Ontario's only wilderness park, Pukaskwa National Park covers 1880 square kilometres of rugged terrain and frigid water along the rocky north shore of Lake Superior halfway between Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay. Moist air, chilled by the largest fresh water lake in the world, moves inland off Lake Superior, where it has a significant effect on the habitat of the plants and animals surviving in the harsh environment of this Canadian Shield landscape. Founded in 1978, Ontario’s largest national park, it protects a representative sample of the Central Boreal Uplands and the Great Lakes coastline, while encouraging an appreciation of the area's natural and cultural heritage, in part through the employment of native people in the interpretation program.