Elliston
SAM Member Since: September 2019
Area Protected: 1114 acres
Elliston is a municipality of 308 people, located on the eastern side of the tip of the Bonavista Peninsula (north of Trinity Bay) in Newfoundland. The first settlers arrived around 1806 to what was then known as Bird Island Cove. In 1902 the name was changed to Elliston. While much of Elliston's history is based around the fishery, today many residents are employed in Bonavista, in the tourism sector, or businesses.
Conservation Areas
Almost the entirety of the Town of Elliston is within the Eastern Hyper-Oceanic Barrens ecoregion. Very few other municipalities (only ten) have land within this ecoregion, and it is one of the smallest ecoregions in the whole province. It therefore represents a special conservation opportunity in Elliston. The Elliston Conservation Areas provide habitat for 100+ species of birds especially waterfowl (such as Common Eider), shorebirds (such as Semipalmated Plover, Whimbrel, Ruddy Turnstone, and Sanderling), seabirds (especially Common Murre, Razorbill, Black Guillemot, Atlantic Puffin, Black-legged Kittiwake and various species of gulls), and songbirds (including American Pipit, various species of sparrows, Yellow Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and others.)