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Vishu Gurram: Point Pelee National Park
May 15, 2004 On Saturday, May 15, 2004, our guest speaker Vishu Gurram talked to us about Point Pelee National Park. We saw a ten minute video about Point Pelee National Park. Even though it was a National Park since 1918, the habitat was almost ruined by too much development and too many visitors. Around 1970, over 300 houses were moved out of the area and much of the habitat has been reclaimed. Point Pelee National Park is a peninsula in Lake Erie, located close to Leamington, which is in Southwestern Ontario. It has wetlands, dry forest area, beaches and grasslands. It is about 15 square km. and is the most southerly part of mainland Canada. There are about 32 endangered species in Point Pelee National Park, some of which are the southern flying squirrel (which was reintroduced to the area a few years ago), and the Erie water snake. Many birds come to Point Pelee in the spring and fall as part of their migration route. It is one of the best places in North America for bird watching. Lots of Monarch Butterflies also stop over during their fall migration to Mexico. It takes two to three generations of Monarchs to complete a full migration to Mexico. He also showed us some pictures of Middle Island, which is in Lake Erie, and very close to the U.S. border. It is a small island (18.5 hectares), that is forested on a limestone base. Several organizations, including Parks Canada, helped finance the purchase of Middle Island from the U.S. Middle Island has a very diverse history. In the early 1900s it was used for gambling. Many rich people from the U.S. would fly over to the casino that was on Middle Island to gamble, as gambling was prohibited in the U.S. The casino building, as well as a lighthouse that was built on the island, is now in ruins. There were also two airports on the island. The land they occupied is being returned to the natural habitat of the island. Middle island is a protected island and is classified as Zone 1. It is not open to the public and only open to researchers and scientists. There are also many fossils found here that are of interest to the scientists. At present there is a large population of breeding cormorants that is of major issue, because the National Park cannot support such a large population. There are ongoing discussions with various naturalist groups in the area as to what should be done about the cormorants. We discussed the Ontario Government’s decision to significantly reduce the cormorant population in Presqu’ile Provincial Park in the months of May, June and July (of this year) for similar reasons. There is also a large deer population in Point Pelee National Park that cannot be supported by the park, so, usually in January, they close the park for three days and reduce the deer population.
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