Kouchibouguac National Park

Description

‎ Kouchibouguac National Park is located on the east coast of New Brunswick, north of the town of Richibucto. The park includes barrier islands, sand dunes, lagoons, salt marshes and forests. It provides habitat for seabirds, including the endangered Piping Plover, and the second largest tern colony in North America. Colonies of harbour seals and grey seals also inhabit the park's 25 kilometres of sand dunes. It is also home to the extremely rare and fragile Gulf of St. Lawrence Aster, though in 2006, storms eradicated most of the asters' colonies. The park's size is 238 km². Recreational activities in the park include swimming, cycling and hiking. In recent news, the park has reported sightings of the fisher marten in the area, making it one of the few places in New Brunswick that have fisher populations.The one thing that seems to attract many visitors are the activities. Kouchibouguac [pronounced koo-chi-bu-gwac] has many activities ranging from a river adventure in a war canoe to going seal watching to a very interesting talk about Mi'kmaq people.

The park was founded in 1969 in order to set aside sensitive sand dunes and bogs. While it was developed in the 1970s, Parks Canada encountered great difficulty expropriating land from several land owners (approximately 215 families). The most notable of these was Jackie Vautour, who still lives on his property.

Kelly's Beach, a very long sand dune, is a popular attraction along with a number of bogs, a boardwalk trail, eight hiking trails, a network of bicycle trails, two campgrounds, canoe and boat launch and the Cap-St-Louis fishing port. Kelly's Beach is popular with naturists as the long sandy beach allows privacy and seclusion.

The park is named after the Kouchibouguac River. The river's name means "river of the long tides" in Mi'kmaq.

Other rivers that flow through the park include the: