affects the health of the Inner Bay, and associated marshes and wildlife. Such significant Carolinian forest tracts as Backus Woods, the St. Williams Conservation Reserve, Rowanwood Sanctuary, Spooky Hollow, Turkey Point Provincial Park, and three local Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSIs) – Delhi-Big Creek, South Walsingham Sand Ridges and Big Creek Floodplain, influence the Core and Buffer Areas. Arguably, the highest biodiversity of plants and animals anywhere in our country occurs here, including the threatened Cucumber Magnolia, Eastern Fox Snake and Hooded Warbler, and the endangered American Badger.

The guidelines under which we operate are flexible enough to allow for the extension of boundaries and/or the recognition of satellite areas of interest.

Natural Features of Long Point

(Source: http://www.on.ec.gc.ca/wildlife/nwa/eng/longpoint/longpoint_htm-e.html)

Beaches, dunes, wetlands and forests
The most striking feature of Long Point is the diversity (variety) of habitat for wild plants and animals. Mainly undisturbed by people, wildlife can thrive in this beautiful place.
The Long Point peninsula is about 40 kilometres in length. It developed over centuries by the erosion of land to the west and the accumulation of sand along the south beach of the sandspit. As a result, the older vegetation communities (groups) are found to the west and north. Younger communities are found to the south and east. It has the distinction of being the second longest fresh water peninsula in the world.

The backbone of the peninsula is the 32-kilometre beach and associated sand dunes. South-westerly winds along this shore carry sand across the point and build ever-changing dunes that can reach heights of 30 metres. Between the dunes (interdunal) are ponds and swales.
Older, terrestrial (land-based) habitats include hardwood maple and oak forests, oak savannas, pine forests, red cedar and ground juniper savannas.

Long Point is also renowned for the large wetland complex on the lee (sheltered from the wind) side of the sandspit. Habitat within the wetland varies depending on the depth of the water, types of substrate (e.g., soil) and age of the wetland area.
Typically, the older wetlands have deeper water and are often dominated by marsh plants such as cattails, rushes and phragmites. Younger wetlands have a wider assortment of plants, many of which are rare in Canada.

Type of wetland
The Long Point wetland complex is considered a provinicially significant wetland, according to the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, which means that it meets one or more of the following criteria:

• appearance of endangered or threatened species, listed federally or provincially, or provides habitat for these species;


• 40 to 60 per cent of the area is open water with two or more vegetation classes;


• 4.5 hectares or more in size and having three or more wetland classes, including open water, and;


• the appearance of plant associations of infrequent occurrence.

Plants, birds, bugs, fish, snakes and frogs
The importance of Long Point to biodiversity is paramount. The peaceful marshes, beaches and forests are home to an amazing number of species. Some are common and some are very rare.
Hundreds of thousands of waterfowl migrate through Long Point every spring and autumn. More than 300 different bird species migrate through the peninsula. More than 80 bird species nest on the point. There are more than 60 species of fish and many rare plants, reptiles and amphibians. Of course, many species of insects also prosper in the national wildlife area.
Species at risk include Bald Eagle, Fowler’s Toad, Eastern Spiny Softshell, Blanding’s Turtle, Spotted Turtle, Snapping Turtle, and Eastern Foxsnake

Conservation Designations

In addition to its UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve designation, Long Point is also:

A Ramsar Site: The international Ramsar Convention on Wetlands www.ramsar.org * is a treaty signed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971. The treaty is intended to conserve wetlands and the resources within them such as wild rice or fish. Long Point was included in Ramsar in 1992.

International Network of Monarch Butterfly Reserves: In 1996, Long Point joined a network of sites in Canada, the United States and Mexico that are protected for Monarch Butterflies. Many thousands of migrating Monarchs feed and rest at Long Point each year in preparation for their long journey across Lake Erie and south to the tropics.

Canadian Designations: Long Point is a provincially significant wetland, according to the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. It is also considered a Canadian Important Bird Area.

Site Details

Long Point National Wildlife Area was established in 1978. It is made up of two large properties, Thoroughfare Point (450 hectares) and Long Point (3,200 hectares). Thoroughfare Point is between the Long Point Provincial Park and land owned by the Long Point Company, a private sportsmen club. The Long Point property is located on the eastern half of the sandspit. The Long Point National Wildlife Area was donated to the people of Canada by the Long Point Company.

Many parts of the Long Point National Wildlife Area are set aside to protect the wildlife and their habitats from disturbance, particularly during peak spring and autumn migration.

The Thoroughfare Point property is open to the public from mid-April to mid-September. The area can be reached through Long Point Provincial Park. There are sandy beaches and hundreds of hectares of marsh and ponds available for quiet recreation such as canoeing and fishing. Beach-goers must remain on the beach to prevent damage to the fragile sand dunes. Waterfowl hunting is also permitted along the perimeter of Thoroughfare Point according to regulations.

The Long Point property has a beach on the north side of the peninsula that can be used by the public during the day but is only accessible by boat. Some designated ponds and marshes are open for fishing but only with non-toxic fishing sinkers and jigs.
Approximately half of the peninsula is still privately owned and there is no public access to this private property.

Photo courtesy of Flora Aker

Photo courtesy of W.A. Gordon.
The above two photos show the second Long Point lighthouse, built on a site chosen by Captain Alexander McNeilledge in May of 1843.

This is the existing lighthouse today, which is now unmanned. Photo courtesy of Harry B. Barrett.

The restoration of the present lighthouse. Photo courtesy of Harry B. Barrett

Photos courtesy of George Pond

This is the old lamp from the present day lighthouse before it became fully automated. Photo courtesy of Harry B. Barrett.

