About

The Quarry Bay Nature Reserve protects 388 hectares (959 acres) of significant alvar habitat on the southwestern shore of Manitoulin Island. Ontario Nature’s acquisition of Quarry Bay in 1999 was part of the largest conservation land purchase in Ontario, in which a total of 18 kilometres of windswept coast and 6,000 hectares of backcountry were protected by Ontario Nature, the Nature Conservancy of Canada and Ontario Parks.

Virginia saxifrage, Quarry Bay Nature Reserve © Linda Read

Plants and Animals

The alvars along this coast are home to a unique assemblage of plants, lichens and mosses, many of which are vulnerable, threatened or of limited distribution. The bright yellow lakeside daisy (Hymenoxys herbacea), found only at about a dozen stations around the Great Lakes, is the most notable. The alvar coast likely contains the majority of this wildflower’s range.

Fritillary butterfly © Ian Choi

Visiting

Quarry Bay Nature Reserve is made up primarily of treed alvar, interspersed with swamps and small lakes. There are also, large expanses of open alvar – limestone barrens with little or no soil – extending along the shores of Lake Huron.

These outstanding alvar communities are some of the best remaining alvar sites in the world. The area from Quarry Bay to Christina Bay forms the “alvar coast” – an area of exposed bedrock sloping into Lake Huron with coastal meadow marshes at the heads of bays and inlets.

Moss, Quarry Bay Nature Reserve

“The Quarry Bay Nature Reserve is a very beautiful place to visit with scenic bedrock headlands and protected beaches. Inland, it is an area of alvars, predominantly forested, of two distinct ages separated by the three to five metre high Nipissing Great Lakes shoreline.”

– Peter Barnett, Steward

Quarry Bay Nature Reserve © Ian Choi

Directions

The Quarry Bay Nature Reserve is located on the remote southwestern shore of Manitoulin Island and is difficult to access. If you are interested in learning more about the nature reserve, please contact Ontario Nature.

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Quarry Bay Nature Reserve © Ian Choi