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Algonquin Provincial Park is a provincial park located between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River in central Ontario. It is the first provincial park in Canada, established in 1893, and therefore the oldest in Ontario. covering about 7,725 square kilometres. Its size, combined with its relative proximity to the major urban centres of Toronto and Ottawa make it one of the most popular parks in the province. Highway 60 runs through the south of the park, while the Trans-Canada Highway bypasses it to the north. Over 2400 lakes and 1200 kilometres of streams and rivers are located within the park, including Canoe Lake and the Petawawa, Nipissing, Amable du Fond, Madawaska, and Tim rivers. These were formed by the retreat of the glaciers during the last ice age.
Algonquin Park was named a national historic site in 1992 in recognition of several heritage values, including: its role in the development of park management; pioneering visitor interpretation programs later adopted by national and provincial parks across the country; its role in inspiring artists, which in turn gave Canadians a greater sense of their country; and historic structures such as lodges, hotels, cottages, camps, entrance gates, a railroad station, and administration and museum buildings.
The park is in an area where there is a transition between northern coniferous forest and southern deciduous forest. Because of this unique mixture of forest types, the park contains thousands of species of plants and animals including moose, beaver, black bear, raccoon, porcupine, red squirrel, eastern gray squirrel, eastern chipmunks, mink, marten, otter, fisher, lynx, skunk, meadow vole, eastern red wolf, white tailed deer, lake trout, brook trout, walleye (yellow pickerel), smallmouth bass, fresh water ling, whitefish, rock bass, yellow perch, pumpkinseed sunfish, northern pike, muskellunge, freshwater sculpin, maple, and spruce, and is an important site for wildlife research.
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