Duck Mountain Provincial Park (Manitoba)

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Duck Mountain Provincial Park
Provincial park
Country	Canada
State	Manitoba

City	Near Swan River

Coordinates	51°41′N 101°01′W / 51.683, -101.017
Highest point
- location	Baldy Mountain
- elevation	832 m (2,730 ft)

Area	600 km² (232 sq mi)

Plants	white spruce, black spruce, tamarack larch, Jack pine, quaking aspen, balsam poplar, paper birch
Animals	wapiti, moose, American Black Bear, lynx, bobcat, grey wolf, white-tailed deer, coyote

Duck Mountain Provincial Park is a 600 square kilometre forest in western Manitoba. It is not to be confused with Saskatchewan's Duck Mountain Provincial Park located just across the Manitoba/Saskatchewan boundary.

The Duck Mountains are a rise of forested (formerly glaciated) land between the Saskatchewan prairie to the west and the Manitoba lowlands to the east. It is some 200m higher than the floor of the Assiniboine River valley to the west, and some 400m higher than the Manitoba lowlands. The highest point of the Duck Mountains is Baldy Mountain, which is also the highest point of Manitoba. The area represents the southern limit of the boreal forest, in its transition zone to aspen parkland. The forest soils are stony and the landscape is rolling, with numerous ponds and creek channels. The flatter land areas surrounding the forest have almost entirely been converted to cereal grain farmland, making the forest (and the contiquous Saskatchewan Duck Mountain Provincial Park) an environmental refuge for such large animals as wapiti, moose, black bear, lynx, bobcat, and grey wolf. Other animals, such as white-tailed deer and coyote, are also found in abundance in the forest, but roam more freely into the surrounding agricultural lands and are thus less reliant on it. The forest trees include white spruce, black spruce, tamarack larch, balsam fir, jack pine, quaking aspen, balsam poplar, and paper birch.

Duck Mountain Provincial Park is contained wholly within a larger protected area called Duck Mountain Provincial Forest. The practical differences between the Provincial Forest and the Provincial Park contained within it are not, however, obvious. Logging, hunting, and other resource extraction activities are permitted within Duck Mountain Provincial Park, just as within the Duck Mountain Provincial Forest: the clear cuts are set further back from the road in the Park so tourists don't see them.^{[citation needed]} Most tourist facilities are however located in the Park, rather than the Forest, so that is likely the difference.^{[citation needed]}

Child's Lake, East Blue Lake, Glad Lake, and Wellman Lake, all have tourist facilities. These facilities may include boat launches, campgrounds, rental cottages, and privately owned vacation homes.