Dutch Point Park Guided Walk

 

A song inspired by the flooding of the Hampton Marsh by Pallmer

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

A

Amphibians are animals that live both on land and in water but must produce their eggs in the water (such as frogs). Amphibians began to evolve in the Devonian period, about 420-360 million years ago, and became dominant during the following Carboniferous and Permian periods, 360-250 million years ago.

Footprints were discovered several years ago in this region showcasing a rare discovery of ancient fossilized amphibian footprints. These footprints would have been left behind 350 million years ago! To find out more, check out this article from the CBC!

 

B

Bay of Fundy refers to the body of water that exists between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and connects to the Gulf of Maine. The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world, reaching over 50 feet (16 metres) in some areas! 160 billion tonnes of water flow into and out of the Bay twice every day, creating multiple phenomena around it’s coast, including the Reversing Falls, Hopewell Rocks, the Old Sow Whirlpool, and several different tidal bores.

Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents that live in the Northern Hemisphere. The second-largest living rodents, they are found in freshwater habitats (rivers, streams, lakes, ponds). They are herbivorous, meaning they eat only plants (such as tree bark, aquatic plants, grasses). Beavers are excellent engineers because of their ability to build dams.

Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. Exposed portions can often be seen, and are called ‘outcrops.’

Bogs are freshwater wetlands. They are known for their soft, spongy ground that is largely made up of decaying plant matter called peat. Bogs are generally found in cool, northern climates. They often develop in poorly draining lake basins that were created by glaciers during the most recent ice age.

Boreal forest is the name for a specific type of forest that exists throughout the Northern Hemisphere. The Boreal forest region in North America stretches from the most easterly part of Newfoundland and Labrador all the way to northern Yukon and Alaska. This forest type is dominated by coniferous forests, meaning plants that grow cones, and includes trees such as cedars, firs, pines, hemlocks, redwoods, and, most predominantly in the Boreal forest, spruces. The boreal forest is characteristically interspersed with large wetlands, mostly bogs and fens. Scientifically, Boreal forests grow in high-latitude environments with freezing temperatures that occur for 6 to 8 months of the year, and in which trees are capable of reaching a minimum height of 5 metres and have a canopy cover of 10%. The Boreal plays an important role in Indigenous cultures, thanks to its vast resources for sustaining life, including hunting, fishing, recreation, and more.

Burrows are holes or tunnels dug by small animals that they use to live in. Animals that dig burrows include rabbits, chipmunks, groundhogs, and otters.

 

C

Calamites is an ancient, extinct, tree-like plant. Although they lived 360-250 million years ago during the Carboniferous and Permian periods, they are closely related to the modern Horsetail plant. Unlike the modern horsetail plant which is very small, Calamites could grow up to heights of 100-160 feet. Calamites had straight, hollow stems which were woody. This is the part of the plant that is most likely to be preserved as a fossil. Calamites mostly grew along sandy river banks. The remains of Calamites and other treelike plants from the Carboniferous Period were transformed into the coal that we’ve used as a modern energy source.

Carboniferous refers to a geologic time period 360 million to 300 million years ago. The defining feature of this period is that it’s when plants and animals became well established on the earth’s surface. The name Carboniferous means “coal-bearing” and refers to the many coal beds formed globally during that time. During the Carboniferous, the area now called New Brunswick, was located near the equator at the centre of Pangea. 

Climate refers to the weather conditions that are most common in an area, either in general, or over a long period of time.

Conglomerates are a coarse-grained sedimentary rock. They are made up of rounded rock fragments that are embedded within finer-grained materials.

Conservation is the prevention of wasteful uses of a resource. The careful preservation, protection, and planned management of natural resources, such as animals, water, trees and land, ensures that these things survive, thrive, and are cared for.

