Île Perrot
Encyclopedia
- This page refers to the island, for the municipality, see: L'Île-Perrot, QuebecL'Île-Perrot, QuebecTown of Île-Perrot is a town and municipality on Île Perrot in southwestern Quebec, Canada. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 9,927. The town is at the western end of Lake Saint-Louis, and borders the local island communities of Terrasse-Vaudreuil, Pincourt and...
Île Perrot is an island
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...
west of the island of Montreal
Island of Montreal
The Island of Montreal , in extreme southwestern Quebec, Canada, is located at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. It is separated from Île Jésus by the Rivière des Prairies....
in the Canadian province
Provinces and territories of Canada
The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second-largest country by area. There are ten provinces and three territories...
of Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
. Part of the Hochelaga Archipelago
Hochelaga Archipelago
The Hochelaga Archipelago, also known as the Montreal Islands , is a group of islands at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers in the southwest part of the province of Quebec, Canada.-Size:...
, the island lies between Lake Saint-Louis
Lake Saint-Louis
Lake Saint-Louis, or in French , is a lake in extreme southwestern Quebec, Canada, adjoining the Island of Montreal at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers.The lake is bounded to the north and east by the Island of Montreal...
and Lac des Deux-Montagnes.
Nearly 33,000 people live in one of Île Perrot’s four municipalities:
- Notre-Dame-de-l'Île-PerrotNotre-Dame-de-l'Île-Perrot, QuebecNotre-Dame-de-l'Île-Perrot is the largest of four municipalities located on Île Perrot, west of the island of Montreal, Quebec. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 9,885.-Population:Population trend-Language:...
- PincourtPincourt, QuebecPincourt is a municipality on the island of Île Perrot, off the western tip of the island of Montreal, Quebec. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 11,197. The town shares the island with the three other municipalities of Notre-Dame-de-l'Île-Perrot, Terrasse Vaudreuil and L'Île-Perrot,...
- Terrasse VaudreuilTerrasse-Vaudreuil, QuebecTerrasse-Vaudreuil is a small municipality on Île Perrot, just west of Montreal Island in Quebec, Canada. Attractions nearby include the Faubourg de l'Ile, the Terrasse-Vaudreuil baseball field, the soccer field, the municipal pool and POLYMOS, a styrofoam company that operates out of an area where...
- L'Île-PerrotL'Île-Perrot, QuebecTown of Île-Perrot is a town and municipality on Île Perrot in southwestern Quebec, Canada. The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 9,927. The town is at the western end of Lake Saint-Louis, and borders the local island communities of Terrasse-Vaudreuil, Pincourt and...
Île Perrot holds the only working windmill
Windmill
A windmill is a machine which converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Originally windmills were developed for milling grain for food production. In the course of history the windmill was adapted to many other industrial uses. An important...
in Quebec, dating from the time Île-Perrot was a seigneury in the French colony of New France
New France
New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763...
. In its honour, what now constitutes the commercial artery of the island was named boulevard Don-Quichotte.
Geology and soils
The island is underlain by CambrianCambrian
The Cambrian is the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, lasting from Mya ; it is succeeded by the Ordovician. Its subdivisions, and indeed its base, are somewhat in flux. The period was established by Adam Sedgwick, who named it after Cambria, the Latin name for Wales, where Britain's...
-age quartzite
Quartzite
Quartzite is a hard metamorphic rock which was originally sandstone. Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts. Pure quartzite is usually white to gray, though quartzites often occur in various shades of pink...
. Angular blocks of this hard rock are visible on the surface over much of the island. The soil is a stony sandy loam podzol which has developed on acidic, nutrient-poor quartzite
Quartzite
Quartzite is a hard metamorphic rock which was originally sandstone. Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts. Pure quartzite is usually white to gray, though quartzites often occur in various shades of pink...
till
Till
thumb|right|Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material , and this characteristic, known as matrix support, is diagnostic of till....
. Over parts of the island, this till is covered with clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
which is nutrient-rich and much less stony, but poorly drained and classified as gleysol.
Vegetation
Much of the island remains in forest, although housing developments have made significant inroads over recent years. DeciduousDeciduous
Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...
trees such as American beech
American Beech
Fagus grandifolia, also known as American Beech or North american beech, is a species of beech native to eastern North America, from Nova Scotia west to southern Ontario in southeastern Canada, west to Wisconsin and south to eastern Texas and northern Florida in the United States. Trees in the...
, 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...
, northern red oak
Northern Red Oak
Quercus rubra, commonly called northern red oak or champion oak, , is an oak in the red oak group . It is a native of North America, in the northeastern United States and southeast Canada...
, white ash
White Ash
For another species referred to as white ash, see Eucalyptus fraxinoides.Fraxinus americana is a species of Fraxinus native to eastern North America found in mesophytic hardwood forests from Nova Scotia west to Minnesota, south to northern Florida, and southwest to eastern...
, bitternut hickory
Bitternut Hickory
Carya cordiformis, the Bitternut Hickory, also called bitternut or swamp hickory, is a large pecan hickory with commercial stands located mostly north of the other pecan hickories. Bitternut hickory is cut and sold in mixture with the true hickories. It is the shortest lived of the hickories,...
and American basswood are dominant. The vegetation is more luxuriant than one would expect from the nature of the soils.