Endangered harlequin ducks frequent the area in Newfoundland and Labrador where Canada has proposed a new national park. (Just Chaos / flickr) http://www.flickr.com/photos/7326810@N08/ / CC BY 2.0
British Columbia and the Olympics might be hogging all the spotlight, but there’s something happening on Canada’s other coast that might leave a deeper legacy than the 2010 Winter Games.
From a Feb. 5 article appearing in The Globe and Mail:
The (Canadian) government is creating a sprawling national park (reserve) in an area of Newfoundland and Labrador
that’s home to threatened species of caribou, birds and other wildlife.
Environment Minister Jim Prentice said Friday it would set aside roughly 11,000 square kilometres in the Mealy Mountains area, making it the largest national park in Atlantic Canada, Quebec and Ontario.
The park is said to be larger than Yellowstone and Yosemite, and the Mealy Mountain area covers some seriously awesome ecosystems – coastal barrens, sub-arctic tundra, boreal forest and bogs. The Canadian government in edition to establishing the national park reserve intends to also create a Waterway Provincial Park to the southeast to protect the Eagle River.
There is a twist, however. The massive area is home to Aboriginal tribes who still use the area as their home. According to the Toronto Sun, the Canadian government has taken that into consideration:
While no new developments will be permitted in the park, traditional Aboriginal activities such as cutting wood for personal use, hunting, trapping and fishing will carry on as usual.
All in all, though, despite the continued “cutting wood … hunting, trapping and fishing” for the Aboriginal tribes, the park would mean a major step forward in the protection of endangered caribou and harlequin ducks, a sea duck known as the “Lord and Ladies” believed to be experiencing a population decline due to hydroelectric projects and oil spills on the coast.
I haven’t seen a name for the new national park yet, so I wonder what they’ll call it.
Any magazine wanna send somebody up there to go explore the trails, I’ll get first in line!