D

Dams are structures built by beavers out of logs and mud in order to block flowing water and create a safe pond so that their predators (such as coyotes and wolves) cannot get to them. Within this safe pond, beavers can then build their beaver lodges, which is where they live and store their food. Beaver dams modify the natural environment so much that the ecosystem (see Ecologically Significant Area) around them adapts to the change. This makes beavers a ‘keystone species’ – a species that other species living within an ecosystem depend on.

E

Eastern Hemlock (scientific name Tsuga canadensis) is a coniferous (see Boreal Forest), evergreen tree native to eastern North America. Eastern hemlocks can live for a very long time, with some examples living for more than 500 years. They can grow more than 100 ft tall, and are tolerant of shade, moist soil, and slopes. In terms of colonial history, hemlock wood has been used in construction as railroad ties, and its bark was important in the leather tanning industry. The Eastern hemlock is considered a near threatened tree species, as it is vulnerable in North America to Hemlock woolly adelgid, an invasive insect that sucks the sap from the trees, eventually killing them.

Ecologically Significant Areas are places that have been identified through formal scientific assessments as having special biological or ecological significance when compared with surrounding water ecosystems. Ecosystems refers to processes that environments and their organisms form through mutual interaction, such as energy and material transfer. 

Environment means the surroundings or conditions that a person, animal, or plant lives or operates in. In this case it refers to the natural world, either as a whole, or a certain geographical area.

 

F

Floodplains are areas of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains reach from the banks of a river to the base of the surrounding valley, and easily flood during times of high water. Floodplains often have very rich soil, meaning lots of things grow well there, and, because of this, are very important when it comes to agricultural farming. 

Fossil/Fossilized/Fossil Record are the remains or impressions of ancient life (plants, animals, single-celled organisms) preserved in petrified form or as a cast in rock. Petrified fossils are when the organism itself morphs into rock, while cast fossils are when the imprint of the organism turns into rock. Fossils refer to the physical object left behind, while fossilized refers to the process the organism undergoes to become a fossil. The fossil record is the entire collection of fossils found throughout the world that collectively tell the history of life on earth.

Fundy Biosphere Region includes an area of over 442,000 hectares of New Brunswick’s upper Bay of Fundy coast, stretching from St. Martins to the Tantramar Marsh near Sackville and inland to Moncton. The Bay of Fundy and its adjacent  landscapes form a unique region in its geological formations, terrestrial and marine ecosystems, and cultural heritage, as well as its variety of rural communities and urban areas.

The Fundy Biosphere Region designation by UNESCO provides not only international recognition for the uniqueness of the Bay of Fundy, its culture and history, but also emphasizes the importance of conservation and sustainability in the region. It compares with more than 600 unique landscapes in over 100 countries in the world that have been recognized as World UNESCO biosphere sites.

As a non-profit organization, the Fundy Biosphere Region is a community-based initiative comprised of individuals and representatives of various stakeholder groups, organizations and local communities working to promote the sustainable development of the region by enhancing the research and innovation capacity and by creating a forum for various groups to share information, knowledge and best practices.

 

G

Giant Beavers (scientific name Castoroides) were ancient beavers the size of bears, making them megafauna! Giant beavers lived in what is now North America during the last ice age, approximately 12,000-2.5 million years ago. These huge rodents ranged in size from 6 feet to over 7 feet, with teeth up to 6 inches long – the size of a banana! One of these banana-sized teeth was found fossilized in Southern New Brunswick, and is estimated to be 80,000 years old.

Glacial Erratics are rocks deposited by glacier movement that differ from the type of rock native to the area in which it sits. Erratics can be carried by glacial ice over hundreds of kilometers, and can range in size from pebbles to large boulders.

Glaciers are large bodies of ice that move slowly down slopes or valleys, spreading outward across land surfaces. They are perennial, meaning they are present throughout all seasons of the year. Glaciers develop through the accumulation and compaction of ice, snow, rock, sediment, and water.

