MapleCross Nebraska Creek Natural Area

Property Description

The MapleCross – Nebraska Creek Natural Area is located in Southwest Lot 16, Prince County, Prince Edward Island. This land purchase adjoins Island Nature Trust’s existing 26-hectare Nebraska Creek Natural Area. There is an expansive array of ecosystems contained within this Natural Area, including a coastal salt marsh on the Grand River. The Mi’kmaq name for Grand River is Amasisipukwek, meaning “the river where it stretches out & follows far into the distance.”

The Southwest Lot 16 – Miscouche region hosts contiguous lowland forest and bogs, with several Natural Areas, including INT’s Joyce Gaudet Miscouche Bog Natural Area and Miscouche Bog Natural Area, as well as provincially owned forest parcels within the region. The MapleCross – Nebraska Creek Natural Area is situated approximately five kilometers northwest from the heart of Miscouche. Miscouche is within the Évangéline region which is home to the province’s largest francophone population and Acadian settlements. The name of this community is derived from the Mi’kmaq term for “little grassy island” or “little marshy place”.

Situated within the Nebraska Creek watershed, this property contains a tributary of Nebraska Creek, a large portion of which expands into a forested wetland with a section that has been dammed off by North American Beavers. This property is predominantly comprised of forested wetlands that are characterized by treed black spruce bogs, and speckled alder, red maple, and eastern white cedar swamps. There are several federally and provincially rare and at-risk species found on the property including balsam poplar, black ash, highbush cranberry, eastern wood pewee, and rose-breasted grosbeak. Large portions of this property also contain adequate habitat for species-at-risk such as the Canada warbler.

Thanks to the generous donation from the MapleCross Fund, private donors, and our federal funding partners, the 38-hectare MapleCross – Nebraska Creek Natural Area is now protected forever under the PEI Natural Areas Protection Act.

Content and property pictures courtesy of Island Nature Trust.