Presqu'ile Provincial Park

Presqu'ile Provincial Park is a park in southeastern Northumberland County on the north shore of Lake Ontario near the town of Brighton in Ontario, Canada. The park occupies an area of 9.37 km2 (3.62 sq mi).

The name of the park is the French word for peninsula, or literally "almost island", and was believed to be named by Samuel De Champlain on his second famous expedition. The park area was formed when a limestone island was connected to the mainland by a sand spit; this kind of formation is referred to as a tombolo.

The park's wetlands are one of the larger wetlands along the north shore of Lake Ontario, and are noteworthy for the many sand ridges running through them, which increases habitat diversity. The mixture of sand dunes, marshes and forests leads to very high plant diversity. In some ways, the flora of this site is therefore similar to the much larger sand spit at Long Point. The long sand spits in Presqu'ile also create natural vegetation gradients from sand dunes and pannes to conifer and deciduous forest. Sand dunes and pannes are uncommon along the north shore of lake Ontario. Pannes are an unusual moist sand habitat, calcareous and seasonally flooded, similar to a wet prairie or wet meadow. This creates situations with high plant diversity. The pannes support many unusual plants, such as Carex aurea, Cladium mariscoides, Scleria verticillata, Parnassia glauca and Physostegia virginiana. The colourful pink flowers of the Physostegia are a good indicators of panne habitat during the summer. Because of their scarcity and scientific importance, these wetlands have been used to develop and test general models for factors affecting diversity in plant communities. In drier conditions, these pannes grade into more typical sand dune vegetation. In wetter conditions, they grade into rich marshes and sedge meadows, which intergrade with forested sand ridges in the "Fingers". This rare and distinctive vegetation type is not mentioned in the park's resource management plan., and has been damaged in the past by factors like road construction, mowing and planting of exotic tree species.

The dunes and wetlands arise out of natural processes, such as the natural high and lower water periods in the Great Lakes. Both the area of wetlands, and the number of plant species in them, depends upon a combination of high water and low water years over decades.

The park's location on Lake Ontario makes it a perfect stop over for migrating birds along the Michigan Flyway. For this reason is it also an important location for viewing migrating birds and Monarch butterflies. The park's long beaches make it particularly appealing to migrating shorebirds. Limestone islands near the park area support large nesting colonies of Double-crested Cormorants, Caspian and Common Terns, several gull species, Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, and Black-crowned Night-herons. In early spring, Presqu'ile Bay is an important staging area for thousands of migrating waterfowl. The park also includes a large marsh which provides nesting habitat for rails, bitterns and other wetland birds. There are also forested areas and open fields: a wide variety of habitats in a relatively small park. There is also a fairly substantial population of White-tailed Deer, whose grazing is doing significant damage to native plants in general, and to tree regeneration in particular. Presqu'ile has been identified as a Canadian Important Bird Area. In all this small park has seven distinct ecosystems.

The park includes a number of campgrounds, the Lighthouse Interpretive Centre, and the Nature Centre. The park's level terrain and excellent roads make it a good location for cycling.