Great Blue Herons are large blue-grey birds with huge beaks and long legs, and a black stripe down the centre of their heads. They are the biggest type of heron in North America with a wingspan that can reach more than 6 feet! They like to live around marshes, swamps, shores, and tidal mudflats because they can forage there for food. They nest in trees or shrubs, also near water. The Great blue herons that live in this part of the world come here to breed and migrate (travel) south for the winter months.

 

H

Habitat is the specific place or environment where a plant, animal or organism naturally lives and grows. Some different types of habitats in this region include forests, marshes, streams, rivers, lakes, salt marshes, coastal, intertidal zones, bays, and the open sea. Habitats are easily affected by change, which can put species at risk. These habitat changes can happen quickly, such as with wildfires, or over long periods of time, such as the growth or decline of glaciers.

Hampton Marsh is one of the biggest and most diverse areas of the Wolastoq (St. John River) floodplain, existing amongst the tributaries and backwaters of the Kennebecasis River. The Hampton Marsh wetlands are used by ducks, osprey, Great Blue herons, bitterns, rails, and songbirds. More than 50 species have been identified and can be found here and in the surrounding habitats. Fish include Chain pickerel, Yellow perch, Smallmouth bass, sturgeon, gaspereau and American eel. Atlantic salmon and Sea-Run Brook-trout also use the marsh system as a way to migrate to their spawning grounds.

Plants that grow in the marsh include wild rice, arrowhead and Burr reed, which provide food for the wildlife. Alders, willows, Silver maple and Black ash are some of the trees that provide nesting areas, food and safe places for animals such as muskrats, deer, moose, fox, otter, raccoons, beaver, voles, mice and bats. 

Because of how important the Marsh is to so many plants and animals, it is a designated nature preserve and Ecologically Significant Area, making it very important to take care of!

Highway 1 or New Brunswick Route 1 stretches from the American border at St. Stephen, through the City of Saint John, and ends with an interchange with the Trans Canada Highway at River Glade. Finding this highway from Dutch Point Park is easy, as it is the main highway connecting Hampton to the rest of Southern NB,  simply follow Main St and turn right onto Hall Rd.

Horsetail plants (scientific name equisetum) are a type of land-based fern. For hundreds of millions of years there were many diverse examples of this type of plant (such as calamites), and they dominated ancient forests. Today, horsetails are considered “living fossils,” as they are the only living example of their entire plant subclass. Modern horsetails that still exist today first appeared during the Jurassic period.

I

Ice ages are periods of time when the temperature of the earth’s surface and atmosphere drop, allowing for the increased growth of glaciers and ice sheets. Throughout time, earth’s climate alternates between ice ages and ‘greenhouse periods,’ when there are no glaciers on earth. Because there are still significant ice sheets – collections of glaciers that exist next to each other – on the planet, we are currently living in an ice age.

Interglacial periods are intermittent warmer periods that exist within a broader ice age. Intermittent colder periods are called glacial periods. The last glacial period ended 13-15,000 years ago when the glaciers covering much of the earth’s surface receded. Now, because the earth is going through a warming period, and the glaciers have receded but still exist, we live during an interglacial period, which in turn exists within an ice age.

J

 

K

The Kennebecasis River is a tributary of the Wolastoq (Saint John River). Its source is in Albert County, and it is approximately 95 km long, following a well-defined valley. Even though the Kennebecasis isn’t connected to the Bay of Fundy itself, it still experiences tidal activity via its connection to the Wolastoq. 

Kingfishers are small-medium sized, blue-grey birds with white markings on them, and chestnut markings on the females. They can regularly be seen sitting alone along the edges of water sources, where they might be able to dive for small fish. If you hope to hear a kingfisher then keep an ear open for a loud, rattling call!

L

Landscapes are part of Earth’s surface that can be viewed at one time from one place. Landscapes are made up of different geographic features coming together to make a whole, and can be characteristic of a particular area.

