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

Student Information Sheet: Terra Nova National Park of Canada

A place where Boreal landscapes touch sheltered seas

What’s in the park?

Terra Nova National Park of Canada is a very interesting place where low, forested hills and rocky coastline unfold before your very eyes.

© Parks Canada / Don Pentz

The park is part of an ancient mountain range that has been ground down to low hills by millions of years of erosion. Huge blocks of ice called glaciers scraped over the land, also helping to erode (wear away) the rock and creating valleys. There are bogs (swamps), ponds and rivers in the valleys. Boreal (northern) evergreen forests cover Terra Nova, growing right to the edge of the Atlantic Ocean.

The rocky coastline has many sheltered coves and long inlets or “fingers of the sea.”

These coves were home to people for 5,000 years. There are cliffs, low rocky points of land jutting out into the ocean, and many different beaches along the coast.

Plants and animals that live along the coast are affected by the rise and fall of the ocean as well as by its cold temperature. The temperature of the ocean also controls the climate (weather conditions) of the land, creating late springs, cool summers and mild winters.

The most common trees are black spruce and balsam fir, but you will also see white spruce, larch, birch, aspen and red maple. These trees are common in the northern Boreal forest, which covers most of Canada.

Terra Nova National Park is home to 12 of the 14 mammals that live in Newfoundland. Moose, which were brought to Newfoundland from New Brunswick about a hundred years ago, are easy to find in the park. The native Newfoundland marten, on the other hand, is an endangered species and is much harder to see.

Some of the birds that you can see and hear in Terra Nova include bald eagles, ospreys, loons, woodpeckers and songbirds such as warblers and finches.

There are about 200,000 visitors who come to this special place each year. Some come to camp, hike and see wildlife. They also like to take part in our very exciting nature programs.

In 1957 Terra Nova National Park was created to protect part of eastern Newfoundland’s rugged coastline and Boreal forest. It is Canada’s most easterly national park and is at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean.

Why is this park special?

Terra Nova National Park is special because it protects part of eastern Newfoundland’s rugged coastline and part of the old range of mountains called the Appalachians.

The park is special because it protects part of Canada’s northern Boreal forest. It is important to have areas of this forest which have all of their wild plants and animals protected. Logging and mining have disturbed more than half of Canada’s northern Boreal forest.

What is this park concerned about?

Newfoundland Marten © Parks Canada / Don Pentz

Terra Nova is concerned about plants and animals that have been introduced (brought in), and that weren’t in Newfoundland originally. For example, moose were not found in Newfoundland originally and now there are thousands of them. Moose feed on trees and may be changing the forests because there are so many of them.

Another concern is that forest fires have not been allowed to burn. Evergreen forests need fires to be healthy; fire is a natural part of the ecosystem.

Terra Nova is also concerned about protecting the Newfoundland marten, an endangered species. Also, there are problems facing salmon populations.

References

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