Wapusk National Park of Canada

Overview of natural resources

Aerial view of Wapusk.
© Parks Canada

Wapusk National Park encompasses a large area of the Hudson James Lowlands, a vast, low-lying plain bordering Hudson Bay. Continuous permafrost (permanently frozen soil), topped by North America's most extensive mantle of peat shapes the land. Geologically, this is a young landscape. It has been slowly rising at a rate of up to one meter every century since the last continental glaciers melted back and uncovered the land about 9,000 years ago. You can see visible evidence of this phenomenon, called isostatic rebound, in ancient beach ridges that parallel the coast of Hudson Bay as far as 100 kilometres inland.

Treeless tundra.
© Parks Canada

Archeological evidence in the park tells us Inuit, Dene and Cree have lived in this region for more than 3,000 years. Métis and European traders arrived in the 17th Century. It was around that time that Aboriginal people established permanent settlements near Prince of Wales Fort and York Factory. Both are now National Historic sites, located north and south of the Park.

Other unique aspects of Wapusk include:

Polar bear walking on Hudson Bay.
© Parks Canada
• The park's marine coastal habitat, which is marked by salt marshes, dunes, beaches and an extensive inter-tidal zone (up to 10 kilometers between low and high tide marks).
• The tundra zone of ancient beach ridges, sedge meadows, peatland and tundra ponds.
• The taiga area, a stunted northern forest of white spruce, larch and willows.
• Water that covers half of the land's surface in the form of lakes, bogs, fens, streams and rivers.
• Surprisingly-bountiful wildlife, with large numbers of waterfowl and shorebirds in wetland and coastal areas, and forty-four species of mammals including the Cape Churchill caribou herd (which numbers over 3000 and continues to be important to Aboriginal hunters).
• One of the world's largest-known polar bear maternity denning areas.