Special Places: Eco-lessons from the National Parks in Atlantic Canada

Park Backgrounder: Gros Morne National Park of Canada

The Earth’s history is literally at your feet in Gros Morne National Park*

Introduction

Gros Morne National Park of Canada protects a representative example of a nationally significant area of the Canadian landscape. At 1,805 km2, it is the largest national park in Atlantic Canada. Located on Newfoundland and Labrador’s Great Northern Peninsula, the park’s complex and dramatic landscape is made up of Boreal forest, diverse coastline, Alpine plateaux and an array of geological formations such as fjord lakes and hanging valleys.

© Parks Canada / Don Pentz

In 1973, the Government of Canada and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador agreed to establish Gros Morne as a national park in recognition of the region’s outstanding heritage values.

In 1987, Gros Morne National Park was declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) mainly because of its remarkable geological features. The park’s landscape of mountains, glacial valleys, fjords and coastal lowlands is the result of hundreds of millions of years of geological processes. Demonstrating monumental Earth-building activity, the Tablelands of Gros Morne are considered a textbook illustration of plate tectonics. UNESCO also considered the Arctic-alpine habitat of the Long Range Mountains, the region’s 5000-year-old human history and the outstanding scenic beauty of the park in the decisionmaking process.

When Gros Morne National Park was established, it surrounded a number of small fishing communities where residents traditionally used the nearby land for cutting firewood and snaring rabbits (snowshoe hare). Because these activities are normally not permitted in national parks, Parks Canada made special land-use provisions to allow community residents to continue harvesting activities for personal use. Such activities include:

• domestic wood cutting and snaring of snowshoe hare to take place within specified blocks;
• the use of snowmobiles where use does not affect wildlife, vegetation, or terrain;
• fish landing areas where fishers can unload their catch.

There are approximately 120,000 visitors to the park annually.

Park Objectives

Parks Canada must manage all national parks in a way that maintains their ecological integrity, protecting habitats, landscapes and fragile natural resources. This requires understanding, co-operation, support and respect for the environment on the part of many different people. Gros Morne National Park works in partnership with community councils, environmental groups, schools, business operators, and land owners and managers in adjacent areas in order to address land-use issues in the park. Some specific management objectives:

• To maintain the ecological integrity of Gros Morne National Park.
• To communicate the results of scientific research in order to help people understand the challenges involved in maintaining the parkas ecological integrity.
• To increase awareness of the significance of Gros Morne National Park.
• To help visitors experience the park’s diverse environments, by providing roads, trails and other facilities, while ensuring that these do not harm the environment.

Park Issues

The first priority of a national park must be protection of the environment. The variety of stressors range from visitor use and traditional land use to pollutants, airborne and otherwise. Some specific management issues:

• While snowmobiling is an allowable activity in Gros Morne, it is important that the park work in partnership with people in the community to ensure that there are no harmful effects to wildlife, vegetation or terrain.
• It is essential to minimize the environmental impact of the park’s extensive infrastructure and of visitor use in Gros Morne National Park. On the one hand, tourism is a means of enhancing the financial and social well-being of communities. On the other, if negative impacts such as overuse are left unchecked, they may result in a degraded environment, a poor quality visitor experience and a resulting reduction in the tourism yield. Since the park’s focus is on sustainable tourism, it is important to ensure that development and use are managed effectively.
• Forest succession is one aspect of ecosystem function that Gros Morne monitors. Parks Canada must manage the stressors that could affect the forest’s ability to grow anew. This involves considering the effects of the domestic wood cutting program and of the browsing that moose (a non-native species to Newfoundland) do in the forest. It also involves considering adjacent land use issues such as the commercial logging activity that is taking place to the east and south of the park.

References

Federal/Provincial Gros Morne National Park Establishment Agreement, 1973.

Parks Canada. Gros Morne National Park Ecological Integrity Statement (Draft), 2001.

Parks Canada. Gros Morne National Park Management Plan (Draft), 1999.

* Schneider, Dan. “Mother Nature Meets Father Time,” Nature Canada (Winter 2000), p.30.

Parks Canada Web site: www.parkscanada.gc.ca