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Welcome to SAM's Network of Stewardship Earth Cache's. By establishing this Network, SAM hopes to encourage Cachers to visit local conservation areas in NL, to appreciate why the area is being conserved and to learn more about why the area is being protected.
Who is SAM?
The Stewardship Association of Municipalities Inc (known affectionately as “SAM”) is an incorporated, non-profit organization. SAM works with the Eastern Habitat Joint Venture in NL to secure, enhance, & restore important wildlife habitat (wetlands, uplands, coastal areas, & species at risk habitat) within municipal planning boundaries by encouraging municipalities to seek a balance between development and conservation. As a network of communities who practice environmental stewardship across NL, SAM contributes to maintaining & enhancing biodiversity in the province.
The Town of Harbour Grace has identified three Conservation Areas within their planning boundaries: Harbour Grace Estuary, Pirates Path Coastline, and Bannerman Lake, which is approximately 387 acres (156 hectares) of land. Harbour Grace contains significant wildlife populations, including several waterfowl, shorebird, songbird, and mammal, as well as healthy intact riparian and aquatic environments. These areas have been conserved to maintain the integrity of some of the most significant wildlife habitat within the municipal boundaries of Harbour Grace.
The Harbour Grace Estuary lays before you, it is home not only to the famous shipwreck, the S.S. Kyle, but also to bald eagles and shorebirds like cormorants, shags, yellow legs, and ruddy turnstones as well as waterfowl like American black ducks and common loons.
Harbour Grace's SAM Member Page
Estuaries and their surrounding wetlands are partially enclosed bodies of brackish water (mixture of freshwater and saltwater) usually found where a river meets the sea forming a transition zone between them. They usually have one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries are home to unique plant and animal communities that have adapted to the brackish water.
There are four different kinds of estuaries, each created a different way:
- Coastal plain estuaries: created when glaciers recede, and sea levels rise to fill in an existing river valley
- Tectonic estuaries: created by the shifting together and rifting apart of the Earth's crust
- Bar-built estuaries: protected from the ocean by a sandbar, delta or barrier island
- Fjord estuaries: created by glaciers - glaciers carve out a deep, steep valley, then they retreat and the ocean rushes into fill the narrow, deep depression
Credit: Amit Sengupta (Youtube)
Newfoundland and Labrador's landscape with a remarkable geological history, formed over many millions of years by continental collision, mountain-building, volcanoes, oceans, rivers and ice sheets. Glaciers had an enormous effect on the landscape, smoothing and polishing wide areas, eroding lake basins, and carving deep valleys through mountains. Along the coast, these valleys were later flooded by the sea, creating deep fjords. Sea level around the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador changed considerably as a result of the last glaciation. As the glaciers on the island of Newfoundland receded, indicators of rising sea levels emerged around the coast: submerged shorelines, inland migration of beaches, formation of estuaries and drowned forests.
Please answer the following questions to log this Earth Cache:
- In accordance with the updated guidelines from Geocaching HQ (June 2019), photos are now an acceptable logging requirement and will be required to log this cache. Please share a photo of yourself, your GPS, or a personal item as proof of visit to the site.
- When did the Town of Harbour Grace and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador sign their MUNICIPAL HABITAT STEWARDSHIP AGREEMENT?
- What type of estuary is likely located in Harbour Grace based on the descriptions above?