Cooper Marsh / Marais Cooper

Situated in the Lac St. Francois area of the St. Lawrence River, Cooper Marsh Conservation Area offers an attractive range of marshland, treed swamp, upland meadows, forested areas, wildflower fields, isolated ponds, meandering streams and agricultural land seeded with lure crops for waterfowl.

Cooper Marsh is owned and managed by the Raisin River Conservation Association. The Cooper Marsh Conservators (CMC), a non-profit community support group provide assistance to the RRCA with fundraising, special events and the promotion of this conervation area and its programs. Ducks Unlimited Canada have also been instrumental in the preservation of this site.

Access

Take the 20 westwards and cross the Ontario border (road becomes the 401) - continue about 10km to South Lancaster. Take the road south into the village, follow the curve to the right, cross the Raisin River by a boat yard and then look out for the Cooper Marsh parking lot on your right.

Visitors to the Marsh can enjoy the many audio/visual and display rooms in the Visitor's Centre. . The Visitor's Centre closes for the winter months but the trails are open year round for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.

Beginning in the mid 1980's Ducks Unlimited, with the support of the RRCA, government agencies and other private interest groups built a network of dykes and dams. Three impoundments were created with water levels approximately 1/2 meter higher than that of Lake St. Francis. The resulting flooding has created open water and improved the productivity of the marsh by increasing habitat and plant diversity. The process has taken several years with the result that over 130 bird species now use the area compared to only about 5% of that number before the project began.

Channels and ditches dug into the marsh have created access routes for a variety of fish and small animal inhabitants. Cooper Marsh's area covers approximately 218 hectares of diversified habitat that attracts over 130 species of birds and a large variety of animal and insect life.