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Piping plovers, an endangered species, and common terns nest on the beaches and barrier islands. Striped bass spawn in the estuaries. Much of the park has been logged and farmed in the past, and accordingly, much of the forest is in an early successional stage.

Natural Heritage Bounded to the south by farmland, the park lies on a transition zone between 2 ecoregions. Pockets of aspen parkland and fescue prairie in the south of the park blend with mixed-wood and boreal forests in the park's northern reaches.

Pacific Rim National Park Reserve (est 1970, 285.8 km2) stretches for 105 km along the rugged west coast of Vancouver Island.

Pukaskwa National Park (designated 1978, 1877.8 km2) is bracketed on the west by the coastline of Lake Superior, an impressive stretch of massive headlands and beaches of golden sand or water-worn cobble. The name is of native origin but its meaning is unclear.

Prince Edward Island National Park (est 1937, 21.5 km2) is a narrow strip of coastline stretching over 40 km along the north shore of PEI.

Torngat Mountains National Park (established in 2008) encompasses 9700 km2 of Labrador north of Saglek Fiord. Torngat - in Inuktitut, Torngait - refers to one of the most powerful of Inuit spirits believed to dwell in these mountains.

Most of the park islands are the summits of ancient hills of the Frontenac Axis, a strip of Precambrian granite connecting the Canadian Shield with the Adirondack Mountains in New York State.

Located on northern Baffin Island in Canada's High Arctic, Sirmilik National Park (agreement signed 1999; 22 250 km2) is one of Canada's isolated and most spectacular national parks. Sirmilik is an Inuktitut word that means "place of glaciers."

Terra Nova National Park (est 1957, 399.9 km2), Canada's most easterly national park, is located on Bonavista Bay, Nfld. Terra Nova is the Latin form of the name of the island, Newfoundland.

Tuktut Nogait National Park (established in 1998, 18 181 km2) was created through the efforts of the Inuit of Paulatuk, NWT.

Yoho National Park is a protected area located in the Rocky Mountains, in the southeast corner of British Columbia. The park was established in 1886, initially as the Mount Stephen reserve, making it (along with Glacier National Park, established the same day) the second oldest national park in Canada, following Banff. Spanning 1,313 km,2 the park features 28 mountain peaks above 3,000 metres. Yoho National Park is one of seven parks in the Rocky Mountains that make up the Canadian Rocky Mountains UNESCO World Heritage site (the others are Jasper, Banff and Kootenay national parks, and Mount Robson, Mount Assiniboine and Hamber provincial parks). Among the reasons for the UNESCO designation are the Burgess Shale sites, several of which are located in Yoho National Park, featuring fossils from 540 million years ago. The name Yoho comes from a Cree expression of awe and wonder.

Waterton Lakes National Park (established 1895, 505 km2) is situated in the southwestern corner of Alberta on the Canada-US border. In 1932, this park was united with Montana's Glacier National Park to create the world's first international peace park.

Wood Buffalo National Park (established in 1922, 44 802 km2) was established to protect the last herd of wood bison. Canada's largest national park straddles the Alberta/NWT border. It was declared a World Heritage Site in 1983.

Wapusk National Park (11 475.0 km2) became part of Canada's national parks system on 24 April 1996 when a federal-provincial agreement was signed providing for its establishment.

A portion of the Old Crow Plain (locally called the Old Crow Flats) was set aside, through the settlement of the Vuntut Gwitchin comprehensive land claim in 1993, for Vuntut National Park (established 1995, 4345 km2).

Mammoth pillars, the Rocks, rise out of the sea at Hopewell Cape on New Brunswick's southern coast. The Rocks Provincial Park (established 1958, 120 ha) is located halfway between Moncton and Fundy National Park.

Nestled among the West Isles in the Bay of Fundy is New Brunswick's Campobello Island, the home of Herring Cove Provincial Park (established 1959, 424 ha).

Interest from local residents led to the establishment of Notikewin Provincial Park (established 1979, 97 km2). Here is preserved a small piece of the quintessential natural landscape of northern Alberta, the once endless poplar and spruce forests deeply dissected by moody rivers.

Located some 45 km east of Flin Flon, Grass River Provincial Park (established 1963, 2289.63 km2) straddles 2 of Manitoba's natural regions (Boreal Plains and Boreal Shield).

Natural History The park's most striking feature is a series of rock ridges consisting mostly of white quartzite. These large, rounded hills are the remains of the La Cloche range, a ring of Precambrian mountains that once towered higher than the present-day Rockies.