Gros Morne National Park of Canada

Gros Morne Mountain Human Use Monitoring Project

Background

View from Gros Morne Mountain overlooking Ten Mile Pond
© Parks Canada / Michael Burzynski / 1193-045, G7-168, 1990

The trail up Gros Morne Mountain offers people a unique opportunity to visit an Arctic-alpine area in Gros Morne NPC and to see plants and animals that are normally found much farther north. Although the hike is strenuous, the mountain is fairly accessible since the trail is well marked and maintained. Large numbers of hikers visiting the relatively small area of the mountaintop may affect the fragile Arctic-alpine environment. Obtaining information on the number of hikers climbing the mountain is essential for the management of trail use and for scientific studies that examine the impacts people have on the plants and animals of the mountain.

Goals

• Determine the number of hikers climbing Gros Morne Mountain each year.

• Provide information for studies examining the potential effects of pedestrian traffic on plants and animals.

Project Description

Hiker at the Summit of Gros Morne Mountain
© Parks Canada / Daniel Boisclair/ 1193-053, P3-291, 1993

Infrared trail counters (Trail Master) are used to count the number of hikers that climb Gros Morne Mountain each year. Two counters are placed at points along the trail where they will give an accurate count of the number of people hiking the mountain. Each trail counter records the date and time that a hiker passes and breaks the infrared beam. The trail counters are installed each year in late June before the mountain is open to hikers and are removed in October. The information on the counters is downloaded weekly.

Trail counters have been in place for the last three years. During that time, the number of hikers climbing Gros Morne has increased (Figure 3). The quantity of pedestrian traffic that the mountain can sustain is unknown. A study launched in the summer of 2002 investigated the effects of pedestrian traffic on mountain vegetation. Park management can use data from this study, combined with data from the trail counters to help protect this sensitive mountain environment. The park will continue to monitor the numbers of hikers using the trail.

Figure 3. Minimum number of hikers who climbed Gros Morne Mountain during the years 2000, 2001 and 2002. For an accessible text-based description of this graph click here.
© Parks Canada

Project Team