Special Places: Eco-lessons from the National Parks in Atlantic Canada

Student Information Sheet: Kejimkujik National Park of Canada

Majestic hemlocks, cool mosses, exotic fungi and orchids...lush woodlands bursting with wildlife – birds, wildflowers, turtles and more

What’s in the park?

Kejimkujik (Kej-im-koo-jik) National Park of Canada, created in 1974, is a land of forests, lakes and rivers bursting with wildlife. It is a land once covered by glaciers (thick sheets of ice) but it is now one of the warmest places in Nova Scotia.

© Parks Canada / Don Pentz

Kejimkujik’s many lakes and low, rounded hills were shaped by huge glaciers, which covered this area long ago, scraping out rock and soil in some places as they moved and dropping it to form low hills.

The park’s lakes and rivers are habitats (homes) for many turtles, frogs and salamanders; Kejimkujik has more amphibians and reptiles than anywhere else in the Atlantic Provinces. The lakes and rivers are also home to many birds, especially common loons, and fish which include brook trout and white and yellow perch. These waters are very important to wildlife and are sensitive to air and water pollution from outside the park.

The lakes and forests were also important to the Mi’kmaq people. For thousands of years, they lived along Kejimkujik’s lakeshores. Their rock carvings, canoe routes and campsites make Kejimkujik a national historic site as well as a national park. The name Kejimkujik is a Mi’kmaq name which means the “place that swells” or the “place of swells.”

Visitors can explore the lakes and forests by canoeing and hiking. They can stay in the main campground or at small campsites along canoe routes and hiking trails. Each year about 120,000 people visit the park.

Kejimkujik National Park also protects a small seaside area with rocky shores, sandy beaches and saltwater lagoons (shallow ponds near the shore). This area is on the south shore of Nova Scotia, separate from the rest of the park.

So, Kejimkujik protects two special areas in Nova Scotia for our future: a large, inland area of forests, rivers and lakes; and a small area on the Atlantic coast called the Seaside Adjunct.

Kejimkujik Seaside Adjunct © Parks Canada / Don Pentz

Why is this park special?

Kejimkujik National Park is special because it protects part of what is called the Acadian forest of the Maritime Provinces. Over three-quarters of the park is protected wilderness. This means that when visitors go into this part of the park they must canoe or hike on narrow trails and stay in small, very simple campsites. The forest and wildlife are left as wild and undisturbed as possible in that part of the park.

The park’s forests include old hemlock trees up to 300 years old. This habitat has unique songbirds, goshawks and orchids.

Kejimkujik has hot summers and mild winters with little snow. These warm weather conditions, or “climate,” allow plants and animals to survive here that normally only live further south.

Kejimkujik protects up to 20 very special plants that grow along the lakeshores in soft muddy soils. One of these, called water-pennywort, is a threatened plant.

The seaside part of the park provides habitat for the endangered piping plover; it nests on sandy beaches and feeds in the lagoons.

What is this park concerned about ?

Blanding's Turtle © Parks Canada / Don Pentz

Studies at the park have shown changes in populations of some species. There are fewer brook trout because of fishing and acid rain. Pine marten and piping plover face threats to their survival because of habitat loss outside of the park.

Kejimkujik National Park is a centre for nature research and studies. There are studies about forest songbirds, loons, piping plover, Blanding’s turtle, water-pennywort, forests and water quality.

References

• Parks Canada Web site: www.parkscanada.gc.ca