Students Alex Katiforis (left) and Lucas Robinson check on the status of their trees
This year, a group of students from Newfoundland finished off a science experiment they started seven years ago in Gros Morne National Park.
In 2011, the then-grade three and four students from Gros Morne Academy in Rocky Harbour, travelled to the Baker’s Brook Falls Trail and each was assigned trees inside and outside a moose exclosure to monitor. Their teacher, Jennifer Ryan, says that the students made notes on a variety of factors so they could compare when they returned.
“They observed the trees for height, overall health, number of basal diameter, internodes, leader lengths, etc,” says Ryan. “They also observed the other types of plants growing in a quadrat around their trees. The idea of the project was to compare the general growth and health of trees in areas that were heavily foraged on by moose to trees that were beyond their reach.”
Ryan says that while most of the trees had survived, those outside the moose exclosure were definitely stunted. Those that survived, likely did because they were small enough to be buried in the snow during the winter and protected from the moose. With few exceptions, those inside the exclosure were healthy and thriving.
“We all got trees that at the time were healthy,” says Daniel Lang, 16. “When I returned, the tree that I had selected inside the exclosure was in great condition, it had grown by a large margin. However, the tree on the outside of the exclosure was withered and either completely dead or about to be.”
Lang says seeing barren areas of land with dead or dying trees outside the exclosure made him realize the immense impact that overpopulation has on the environment.
“The park is a beautiful place, and we need to do our part to keep it that way,” says a 16 year-old student named Alexander. “The moose are doing what is natural to them, which is fine for now. But if they keep it up, there won’t be a park here in the future. People cannot help destroy the natural beauty by messing up the balance with impurities like plastics and other garbage. For some of us, this is more than just a park, this is our home.”
The project was initiated by Parks Canada, which has enacted a number of efforts to curtail the moose population after a study showed that moose had eaten so much regenerating forest that up to 65 square km had been converted to grasslands. Most significantly, an extended moose cull has reduced the estimated population down to 2,000.