Environmentalists says higher uranium prices have led to prospectors staking almost every square inch of Crown land in Haliburton County.

The environmentalists say the future of the area, which is in the heart of Ontario cottage country, is at stake.

Joan Barton, from the group Environment Haliburton, said over the past year, she and her neighbours have discovered that three prospecting companies have been staking Crown land throughout the county. One of them, she said, has early plans for a mine near her home in Wilberforce

"We have been advised of this," she said. "It will be open pit [mining] in Ontario resort country just north of Toronto."

Barton and other environmentalists are calling for a moratorium on the exploration and mining of uranium in the district.

"This issue has come upon us quite suddenly," Barton told a news conference at Queen's Park on Tuesday.

"It's basically been within the past year that Haliburton County has been flooded with mining claims, mining companies and mining interest. The mining companies came in very quietly, and without the knowledge of our community, staked every scrap of Crown land."

Activist John Sewell said most of the uranium produced in Ontario is not used in Ontario.

"Eighty per cent of it is exported out of Canada … most of it to the [United] States, but some to Britain, some to France."

Sewell said there hasn't been any uranium mining in Ontario for more than 20 years and since there's no shortage of supply worldwide, there's no need to resume it.

So far, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has rejected a request for a freeze on uranium exploration.

But the Liberal government said it is reviewing the exploration provisions of the Mining Act.