3rd moose cull planned in national park to protect boreal forest

Parks Canada plans to hold a third moose harvest in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park this fall after completing two successful culls. 

The hunt is part of the four-year Bring Back the Boreal Forest project that began in 2014. Parks Canada does it in partnership with the Unama'ki Institute of Natural Resources. Indigenous hunters are helping with the cull. 

The North Mountain harvest aims to reduce the moose population by 90 per cent to allow the forest to regenerate in the 20-square kilometre area. Some 50 moose were harvested by Mi'kmaq hunters from Nov. 8 to Dec. 10, 2016.

Trials have been performed in other areas of the national park in an attempt to rejuvenate the forest, including tree planting and building fences to keep moose from eating young trees.

Parks Canada project manager Derek Quann said the number of moose harvested this year is a big indicator of how many live in the park.

"It speaks to the level of hyper-abundance, I think, in the population in general," said Quann.

Hope to see ecological recovery after 2018 cull

The 2015 hunt, when 37 moose were harvested, was shorter by two weeks. 

"After the 2016 operation, we encountered only two moose in the study area," said Quann. "The year previous, it was more in the order of 20 or 21."

Quann said Parks Canada has been monitoring the population for 15 years and there is a stable population of about 1,800 moose in the park. He said the project will continue until spring 2018. 

"We ... expect that we'll start to see signs of some ecological rebound shortly afterwards," he said. 

• For Mi'kmaq, hunting moose is 'the heart and soul of what the Creator has designed'