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Eliopoli is situated on a beautiful peninsula in the middle of the Darling Lake, next to Port Maitland. The scenic coastline of southwestern Nova Scotia, Canada stretches along Digby County’s coastline, on the Bay of Fundy, around Yarmouth County’s coastline and ends with the scenic coastline of Shelburne County on the Atlantic Ocean. Civilization is 15 minutes away with the small town of Yarmouth. This region is part of the Southwest Shore Ecodistrict
Southwest Shore Ecodistrict
source http://www.gov.ns.ca/natr/forestry/ecological/pdf/ELCrevised2.pdfThe Southwest Shore Ecodistrict includes the southern most part of Nova Scotia. The ecodistrict extends along the coast to Yarmouth Harbour where the Clare (730) Ecodistrict provides the northern limit. The Southwest Shore Ecodistrict has similar topography and geology to the adjacent ecodistricts (730,760) but can be separated from them due to the climatic influence of the Gulf of Maine. The ecodistrict has not been extended much past Yarmouth and along St. Mary’s Bay since the coastal influence was determined to affect only a narrow band along this shore. The Southwest Shore Ecodistrict is made up of a submerged coastline with tidal rivers and inlets (Chebogue River), numerous islands (Tusket Islands) and saltmarshes. At any point the
ecodistrict seldom exceeds 10 km in width. Overall, the moderating effect of the Gulf of Maine gives this area the mildest winters in the province and a frost free period for over half the year, longer than any other place in Atlantic Canada. Yarmouth’s average January temp erature is -2.7 degrees Celsius, the warmest of any mainland station in the Maritimes. However, summers are cool and fog is common. The total area of the ecodistrict is 791 km2 or 14% of the ecoregion.
The bedrock of the Southwest Shore Ecodistrict is mostly quartzite and slate. However, there is an intrusion of granite near Wedgeport. Soils are derived largely from glacial drift with a moderately coarse texture. An extensive area of salt marsh is found in this ecodistrict, comprising approximately 5,369 hectares or 6.8% of the ecodistrict. Another 3,523 hectares (4.5% of the ecodistrict) are classified as fresh water.
Forests in this ecodistrict have been heavily imp acted by human activity . Black sp ruce is the dominant sp ecies along the shore, with white spruce and balsam fir. In areas where shelter is provided by topography, conditions are suitable for other species such as red spruce, white pine, red oak and tolerant hardwoods.
Red spruce and white pine are the dominant sp ecies on welldrained sites with moderately coarse soil. The climax forest on hills and drumlins with welldrained, coarse-textured soils is red oak and white pine.The eastern limit of the ecodistrict occurs at the Clyde River. Coastal influence southwest of that point was considered to be from the Gulf of Maine instead of the Atlantic Ocean. The Gulf of Maine Working Group (Kelly 1999) use the Clyde River watershed as the southerly limit of the Gulf of Maine watershed. There appears to be a climatic influence associated with the Gulf of Maine, which allows the growth of red spruce and other tolerant species such as white pine, sugar maple and yellow birch. The continuance of these species along the shore to Cape Chignecto, around the Bay of Fundy and down the coast of Maine (Davis 1966) suggests that the coastal influence of the Gulf of Maine is moderate compared to that of the Atlantic Ocean.