Porphyry Island Provincial Park is a remote, non-operating protected area

Protected area

Protected areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognised natural, ecological and/or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the enabling laws of each country or the regulations of the international...

 in Unorganized Thunder Bay District

Thunder Bay District

Thunder Bay District is a district and census division in Northwestern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. The district seat is Thunder Bay....

 in northwestern

Northwestern Ontario

Northwestern Ontario is the region within the Canadian province of Ontario which lies north and west of Lake Superior, and west of Hudson Bay and James Bay. It includes most of subarctic Ontario. Its western boundary is the Canadian province of Manitoba, which disputed Ontario's claim to the...

 Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. It is located on Porphyry Island

Porphyry Island

Porphyry Island is an island in Unorganized Thunder Bay District in northwestern Ontario, Canada. It is the last island in a chain stretching south west of the Black Bay Peninsula in Lake Superior...

 off the tip of the Black Bay Peninsula

Black Bay Peninsula

Black Bay Peninsula is a volcanic peninsula in Unorganized Thunder Bay District in Northwestern Ontario, Canada, located on the North Shore of Lake Superior. It separates Black Bay and Nipigon Bay and consists of over 300 flood basalt lava flows. Porphyry Island, an island entirely encompassed...

 on the North Shore

North Shore (Lake Superior)

The North Shore of Lake Superior runs from Duluth, Minnesota, United States, at the southwestern end of the lake, to Thunder Bay and Nipigon, Ontario, Canada, in the north to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, in the east...

 of Lake Superior

Lake Superior

Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...

. The park features boreal forest, wetlands, and rocky shores with arctic species like encrusted saxifrage, insectivorous butterwort

Pinguicula

The butterworts are a group of carnivorous plants comprising the genus Pinguicula. Members of this genus use sticky, glandular leaves to lure, trap, and digest insects in order to supplement the poor mineral nutrition they obtain from the environments. Of the roughly 80 currently known species, 12...

 and the sedge. The island is also one of the few locations of devil's club

Devil's Club

Devil's Club is a large shrub primarily native to the cool moist forests of western North America, but also disjunct on islands in Lake Superior. It is noted for its large palmate leaves and erect, woody stems covered in brittle spines...

 east of the Rocky Mountains

Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...

.