The Beaver Valley is a valley in southern 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...

, at the southern tip of Georgian Bay

Georgian Bay

Georgian Bay is a large bay of Lake Huron, located entirely within Ontario, Canada...

. The Beaver River

Beaver River (Ontario)

There are five rivers with the name Beaver River in the province of Ontario, Canada.The Beaver River in the Regional Municipality of Durham is a tributary of Lake Simcoe and has its mouth at the community of Beaverton at...

 flows north through the valley to Georgian Bay at Thornbury. It is a productive agricultural

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

 area, producing a significant portion of Canada's apple

Apple

The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...

 crop. It also contains one of Ontario's best-preserved swamp ecosystems. The Bruce Trail

Bruce Trail

The Bruce Trail is a hiking trail in southern and central Ontario, Canada.-General:The trail follows the edge of the Niagara Escarpment, one of the thirteen UNESCO World Biosphere Reserves in Canada, for almost...

 follows the perimeter of the valley passing several natural landmarks including Old Baldy, the Duncan Crevice Caves, and Eugenia Falls. The main towns in the valley are Flesherton

Flesherton, Ontario

Flesherton is a community in the Municipality of Grey Highlands, in Grey County, Ontario, Canada, located at the junction of Highway 10 and Grey County Road 4...

 at the south end, Kimberley, and Thornbury.

Geology

The Beaver Valley has formed over a period of several thousand years as the Beaver River cuts into the Niagara Escarpment. Today, the river continues to cut southward into the bedrock

Bedrock

In stratigraphy, bedrock is the native consolidated rock underlying the surface of a terrestrial planet, usually the Earth. Above the bedrock is usually an area of broken and weathered unconsolidated rock in the basal subsoil...

 at Eugenia Falls. Gradual erosive

Erosion

Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...

 processes have created a wedge-shaped valley with a width ranging from approximately 30 metres at the south end to 13 kilometres at the north end.

Ecology

While much of the valley is heavily cultivated

Tillage

Tillage is the agricultural preparation of the soil by mechanical agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning. Examples of human-powered tilling methods using hand tools include shovelling, picking, mattock work, hoeing, and raking...

 it also contains several well-preserved natural habitat

Habitat

* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...

s and is home to a number of locally and globally rare species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

, notably the American Hart's-tongue Fern (Asplenium scolopendrium var. americanum).