The term landscape originated with the concept of landscape painting in art, eventually making its way to the science world. There are lots of different kinds of landscapes, but a major difference between what we look at is whether or not it is a natural landscape or a cultural landscape. Natural landscapes are a collection of landforms, naturally shaped by earth’s processes over time, and include features like hills, trees, rivers and coasts, etc. Cultural landscapes are landscapes that have been modified through human interaction, such as when we see buildings on the horizon, or gardens or farms that people have established.

Lithification (from the Ancient Greek word lithos meaning ‘rock’) is the process in which sediments compact (press together) under pressure, removing any liquids, and gradually becoming solid rock. Sometimes sediment can lithify immediately, and sometimes the process can take millions of years!

M

Marshes are areas of low-lying land which flood in wet seasons or at high tide, generally remaining waterlogged at all times. Marshes are often found at the edges of rivers, lakes, streams, forming the boundary between aquatic (water) and terrestrial (land) ecosystems (see Ecologically Significant Areas). Marshes are wetlands that are dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species, and provide important habitats for many kinds of fish, amphibians, birds, and animals.

Mastodons are an extinct, ancient megafauna that lived exclusively in what is now North America from the late Miocene to the early Holocene (approximately 25 million to 12,000 years ago). Mastodons looked like elephants (which they were very distantly related to) and were covered in shaggy fur. Mastodon bones were found in New Brunswick in 1936 by workers repairing a dam in Hillsborough. It’s thought that the animal became stuck in a swamp during a warm interval of the last interglacial period, around 80,000 years ago. The animal was a young adult, perhaps 15 to 18 years old at death. It is estimated to have weighed about 8.3 tonnes (over 18,000 pounds)!

Megafauna is a term used to refer to large animals (typically those that weigh more than 100 pounds). Ancient megafauna are usually associated with the last major ice age, living earlier than about 12,000 years ago. Examples of ancient megafauna include giant beavers, mastodons, wooly mammoths, and megalodons (sharks), while modern megafauna include creatures like elephants, giraffes, and whales, and even humans!

Muskrats are medium-sized, semi-aquatic (meaning they live partly on land and partly in water) rodents that look similar to beavers but with a skinny tail. They can live in a variety of different habitats and climates but prefer to live on wetlands, like marshes, which perfectly suit their semi-aquatic nature.

N

 

O

Ossekeag Creek is a local marsh that is part of an extensive 2000 hectare wetland system around the Kennebecasis River. It’s located not far from Dutch Point Park around Spooner Island.

 

P

A paleontologist is a scientist who studies the history of life on Earth through the fossil record. 

Pangea was an ancient supercontinent that existed from about 300-200 million years ago, when all of the continents that exist today were joined together. 

Q

 

R

Red spruce (scientific name Picea rubens) is a species of spruce tree native to eastern North America. Red spruce are coniferous trees (see boreal forest) that can grow up to 130 feet tall.

Red-winged blackbirds are small to medium-sized birds, approximately 18-24 cm, and the males are defined by the bright red patches on their shoulders. These birds love living around wetlands, and are surprisingly bold for their size, and will attack in groups any larger birds that fly too close to their nest.

 

S

Sandstone is a sedimentary (see sediment) rock that is formed when grains of sand are compacted and cemented together over thousands or millions of years. The minerals quartz and feldspar are some of the most common materials that make up sandstone. These minerals are worn off of other rocks through weathering and other natural processes.

Seasonal run-off, or surface run-off, is water that travels over land as opposed to within a channel, such as a river. It happens when extreme amounts of water occur through things like rainwater, stormwater, meltwater, etc. and can no longer sufficiently soak into the surrounding soil, often due to there being too much water already in the ground. This runoff can occur either through natural or human-made processes. Runoff is a major component of the water cycle, and is the main cause of soil erosion by water.

Runoff that occurs on the ground surface is a major source of pollution, as it carries contaminants into bodies of water. Things like pesticides that are used in agriculture and put directly on the land are easily washed into water sources this way.

Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion. This material is then moved around by the action of wind (called aeolian processes), water (the most common mode of transportation and referred to as fluvial processes), ice (such as glaciers), or gravity. If the sediment becomes buried, it could eventually become sandstone and siltstone (called sedimentary rocks) through the process of lithification.

