The Beatty Saugeen River is a river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

 in the Saugeen River

Saugeen River

The Saugeen River is located in southern Ontario, Canada, flowing generally north-west about 160 km before exiting into Lake Huron. The river is navigable for some distance, and was once an important barge route...

 and Lake Huron

Lake Huron

Lake Huron is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrologically, it comprises the larger portion of Lake Michigan-Huron. It is bounded on the east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the west by the state of Michigan in the United States...

 drainage basin

Drainage basin

A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

s in Grey County

Grey County, Ontario

Grey County is a county and census division of the Canadian province of Ontario. The county seat is in Owen Sound. The population was 92,411 in 2006. It is located in the subregion of Southern Ontario named Southwestern Ontario...

, southwestern

Southwestern Ontario

Southwestern Ontario is a subregion of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario, centred on the city of London. It extends north to south from the Bruce Peninsula on Lake Huron to the Lake Erie shoreline, and east to south-west roughly from Guelph to Windsor. The region had a population...

 Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. It is a tributary of the South Saugeen River.

Course

The river begins in a woods

Forest

A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) southeast of the community of Boothville in the township of Southgate

Southgate, Ontario

Southgate is a township in western Ontario, Canada, in the southeast corner of Grey County. Southgate was formed on January 1, 2000, when the Village of Dundalk, the Township of Proton and the Township of Egremont were amalgamated...

. It flows west, to the north of the community of Dromore, then southwest, passing to the north of the community of Yeovil. The river heads west, over Holstein Dam at the community of Holstein, and under Ontario Highway 6 south of the community of Orchardville

Orchardville, Ontario

Orchardville is a community in Ontario....

. The Beatty Saugeen turns northwest, passing to the south of the community of Hampden in the township of West Grey

West Grey, Ontario

West Grey is a township in western Ontario, Canada, in Grey County spanning across the River Styx, the Rocky Saugeen River, the Beatty Saugeen River, and the South Saugeen River...

, before reaching its mouth at the South Saugeen River on the south side of the town Hanover.

The river is about 46 kilometres (29 mi) long with a drainage basin of 274 square kilometres (106 sq mi) and average gradient of 4.5 metres per kilometre (23.8 ft per mile).

Geology

The headwaters of the river are in the Dundalk Till plain

Till plain

A till plain is an extensive flat plain of glacial till that forms when a sheet of ice becomes detached from the main body of a glacier and melts in place depositing the sediments it carried. A till plain with irregular topography is referred to as a ground moraine.-See also:*Glacial till plains...

, and the remainder of the river in the Horseshoe Moraine

Moraine

A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris which can occur in currently glaciated and formerly glaciated regions, such as those areas acted upon by a past glacial maximum. This debris may have been plucked off a valley floor as a glacier advanced or it may have...

 and the Teeswater Drumlin field

Drumlin field

A drumlin field is a cluster of dozens to hundreds of similarly shaped, sized and oriented drumlins, also called a drumlin swarm. Drumlins are one type of landform that indicate continental ice sheet glaciation...

.

Ecology

There are four monitoring stations in the Beatty Saugeen drainage basin: two for Benthic zone

Benthic zone

The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean or a lake, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. Organisms living in this zone are called benthos. They generally live in close relationship with the substrate bottom; many such...

 animals, one for surface water quality, and one combined. There are two rare species: the Delta-spotted spiketail and the Hart's Tongue Fern.