Pituamkek National Park Reserve - Wikipedia

Pituamkek National Park Reserve (also Pitaweikek or Hog Island Sandhills) is a Canadian national park reserve encompassing a chain of barrier islands along the northern coast of Prince Edward Island.

The proposed national park preserve includes a 50-kilometre (31 mi) chain of barrier islands stretching from the Cascumpec Sand Hills in the northwest to the Malpeque Sand Hills in the southeast, with Conway Sand Hills in between. The area also includes Oulton's Island near Alberton, Hog Island near the Lennox Island First Nation, and several small islands in Malpeque Bay including Bird, Ram, and Courtin Islands, and also includes a strip of land along the Prince Edward Island shore.^[1] The estimated area of the park reserve is 30 square kilometres (12 sq mi); the boundaries of the protected area have not been finalized.^[2]

The barrier islands separate Cascumpec and Malpeque Bays from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and protect the main shore from severe weather events. The sand dunes provide habitat and nesting ground for several threatened species including the piping plover and little brown bat.^[3] Situated within the chain is Iron Rock, an unusual igneous rock formation and the only volcanic incursion in the province.^[4]

The barrier islands are known in Mi'kmaq as pituamkek ("at the long sand dune"). The land has been inhabited and used as traditional hunting and fishing grounds by Indigenous peoples since the Woodlands period, with archaeological sites dated to 4,000 years old.^[5]

The Canadian government purchased Hog Island in 1942 to be added to the nearby Lennox Island First Nation, however the purchased land was never designated a reserve.^[3]

In 2006, representatives from the Lennox Island and Abegweit First Nations and the Canadian Museum of Civilization surveyed the islands and identified sites of archaeological interest for further study.^[4]