Yamaska National Park is a provincial park centered around the man-made Choiniere Reservoir. It is located in the municipalities of Roxton Pond

Roxton Pond, Quebec

Roxton Pond is a municipality in the Canadian province of Quebec, located within La Haute-Yamaska Regional County Municipality. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 3,599...

 and Saint-Joachim-de-Shefford

Saint-Joachim-de-Shefford, Quebec

Saint-Joachim-de-Shefford is a parish municipality in the Canadian province of Quebec, located within La Haute-Yamaska Regional County Municipality. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 1,089.-Population:Population trend-Language:...

 in La Haute-Yamaska Regional County Municipality

La Haute-Yamaska Regional County Municipality, Quebec

La Haute-Yamaska is a regional county municipality in southcentral Quebec, Canada. It is named for its position at the height of the Yamaska River which cuts through the south part of the Regional County Municipality, and rises at Brome Lake located in neighbouring Brome-Missisquoi Regional County...

, just northeast of Granby, Quebec

Granby, Quebec

Granby is a city in southwestern Quebec, located east of Montreal. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 47,637. Granby is the seat of La Haute-Yamaska Regional County Municipality. It is the fifth most populated city in Montérégie after Longueuil, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Brossard and...

. Its undulating hilly landscape is supported by slate

Slate

Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...

 and sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

 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...

. The main soil is a stony sandy loam podzol which has been mapped as the Racine series -- one of the most acidic soils in the area.

The soil's acidity and stoniness let few farmers enjoy long-term success. Most of the land either remained in forest or was allowed to be reclaimed by trees. Sugar maple

Sugar Maple

Acer saccharum is a species of maple native to the hardwood forests of northeastern North America, from Nova Scotia west to southern Ontario, and south to Georgia and Texas...

, red maple

Red Maple

Acer rubrum , is one of the most common and widespread deciduous trees of eastern North America. It ranges from the Lake of the Woods on the border between Ontario and Minnesota, east to Newfoundland, south to near Miami, Florida, and southwest to east Texas...

, balsam fir

Balsam Fir

The balsam fir is a North American fir, native to most of eastern and central Canada and the northeastern United States .-Growth:It is a small to medium-size evergreen tree typically tall, rarely to tall, with a narrow conic crown...

, eastern hemlock

Eastern Hemlock

Tsuga canadensis, also known as eastern or Canadian hemlock, and in the French-speaking regions of Canada as pruche du Canada, is a coniferous tree native to eastern North America. It ranges from northeastern Minnesota eastward through southern Quebec to Nova Scotia, and south in the Appalachian...

, gray birch

Gray Birch

Betula populifolia is a deciduous tree native to North America. It ranges from southeastern Ontario east to Nova Scotia, and south to Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with disjunct populations in Indiana, Virginia, and North Carolina. It prefers poor, dry upland soils, but is also found in moist...

, American elm

American Elm

Ulmus americana, generally known as the American Elm or, less commonly, as the White Elm or Water Elm, is a species native to eastern North America, occurring from Nova Scotia west to Alberta and Montana, and south to Florida and central Texas. The American elm is an extremely hardy tree that can...

 and basswood are among the 40 tree species. There are also 16 amphibian

Amphibian

Amphibians , are a class of vertebrate animals including animals such as toads, frogs, caecilians, and salamanders. They are characterized as non-amniote ectothermic tetrapods...

 species, 5 reptile

Reptile

Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...

 species, 35 mammal

Mammal

Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

 species and more than 230 bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

species.

External links

• Parc national de la Yamaska - official site