News and Events

We welcome you to join the Georgian Bay Geopark and Traditional Knowledge (TEK) Elders to learn more about “Geotourism combining innovative science-based research with traditional indigenous knowledge” and what it means for Geotourism around the bay and opportunities for all stakeholders, partners and communities. Keynote speakers include Douglas Neasloss and Gisele Martin from the Great Bear Rainforest and Melissa Peters Director of the TVO series “Secrets of the Forest”. We are also seeking your ideas on how to develop the story of your unique community to create a vibrant resilient Georgian Bay community with sustainable tourism. Details “Geotourism combining innovative science-based research with traditional indigenous knowledge” September 25, 25Manitoulin Hotel and Conference Centre, Little Current, ON. To book rooms please call Manitoulin Hotel 1-705-368-9966 or email [email protected] please refer to Georgian Bay Geopark Conference 2024. Sept 251 – 5 pm:  presentations confirmed shortly 5:30 to 6:30 pm: Great Bear Rainforest Presentatonpm networking 7 pm: Dinner followed by KEEPERS OF THE LAND a documentary of Klemtu, BC Sept 268:30  to 10 am: TEK Elders – Melissa Peters, Director Secrets of the Forest 10 am to noon: Facilitated Workshop to solicit ideas/action steps for Geotourism For more information, please email [email protected]

GBG to present at upcoming Sources of Knowledge Forum: A Sustainable Tourism Future for the Saugeen Peninsula We are pleased to invite you to the 2024 Forum organized by the Sources of Knowledge Forum on “A Sustainable Tourism Future for the Saugeen Peninsula.” Hosted from May 3rd to May 5th, 2024, in the picturesque town of Tobermory.  Geopark Director Tony Pigott will be presenting Saturday Evening on our efforts to establish the Georgian Bay region as a UNESCO Global Geopark, contributing to the sustainable development of the area. As a participant, you’ll have the chance to engage with experts and stakeholders in the field of sustainable tourism, including the Georgian Bay Geopark.  Don’t miss out on this opportunity to be part of the conversation shaping the future of tourism in the Saugeen Peninsula and beyond. Register now through the Sources of Knowledge website to secure your spot! We look forward to welcoming you to this enriching event.

The Niagara Escarpment is Southern Ontario’s most prominent landform. It consists of a hard ‘cap rock’of Silurian-aged limestones deposited in a tropical sea some 450 million years ago, when what is nowOntario straddled the equator and shallow warm seas flooded the interior of North America. On severaloccasions in the last 2 million years the Escarpment was sculpted by 2 km-thick glaciers which carveddeep valleys into its face and left glacial landforms such as drumlins and moraines when the glaciers lastleft the area about 13,000 years ago. Deep freezing of softer rocks during ice ages caused the cap rockto bend (a process called ‘cambering’) allowing large blocks to move downslope opening up deep‘fissure-caves’ along the crest of the Escarpment. Paleo-Indians found and mined hard ‘tool stones’ atthe base of the Escarpment close by some 11,500 years ago. Come and enjoy a rock walk with Nick Eyles of the University of Toronto, learn the secrets of the NiagaraEscarpment and its rocks over the past 500 million years and their wider global geologic significance.   This event is a partnership between the Georgian Bay Geopark and the Escarpment Corridor Alliance.    

Geology of the Georgian Bay Aspiring Global Geopark and Educational tools for Teachers and the Public: Midland, July 4th 2023 We are hosting a half day UNESCO Aspiring Geopark workshop on the geology of Georgian Bay being held on July 4th at the Midland Cultural Centre in Midland 9am-12 noon, Tuesday July 4th. Attendance is free. Sign up here.   Georgian Bay Geopark is a not-for-profit organisation and support for this workshop was generously provided by EdGeo the Canadian Earth Science Teacher Workshop Program.   The workshop will consist of lectures on the geology of Georgian Bay and a review of high educational resources developed by the Geopark for teachers and the public.   The overall purpose of the workshop is to ultimately generate local guardians of more than 140 geosites identified around Georgian Bay by providing knowledge tools and access to resources to area residents. The Geopark and U of T have developed online teaching modules, virtual field trips and other online resources for educators and the public and these will be presented at the workshop. Provisional workshop speakers Professor Nick Eyles, University of Toronto at Scarborough (UTSC) The geological evolution of North America and Georgian Bay: the case for a UNESCO Geopark Dr. Kirsten Kennedy, Mitacs Post doctoral Fellow in Geoscience (UTSC) and Syed Bukhari (Ph.D student) Educational Resource kits and LiDAR mapping of geology sites around Georgian Bay Please sign up here by June 24th if you are interested; we have space for about 35 participants.  Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email

‘TWO-EYED SEEING’; USING LIDAR TO DOCUMENT AND ILLUSTRATE 11,000 YEARS OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY IN GEORGIAN BAY – First ever Geocultural Atlas of Georgian Bay – Kirsten Kennedy , Dr Nick Eyles (University of Toronto) – with Jamie Hunter, Jack Contin and Peter Storck Building on their individual legacies, and a shared history of excellence in storytelling, exploration and education, The National Geographic Society and The Royal Canadian Geographical Society have reinvigorated their long-standing collaborative efforts to create this initiative. The Trebek Initiative funds storytellers, educators, conservationists and researchers whose projects aim to preserve Canadian and Indigenous land, wildlife, water, culture and history. Georgian Bay, Ontario is a unique North American ecosystem now recognized as an Aspiring UNESCO Global Geopark in acknowledgement of its diverse geology and landscapes. By virtue of its position along the edge of the Canadian Shield, it has been at a crossroad of cultures since people first visited the shores of then Glacial Lake Algonquin, 11,500 years ago. Thus began a long-lived interconnection between an evolving landscape and First Ancestors that has persisted in the histories and traditions of the many Indigenous cultures that have called Aki and Georgian Bay home, like the Huron-Wendat, Council of Three Fires, Haudenosaunee, and most recently the Metis People. Embracing the principle of ‘two-eyed seeing’ to reconcile the Indigenous perspective from geomythology and history with state-of-the art mapping technologies, Kirsten will map geo-cultural sites identified by local Indigenous and archeological partners with Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology. Work completed to date shows that LiDAR imagery reveals hitherto unseen details of a site’s physical setting in a highly visual and accessible format. The results will inform planning of the UNESCO Geopark and associated educational and conservation activities. As a final educational product, LiDAR images, geomythology, and maps will be curated into a large format physical and digital atlas of “geo-cultural” sites around Georgian Bay. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Facebook