Kawartha Highlands - Ontario Parks

The site provides excellent representation of
the wide range of rock types and units present in
the Harvey-Cardiff Arch Domain, one of the three
subdivisions of the Elzevir Terrane. Because of the
superb exposure and pristine condition of the area,
this representation is considered to be provincially
significant. Representation is made of elements of
the Grenville Province basement rocks, and rocks of
the Grenville Supergroup, within the environmental
theme known as: Helikian Grenvillian Island Arcs,
Sedimentary Basins and Continental Drift
Environment (Davidson, 1981).
Representation of elements of the surficial
geology in the Kawartha Highlands Signature Site
is locally significant. Bedrock-drift complexes are
common to the region, and are well represented
in other protected areas.
4.5.2 Soils (refer to Figure 6)
The soils of the Kawartha Highlands area are
composed primarily of materials left behind by
glaciers, with ice-scoured, bare rocklands
predominate in much of the area. It is likely that
intensive logging during the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries has caused significant
soil erosion. Also, extensive wildfires swept
through the area in the early part of the twentieth
century, burning away much of the shallow organic
soils occurring on bedrock outcrops. As a result,
both soil quality and quantity have been reduced –
very recently on the geological calendar.
According to the Soil Survey of Peterborough
County mapping, most of the north-eastern,
south-eastern and south-western portions of the
Kawartha Highlands are rocklands (or rock
outcrops), which may have pockets of shallow
sandy till or organic deposits, but are primarily
exposed bedrock and excessively drained. A zone
of excessively- to well-drained Monteagle sandy
loam extends from the east-central portion of the
study area near Apsley to the eastern shores of
Mississagua Lake, and through much of the
north-central portion of the Kawartha Highlands
to the north-western limit. Another area of
Monteagle sandy loam occurs in the south-central
portion of the area, between Crane and Cherry
lakes, extending south onto the limestone plain
north of Highway 36. The vast majority of the
study area is composed of combinations of
rockland and Monteagle sandy loam soil types
(Gillespie and Acton, 1981).
Minor areas of Wendigo sandy loams occur
north of Pencil Lake, north of Bottle Lake and
along the south shore of Anstruther Lake, and in
narrow strips from the east end of Long Lake
south to Big Cedar Lake, and along the northern
portion of Mississagua River. Pockets of Tweed
sandy loam, derived from marble bedrock, are
found northeast of Pencil Lake and along the
extreme north-eastern boundary of the area.
Wemyss loamy sand soils, which are imperfectly
drained, occur between Sucker Creek and
Anstruther Lake. Farmington loams and Dummer
sandy loams, both of them well drained, are
associated with the limestone plain at the southern
edge of the area (Gillespie and Acton, 1981).
Organic mucks and peat deposits are found in
the seasonal and permanent wetlands that occur
throughout the Kawartha Highlands.
4.5.3 Land Types (refer to Figure 6)
The following description of Land Types is adapted
from van der Meer (2000):
The Ontario Land Inventory has defined
three broad “Land Types” in or near the study
area, reflecting the parent materials of the soil
categories described above. The Henvey Land
Type is predominantly exposed igneous or
metamorphic bedrock, described as low base
granite, granite 12 gneiss or syenite. It coincides
with the extensive rockland and Monteagle
sandy loam soil areas, occupying most of
Anstruther, Burleigh and Harvey townships.
The Sherborne Land Type, a very low base
loamy sand to silty sand, usually with high stone
content, is derived from granite, granite gneiss
or syenite bedrock. It is generally ice laid
(occasionally water laid) till in the form of
ground moraine. These very shallow (