Written By: Karen Turner

As a new year dawns, we are hopeful that 2016 will be the year our federal and provincial governments finally create a buffer zone around Gros Morne National Park to safeguard this amazing World Heritage Site from harmful industrial development threats.

With brand new provincial and federal governments in place, now is a critical time for Canadians to urge our newly elected officials to act quickly to create the buffer zone. Our goal is to get 10,000 signatures on our petition before presenting it to the new federal and provincial Environment Ministers. We’re getting close! With your help, we know we can achieve this goal.

As you may recall, in 2013 a proposal to drill and “frack” for oil metres from the boundary of Gros Morne National Park raised serious concern that Gros Morne National Park, its World Heritage status, and the local tourism and fishing economy would be at risk from potential adjacent industrial development.

Since then, we’ve been working hard, alongside local community members, to encourage the federal and provincial governments to create a permanent “buffer zone” around the park and safeguard it from any future industrial development. This idea is now supported by local and provincial tourism interests, prominent Canadians (open letter to the Premier, Newfoundland and Labrador) and the UNESCO World Heritage Committee which, in 2014, recommended that Canada establish a buffer zone around the park.

Not only will this safeguard the remarkable natural beauty and ecological integrity of Gros Morne National Park, it will also support the thriving tourism industry that relies on the park’s natural beauty and World Heritage status.

If you haven’t done so already, please take a moment to sign the petition and share it with your friends on social media.

Together we can make this happen!

Sign the Pledge!