Kahshe Barrens

KAHSHE LAKE BARRENS CONSERVATION RESERVE (C38)

FACT SHEET (SEPTEMBER, 2001)
BACKGROUND
On July 16, 1999, the Ontario Government released the Ontario’s Living Legacy Land Use
Strategy to guide the planning and management of Crown lands in central and parts of
northern Ontario. A major part of the Ontario’s Living Legacy Land Use Strategy was the
government’s intent to establish 378 new protected areas, a commitment that marks the
biggest expansion of provincial parks and conservation reserves in Ontario’s history.
The proposed Kahshe Lake Barrens Conservation Reserve is part of this significant
expansion of Ontario’s protected areas system.
SIZE AND LOCATION
The proposed Kahshe Lake Barrens Conservation Reserve is a 3, 203 hectare area of Crown land
on the south side of Kahshe Lake. It is located in Morrison Ward in the Area Municipality of the
Town of Gravenhurst (District Municipality of Muskoka). This site lies approximately 8
kilometres southeast of the Town of Gravenhurst and 1 kilometre east of Highway 11. The
existing Jevins and Silver Lake Conservation Reserve lies to the immediate north of Kahshe
Lake.
AREA HIGHLIGHTS
This large expanse of relatively pristine and remote Crown land located in ecological Site District
5E-8. The site is dominated by a weakly broken Precambrian bedrock plain, with very thin soil
cover. Bedrock ridges contain open forests of white pine, red oak, and red oak-white oak
mixtures. Between these bedrock ridges, narrow linear wetlands contain a number of habitats
including sedge grass meadows, leatherleaf bogs, coniferous fens and open aquatic wetlands.
This exceptional area has very high vegetation diversity with 485 native plants recorded,
including numerous provincially and nationally rare plant, bird and animal species. The large size
and lack of habitat fragmentation are important habitat values of this area.
The area has been traditionally used for hunting, snowmobiling, back country recreation and fur
harvesting. The Kahshe Lake Barrens have been municipally designated as a Muskoka Heritage
Area.