Silurian refers to a geologic time period 443 million to 419 million years ago. The defining feature of this period is that it’s when plants and animals emerged from the earth’s oceans and became good at living on land. The Silurian begins with a series of major Ordovician–Silurian extinction events when more than half of the all marine genus were wiped out. During the Silurian, the area now called New Brunswick, was located near the equator. Sediments deposited in shallow ocean waters or lagoons also record the oldest fish fossils in New Brunswick.

Steinhammer Club is where Stonehammer takes its name from. The study of geology in our region is almost as old as the science of geology itself. One of the first provincial geologists in the British Empire, Dr. Abraham Gesner, started his geologic survey of New Brunswick in 1834. His work inspired the next generation of geoscientists to explore the region. In 1857, the Steinhammer Club was formed to further study the fossils of our region. The study of geology in the region has continued ever since, with new discoveries still being made to this day, often at sites identified by Gesner and the Steinhammer Club.

Striations are grooves created by geological processes that appear on the surface of rocks or minerals. They can be caused by faults (fractures in rock that create movement), glaciers, and underwater landslides. Striations can also be a growth pattern on certain minerals that appear as very fine grooves.

Sugar maple (latin name Acer saccharum) is a species of flowering plant in the family Sapindaceae. It is native to hardwood forests of eastern Canada and the United States. Sugar maple is best known for being the main source of maple syrup, and also for its brightly colored fall foliage.

Swampy/Swamps refers to a forested wetland. In terms of environment, swamps are considered to be transitional zones because they are created by both land and water. Swamps can be any size, and exist all over the world. The water of a swamp could be fresh water, seawater, or brackish water (a mixture of fresh and saltwater).

 

T

Trace fossils are the preserved paths of organisms that moved across, or burrowed into, the ground or seafloor. Trace fossils can represent a variety of different behaviors, including walking, crawling, eating, and resting. These types of fossils are preserved in sedimentary rock (see sediment).

 

U

UNESCO Global Geoparks are single, unified geographical areas where sites and landscapes of international geological significance are managed with a holistic concept of protection, education and sustainable development. They have a bottom-up approach of combining conservation with sustainable development while involving local communities. At present, there are 213 UNESCO geoparks in 48 countries.

UNESCO Schools is a network connecting more than 12,000 schools in 182 countries around a common goal to build peace in the minds of children and young people. Through concrete actions member schools promote the ideals of UNESCO valuing rights and dignity, gender equality, social progress, freedom, justice and democracy, respect for diversity and international solidarity. The Network operates at international and national levels with three clear priorities: education for sustainable development, global citizenship education and inter-cultural and heritage learning.

 

V

Volcanics are rocks formed from lava erupted from a volcano. Volcanic rocks are among the most common rock types on Earth’s surface, especially in oceans. Some examples of volcanic rock are granite, basalt, and obsidian.

 

W

Wabanaki Forest is named after the Algonquian word Wabanakik, meaning “Dawnland.” The Wabanakik region roughly spans the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and parts of New England. Wabanaki (“People of the Dawnland”) refers to a number of eastern Algonquian nations — and to the special forests across Wabanakik that they call home. This forest type has often been called the Acadian Forest, but efforts are now being made to honour the land and Indigenous peoples through referring to the forest in traditional language and place names.

Weasels are small mammals with long, slender bodies and short legs, with brown/red fur (in this region) and white and black markings. Weasels in this area love to live around boreal forests and water where they can find small animals and insects to eat that suit their carnivorous (meat-eating) diets.

 

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Y

Yellow birch (scientific name Betula alleghaniensis) is a large tree native to northeastern North America named for its golden-coloured bark. These trees generally grow 60-80 feet tall and typically live 150 years, although have been known to live to 300. Yellow birch are deciduous trees, meaning they seasonally shed their leaves.

 

Z

 

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