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The Parks / New Brunswick / Kouchibouguac National Park

Some 300 million years ago, deposits of sand, silt and clay from the emerging Appalachian Mountains compressed into the sandstone and shale that makes up the park’s bedrock. As glaciers retreated 15 000 years ago, they left loose rock deposits on the land while melting ice raised the sea level and submerged the coast. Waves and currents reduced the glacial fill to small particles that built up over time to form the elongated sand spit extending the entire length of the Kouchibouguac Bay. This barrier still calms and controls the effects of the sea, sheltering estuaries, lagoons and salt-water marshes to create nutrient rich mud flats. The unique system of barrier islands, dunes, spits and marine intertidal flats link land and sea in a constantly shifting and varied ecosystem. The hinterland of Acadian forest that conceal cedar swamps and bogs, the salt marshes, shallow estuaries, and fresh water streams that mix with the lagoons, all provide a diverse and varied habitat for plants and wildlife.