Season 5

St. Lawrence Islands National Park is part of Ontario's 1000 Islands area, an 80 km-wide extension of granite hilltops joining the Canadian Shield of northern Ontario with New York's Adirondack Mountains. The park is a jewel enjoyed by millions of recreational boaters, but also protects a sliver of wilderness in the heart of busy southern Ontario.

This northern wilderness is Canada's first Grizzly bear sanctuary. Over 100 bears prowl the fjords, rivers and forests of the Khutzeymateen. Visitation is limited; the curious can enter the Sanctuary only with a licensed guide, and numbers are limited so as not to disrupt the bears.

This Saskatchewan wilderness is where the infamous conservationist, Grey Owl, made his home. The park marks the ecological transition from southern to northern Canada. The grassland, aspen parkland and boreal forest create a diverse mosaic. The park is almost 30% water, which makes it ideal for canoeing.

Canada's newest national park was created to protect the calving grounds of the Bluenose caribou herd. The park's cliffs and ramparts provide nesting habitat for one of the highest densities of birds of prey in North America. The park has astonishing diversity for its harsh, arctic climate. Tundra vegetation, rolling hills, deep canyons, dramatic rock formations and a breathtaking waterfall characterize the landscape.

Over 26,000 pairs of nesting seabirds nest in the spectacular 130 meter cliffs of Cape St. Mary's. Humpback, fin and minke whales feed in the offshore Atlantic waters in the summer months. The Cape St. Mary's lighthouse marks the southwest tip of Newfoundland's colourful Avalon Peninsula, and is battered on three sides by the North Atlantic.

For such a small park, Mount Revelstoke has a great diversity of ecosystems from the old growth rainforest to the high alpine and abundant glaciers. Mount Revelstoke's alpine ecosystem provides habitat for caribou, bears, wolverines and Bighorn sheep. The park has a close relationship to the people of the nearby town of Revelstoke. In recent years they have devised a bear awareness program which has greatly reduced the number of bear moralities.

Grey whales stop here en route to feeding grounds further north. On this misty edge of Vancouver Island, the powerful force of the Pacific Ocean batters lush old-growth forests, steep cliffs and secluded beaches. Pacific Rim's West Coast trail was first laid out as a life-saving trail for shipwreck survivors. Today, it is one of the most challenging, and most popular wilderness hikes in Canada.

Located in the northern Yukon, Vuntut protects the Old Crow Flats, a vast plain of more than 2000 shallow lakes and ponds. The Flats are recognized as a wetland of international importance, and are one of the most important waterfowl areas in the world. The Porcupine caribou herd, one of the world's largest remaining herds of barren-ground caribou migrates through the Flats.

Auyuittuq means 'the land that never melts' in Inuit. But, in summer, the deep and narrow Aksayook Pass provides an ice-free corridor through the magnificent Baffin Island terrain. The pass is an ancient route, and stone cairns, called inukshuks, mark the trail. Dizzying mountain peaks and active glaciers dominate the scenery.

A separate and self-contained addition to the existing PEI National Park, Greenwich protects a unique, migrating parabolic dune system. The spectacular dunes leave rare vegetation communities in their wake; and the continuously blowing sand has created an adjacent "skeletal" forest. Cultural artifacts have revealed 6000 years of M'iqmaq occupation, and an Acadian farming settlement.

Wood Buffalo's name reveals its greatest asset: Canada's largest free-ranging bison herd. The park also protects the last natural nesting ground for the endangered whooping crane. The park has abundant natural features that led to its UNESCO status. Most of the 1700 square mile, internationally significant Peace-Athabasca Delta lies within park boundaries. The park also has some of the most extensive karst topography in North America.

This park protects British Columbia's rarest landscape: dry grassland. Only 1.8% of the province's native grassland remains, and provides much-needed habitat for a variety of species. At the core of the Churn Creek protected area is a historic, still-operating cattle ranch, which is also serves as the administrative center of the park.

In a province renowned for its seashores and fishing villages, Kejimkujik is an inland pocket of rich hemlock forests and freshwater lakes and rivers. The park also has a Seaside Adjunct that protects 22 square kilometers of rugged Atlantic coastline, the endangered Piping Plover and colonies of harbour seals. The park's most scrutinized asset is its small population of endangered Blanding turtles.