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Garden River First Nation: is situated on the boundary between the Precambrian Shield and the West St. Lawrence Lowland physiographic provinces (46/03'N - 84/05'W). It is approximately ten miles long and ten miles inland and located along the North Shore of the St. Mary's River in the District of Algoma in Northern Ontario, Canada. The City of Sault Ste. Marie lies immediately west and the Village of Echo Bay can be found to the east. It is also immediately north of the international border between Canada and the United States.

Garden River is a medium sized river that runs through the reserve lands. The Garden River watershed extends north and east of Garden River and traverses 14 townships from Saymo Lake flowing into the St. Mary's River of the North Channel of Lake Huron. A Life Sciences Inventory will be undertaken to determine which species at risk inhabit this watershed, how many of each species and establish the habitat utilization and requirements for each species at risk identified in the study area.

Habitat alterations have occurred for the history of the land base and impacts on the species at risk are unknown. These habitat alterations would be assessed by the findings and a management strategy will be developed for each species at risk found according to the Recovery Strategies and Action Plans that may be in place.

According to Wesley and Brooks, 2006 (Habitat Selection of Wood Turtle (Glyptemys insculpta) in The Northern Portions of Their Range), developed a predictive model that Garden River had a 95% probability of having wood turtles inhabiting this river. Garden River would constitute approximately .5% of the wood turtle's range. The Ontario Wood Turtle Recovery Team has established a need to learn where and how many wood turtles are in Ontario. Currently known population numbers are estimated at close to 1100 provincially. Garden River has the potential of adding another 100 individuals to the total provincial population.