Photo courtesy of Jack Lang

Photo of Pottohawk Point courtesy of George Pond

Photo of Pottohawk Point West to Causeway courtesy of Wyatt Goodlet

Photo courtesy of George Pond

Photos of Long Point courtesy of Harry B. Barrett

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.

The Long Point region was within a tract of land purchased May 22, 1784, by the British Crown from the Mississauga Indians (Big Creek Valley Conservation Authority, 1963). Irregular settlement occurred from 1789 to 1794, with systematic settlement beginning after townships were surveyed in the late 1790′s and early 1800′s. As part of these pioneering activities, the United Empire Loyalists established what they called “the Long Point Settlement” between 1791 and 1794 (Big Creek Valley Conservation Authority, 1963). Between 1791 and 1812, over 3000 immigrants took up land in the Long Point area, bringing United Empire Loyalists from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and the New England states. This was the beginning of a period of intense human impact in the area around Long Point, through lumbering, repeated wildfire after logging, clearing for agriculture and grazing of livestock in the forests, plains, and marshes (Heffernan, 1978). Saw mills and grist mills played an important role in the early settlement and economy of the region, and provided a focal point around which villages grew (Department of Lands and Forests 1963, Barrett 1977, Howes 1985). As settlers cleared the land for agriculture, the large hardwood trees they removed were floated down Big Creek and local tributaries for commercial production. The location of the first local mill is uncertain; family accounts in both the Ryerse-Ryerson and Backhouse families lay claim to being the first. The Backhouse grist mill, still in operation at Backus Heritage Conservation Area outside of Port Rowan, remains a superb example of grist mills of the time.

Initially, economic activities of the Long Point settlers were based primarily on agriculture and lumber. Wheat continued to be the dominant crop throughout the 1800′s. By the 1880′s, however, competition from western prairie wheat growers increased, and barley, oats, and corn became the major crops in Norfolk County (Wilcox 1993). A small fruit farming industry was set up in the area before 1866. Vineyards and peach orchards were scattered along Long Point, but when the Long Point Company purchased land on the peninsula in 1866, further cultivation ceased (Wilcox 1993). Livestock continued to range at large on the peninsula until 1870. By the closing decade of the nineteenth century, mixed farming was the dominant agricultural activity in the area near the peninsula, and agriculture continued to be the primary economic activity.

The economy of the Long Point area appears to have experienced a substantial decline toward the end of the 19th century. This decline is most explicitly suggested by population trends for the townships of the area. The reasons for this decline are not clear, but may be linked to large scale removal of forest, declining soil fertility, increased competition from agricultural commodities produced in other areas, and possibly the absence of a lake shore railway which would have provided an economic stimulus.

Except as a by-product of settlers clearing land, commercial lumbering was limited in the Long Point region before 1840 (Barrett 1977). Big Creek and its tributaries were the primary transportation route for most of the logs and sawn lumber (Barrett 1977). By 1845, the first lumber was exported from Norfolk County. Port Royal, at the mouth of Big Creek became an important timber shipping centre (Barrett 1977). The logging of the substantial pine and oak forests was so intense that by the mid-1860′s the best timbers were gone, and by 1880, even local demand could not be met. When forests on the mainland began to dwindle by 1860, Long Point peninsula itself began to be cleared. The damage there was apparently quite profound. Miles of shoreline disappeared and large blowouts resulted when ridges were cleared (Barrett 1977). By 1900, forested lands in the Long Point region generally had been reduced to 11 percent (Beazley and Nelson 1993).

During the period of decline and change, commercial fishery operations remained very active. Whillans (1979) indicated that seine operations peaked between 1896 and 1905, with 15-17 seines being licensed in 1894, and 27 in 1906. Lake Trout and Whitefish continued to be important species for the fishing industry, while Herring, Blue Pike and Walleye increased in importance. In addition, the importance of the Lake Sturgeon to the commercial fishing industry increased dramatically. Whillans argued that the construction of the Long Point causeway in 1928 interfered with fish movement and habitat and contributed substantially to the disappearance of Muskellunge and to decreased populations of Northern Pike, since there were no other apparent stresses at the time of their population declines. Northern Pike apparently shifted their spawning grounds from the now blocked Big Creek marsh eastward along the south shore. Whillans also indicated that there is evidence that the construction of a dam in Big Creek between 1889 and 1894 probably had a negative effect on Walleye and Yellow Perch populations in the Inner Bay.

The Long Point area apparently was first used for recreational activities, in the larger sense of the term, during the late 1850′s and early 1860′s (Barrett, 1977). One of the first visitors to frequent Long Point was Egerton Ryerson. He had inherited Ryerson Island from his father in 1854 and first visited the Point in 1859. Although his initial use of the Long Point area was for sport hunting he eventually began to spend his summers there as well.

During the 1870′s summer vacations and summer cottages were becoming common in Ontario (Big Creek Valley Conservation Authority, 1963). No longer were hunting and fishing the only recreational activities in the Long Point area. Bathing and boating were becoming popular and beach sites were in demand. As the pioneer period ended, Port Dover and Port Rowan began to benefit substantially from tourism and the “cottage trade” as commercial and service industries increased (Big Creek Valley Conservation Authority, 1963).

The south end or “neck” of the Long Point sandpit or peninsula was designated as Long Point Park in 1921. (Heffernan, 1978) In 1923, the Ontario government commissioned “A Plan of Subdivision of Part of the Long Point Park” (Speight and VanNostrand, 1923). In 1928, a causeway was constructed from the mainland to Long Point. The causeway provided better access to the new park and cottage development was initiated. Heffermen (1978) found little information on the early development of the park except for a 1938 London Free Press article that reported roads being built throughout the park.

In 1940, Wilson (1974) reported less that 100 summer cottages and one permanent residence within the Long Point Park. Cottage development increased in 1944 however, when the provincial government began to supply new cottage lots on a 21 year lease.