In 1990, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), recognized the Niagara Escarpment and the Province of Ontario plan to protect and preserve this natural treasure as a World Biosphere Reserve - an extraordinary honour for an extraordinary wonder.

 

The Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere Reserve extends 725 km across southern Ontario from Queenston on the Niagara River to Tobermory's end of the Bruce Peninsula between Lake Huron and Georgian Bay.  The highest elevation is in Clearview Township, Simcoe County at 541 metres above sea level.

 

Over 120, 000 people live along the escarpment and over 7 million live within 100 kilometres of the "giant's rib".  The Niagara Escarpment is home to the Bruce Trail...the oldest and longest hiking trail in Canada that is enjoyed by nearly 400,000 people every year.

 

You will discover .... over 100 waterfalls ...250 archaeological sites ... the longest underwater cave in Canada ...over 300 species of birds including 22 species at risk ... 55 mammal species from Least Shrews to Black Bears ... 37 Orchid species, most on the Bruce Peninsula, an area renowned for its wildflowers ... the greatest variety of ferns in Canada ... prehistoric life that inhabited the "Rib" including mastodons, sabre-toothed cats and woolly mammoths... and more than you can imagine.