Eramosa Karst Conservation Area

Upper Mount Albion Road, Stoney Creek, Ontario

Eramosa Karst Fact Sheet
Eramosa Karst photo gallery on Flickr
Eramosa Karst Master Plan
Eramosa Karst Map (with trails)
Eramosa Karst Brochure
Directions to Eramosa Karst

The Eramosa Karst is the Hamilton Conservation Authority's newest conservation area. It is located in the southwestern section of the Stoney Creek area of Hamilton. It extends from Highland Road to south of Rymal Road, and from Upper Mount Albion Road to Second Road West.

On June 20, 2008, the HCA's 50th Anniversay, Mayor Fred Eisenberger, Doug Duke, Chairman of Heritage Green Community Trust, Gary Waddington, Vice President of Sales and Acquisition for the Ontario Realty Corporation, Aldo DeSantis, President of Multi-Area Developments Inc. and former regional chairman Terry Cooke joined HCA Chairman Chris Firth-Eagland, former HCA GM Ben Vanderbrug, Hamilton Conservation Foundation Chairman Matt Casey, HCA staff and members of the public to officially open Hamilton’s newest conservation area.

As part of the opening ceremony, Doug Duke presented the Hamilton Conservation Foundation with a cheque for $750,000, the final instalment of the Heritage Green Community Trust’s $1.5 million donation for the development and long-term maintenance costs of the new conservation area. The Eramosa Karst property was transferred to the Hamilton Conservation Authority on October 23, 2006.

Karsts are geological formations including underground drainage, caves and passages caused by dissolving rock, found in limestone formations like the Niagara Escarpment. The Ministry of Natural Resources designated the Eramosa Karst lands as an Area of Natural and Scientific Interest in 2003, because it is believed to have the largest number of unique karst features in any single area in the province. Several of its karst features are provincially significant. These include: soil pipes, a high concentration of suffosion dolines and sinking streams, overflow sinks, dry valleys and a 335 metre-long cave (the tenth longest in all of Ontario). There is also a natural dolomitic limestone bridge at the entrance of one of the sinkholes.

The diversity of geological features and its central location in the Greater Golden Horseshoe, makes the Eramosa Karst one of the best sites in Ontario for education and research opportunities. Protecting the Eramosa Karst’s unique network of features will ensure that scientists, students and naturalists can continue to enjoy this natural resource. Because it has great potential for education purposes as a result of its features and hydrology, HCA is exploring the possibilities of creating an environmental education centre on the property.

Eramosa Karst Master Plan

The Nature Counts Hamilton Natural Areas Inventory of 2003 found that the Eramosa Karst natural area is made up of meadow, thicket, woodland and forest remnant communities. It is located in the Davis Creek watershed. The forest area is made up of sugar maple, ironwood, hawthorn, gray dogwood, white ash, pin cherry, black cherry, American beech, red oak, butternut and chagbark hickory and a variety of plant species. A total of 129 species of plants were documented at this site, 13 species of butterfly, 2 species of herpetofauna, 42 species of breeding birds and 6 species of mammals.

The Eramosa Karst plays a major role in the Hamilton East-end Open Space Replacement Strategy, which seeks to secure some 210 acres of land for new parklands and trail systems to link the karst lands to the Mount Albion and Felker’s Falls conservation areas, expand the latter, and address a number of related natural heritage issues. The strategy was developed in March 2004, by a committee representing the conservation authority, the City of Hamilton and the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, with input from the mayor’s office and local MPPs.

Eramosa Karst Videos
Take a video tour of the karst features. Marcus Buck, Hamilton karst expert and co-author of the report that helped turn the karst property into a provincial Area of Natural and Scientific Interest, leads us on a video exploration of the karst geological features that will be interpreted when the property is developed into Hamilton’s newest conservation area. (Video production courtesy of Van Valkenburg Communications). These are Windows Media Viewer files.

1. Karst Introduction - (501 KB)
2. What is a karst? - (883 KB)
3. What is an ANSI? - (555 KB)
4. Why should the karst area be preserved? - (622 KB)
5. What is a sinkhole? - (919 KB)
6. Nexus Cave - (1,024 KB)
7. Key features of the karst area - (735 KB)
8. Pottruff and Nexus Caves - (752 KB)
9. Other features of the karst area - (1,078 KB)