Parks Canada highlights efforts to restore boreal forest in Cape Breton Highlands National Park

News Release

50,000 trees planted as part of the Bring Back the Boreal project

October 5, 2017 Ingonish, NS Parks Canada Agency

Parks Canada is encouraging Canadians to visit Cape Breton Highlands National Park to learn more about how they can help restore the forest, talk about issues that affect our forests, or get connected to a boreal forest restoration project in another part of the country.

Volunteers took the call to action and invested over 2,500 hours by joining Parks Canada for Seedling Saturdays and other tree planting events at the Skyline trail over the last three years as part of the Bring Back the Boreal project. Together volunteers and professionals have planted over 50,000 trees on the Skyline Trail. Now that tree planting is completed, the next step is to monitor growth to help determine which trees and method of planting resulted in the best tree growth.

As part of this project, Parks Canada has been working closely with several partners, including Unama’ki Institute of Natural Resources, Nova Scotia Community College, and other organizations, communities, and businesses who share the goal of restoring this important ecosystem.

These collaborative efforts have been highlighted in a new video on the Bring Back the Boreal project. The video presents yet another opportunity to learn more about the boreal forest as well as the efforts being taken to restore it to health. It is now available on YouTube and on the Bring Back the Boreal project website.

In managing national parks, Parks Canada maintains or restores ecological integrity, and provides Canadians with opportunities to discover and enjoy them. The boreal forest in Cape Breton Highlands National Park has been struggling to recover since the spruce budworm outbreak of the 1970s. Parks Canada scientists noticed that the ecosystem was not restoring itself as it should and proceeded to find out why and take action to give nature a helping hand. In 2014, Parks Canada introduced the Bring Back the Boreal project to test methods of restoring the boreal forest.

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation in 2017, the Government of Canada invites Canadians to experience the outdoors and learn more about our natural and cultural history.

Quotes

“Cape Breton Highlands National Park is working with a number of partners, including Unama’ki Institute of Natural Resources, to restore health to the boreal forest. By working together, we are able to bring more attention to the state of our forest, and to encourage Canadians to learn more and get involved in restoring this ecosystem for present and future generations.”

Blair Pardy
Cape Breton Field Unit Superintendent, Parks Canada

"Working with Parks Canada in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park on the Bring Back the Boreal project is real life experience for our students. They are part of a major project and get to learn by doing. It can't get much better than that!”

Waddie Long
Instructor, Natural Resources Environmental Technology
Nova Scotia Community College – Strait Area Campus

“Part of Unama’ki Institute of Natural Resources’ mandate is to partner with other groups that share the same desire to protect and preserve our resources for future generations. Our partnership with Parks Canada is helping restore an important forest ecosystem in Unama’ki (Cape Breton) that will allow the forest, and animals that live within it, to survive and one day thrive.”

Clifford Paul
Moose Management Coordinator
Unama’ki Institute of Natural Resources

Quick Facts

The Bring Back the Boreal project is a pilot project designed as part of a long-term effort to help restore the boreal forest within the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. The intent is to use knowledge gained during the pilot project to inform a long-term, park-wide forest restoration program and hyper abundant moose management.
Canada’s boreal forest (270 million hectares) stores carbon, purifies the air and water, and regulates the climate. Because a large portion of the world’s boreal zone lies in Canada (28% or 552 million hectares), this country’s boreal forest affects the health of the environment worldwide. Careful management of these forests therefore benefits both Canada and the world.
Parks Canada is using balsam fir seeds collected from the highlands of Cape Breton 30 years ago.

Associated Links

Contacts

Darlene Doucet
Parks Canada Agency
902-224-4230
darlene.doucet@pc.gc.ca

Page details

2017-10-10