Rondeau Provincial Park, located in southwestern Ontario, Canada is the second oldest provincial park having been established with an order in council on 8 September 1894. The park is located on an 8 km long crescentic sand spit extending into Lake Erie. There are only two sand spits like this one in all of North America, one in Rondeau and one in Florida. Rondeau was established in 1894 as a response to demand for cottaging opportunities by residents of nearby Chatham. It is the second-oldest provincial park in Ontario (after Algonquin Provincial Park). It is recognized as the largest tourist destination in the Municipality of Chatham-Kent. Rondeau is also home to the largest area of Carolinian forest in Canada, a long sand beach, a large marsh, approximately half of Rondeau Bay, campgrounds and a heritage cottage community. Most of the park is natural environment; the cottage community takes up less than 1% of the Park area and is practically invisible from the air. The name of the park comes from the French words "ronde eau" or "round water" which describes the shape of the harbour sheltered by the peninsula.
The park is an important stopover for birds during migration and has been identified as a Canadian Important Bird Area. Its Carolinian woods also provide nesting habitat for the Prothonotary Warbler and many other Carolinian species. Limited hunting of White-tailed Deer has been permitted within the park to control deer numbers because these animals no longer have any natural predators, and pose a threat to the park's forested areas. Waterfowl hunting is permitted in the park area in the fall.
In the Ontario Parks system, only Rondeau and Algonquin continue the presence of privately owned cottages on leased land. Rondeau is unique in that Section 5b of the 1894 Rondeau Park Act states that Rondeau Park was created specifically to provide cottaging opportunities. Forty cottage lots were surveyed at the outset. Several other provincial parks (Kawartha Highlands, Killarney, Presqu'ile) have privately owned cottages within their boundaries on lots deeded to the cottage owners. Other provincial parks have cottages that are owned by the Ministry of Natural Resources and rented (Awenda, Balsam lake, Bon Echo, Bonnechere, Sandbanks, Sleeping Giant and Sturgeon Bay).
Read more about Rondeau Provincial Park: Rondeau Yacht Club, Cottages=
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