White Pine

Look around you. The tall Eastern White Pine trees link us to the more recent logging history of the area. Note the broken branches on the trunks that extend almost all the way to the base of the trunk. The thickness of these branches is proof that these trees were allowed to grow in abundant sunlight. Trees that experience sunlight from all sides enable the bottom branches to grow as much as the upper ones. During the logging period of the 1920s, these trees would have been far too small to log so they were left and grew quickly in the open sunlight. Further cutting in 1946 would have allowed the lower branches to continue to receive large amounts of sunlight. The cutting that took place in the 1940’s was that last major lumbering of the area.

Bronte Creek Provincial Park was established in 1974 to protect the diverse ecosystem of the ravine.

It is park policy to allow fallen trees to lie where they fall, returning important nutrients to the environment. You can see young maple saplings reaching for the sunlight, starting the next generation of forest trees.