Canadian Museum of Nature unveils Landscapes of Canada Gardens exhibit

A new outdoor exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Nature allows visitors to experience Canada's north, and get a taste of the landscape inhabited by woolly mammoths during the last ice age.

• Bill Lishman and his new iceberg sculpture at Canadian Museum of Nature

The Landscapes of Canada Gardens exhibit opens Saturday.

The outdoor space on the museum's property features about 40 native species of trees and plants typically found in Canada's boreal forest, Arctic tundra and prairie grasslands. 

Paul Sokoloff, a botanist with the museum, helped design the garden.

"We worked really hard with our landscape architects to pick species that grow up in the tundra but are also able to grow in this area," said Sokoloff.

A fourth section, the Mammoth Steppe, recreates an ice age habitat complete with life-size sculptures of a mammoth family. 

Park benches, and a picnic area provide spots to relax or take in the gardens.

Access to the Landscape of Canada Gardens is free and the space is open year-round.