Labrador's Mealy Mountains deserve National Park status
Posted on February 19, 2008
JULIE HUNTINGTON
Executive director of the Newfoundland and Labrador Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.
This article first appeared in The Telegram (St. John's) on February 19.
When I first thought of writing about the reasons we have national parks, I thought of the places I remember visiting in my life. As a mother of three, I remember a stormy evening spent in Terra Nova National Park, when our tent kept us dry while we watched an amazing display of lightning. Earlier in the day, we'd walked from the Newman Sound campground to the marine centre, and along the way we saw moose browsing. There were birds singing and we were never far from views of Newman Sound and the islands in the area.
Then I think of Gros Morne National Park and the enclave communities of Rocky Harbour, Trout River and Norris Point. I have stayed in these places, walked around the communities, and eaten in the restaurants. Would these communities be as vibrant if the Gros Morne area were not a national park? Evidence suggests the communities would be smaller, and that many more of their residents would have moved away.
Preserving land within a park system has some obvious benefits: it provides us with places to visit, and it helps sustain local economies. But the major role served by parks is protection of the land from changes that we humans tend to make to our landscape - which can take the form of roads, mines or houses.
According to Parks Canada, the goal of national parks is to "preserve representative examples of Canada's major natural environments in their natural state." In other words, parks provide us with an example of the natural world in its most complete and ecologically balanced form.
This province and this country are in a unique position when it comes to protecting the environment. Canada is one of the few remaining countries with large stretches of wilderness still intact. This doesn't mean, of course, that we have enough protected areas. Only about 10 per cent of our land base is protected, and only about one per cent of our water. Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society has set a target of protecting at least half of Canada's public lands and waters, because that's the minimum scientists say is needed to maintain healthy functioning ecosystems.
Last spring, more than 1,500 international scientists signed a letter calling on Canada to protect at least half of our boreal forest, which covers nearly 60 per cent of our landmass.
Newfoundland and Labrador could take a major step towards reaching the 50 per cent goal through establishment of the proposed Mealy Mountains National Park. When protected, this park will set aside 21,000 square kilometres in Labrador. This area was chosen by citizens, wildlife biologists and provincial and federal experts to provide a safe home for native plants and animals. The park needs to be big enough to represent distinctive environmental regions - ones with unique soil and vegetation patterns controlled by local weather conditions and geology formations.
Rising steeply to over one kilometre out of tidal Lake Melville, the Mealy Mountains, because of their sparse tree cover, are an island of tundra in the boreal forest. Establishment of this park will help to keep our water and our air clean. The area is home to some of the best wetlands in Labrador. We will learn something about how to use the rest of our environment responsibly and safely by protecting this part of it and using it as an example.
When I think of the national parks that already exist in Newfoundland and Labrador, I think of the natural beauty that someone before us thought to protect. Many of our national parks were created by people with the foresight to see which areas in our province needed protection. We need to be forward thinking. We have the opportunity to do this and continue this tradition by creating the Mealy Mountains National Park. This will help us to protect the natural world that provides us with clean water, clean air and biodiversity.
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