Research Provides Valuable Information about Protected Areas of Newfoundland and Labrador

Environment and Conservation
November 28, 2006

Research Provides Valuable Information about
Protected Areas of Newfoundland and Labrador

A total of 27 scientific research permits for wilderness and ecological reserves and provincial parks were issued in 2006. The Honourable Clyde Jackman, Minister of Environment and Conservation, noted that research is very important to protected areas of the province and that all research is encouraged and new research proposals are always welcome.

"This research provides parks staff with important information on population changes in protected areas, such as seabird and shorebird monitoring, it contributes to species lists for reserves like plant, mushroom and insect identification, and it helps provide other biophysical information to aid in protected areas management in the province," said the minister.

Many of the permits issued this year were for ongoing research about the snowshoe hare, seabirds, insects and fossils while others represented new projects. Ten studies focused on seabird foraging, breeding and monitoring at the Witless Bay, Cape St. Mary�s, Funk Island and Gannet Islands Ecological Reserves. Several shorebird surveys were also undertaken at the Codroy Valley and Chance Cove Provincial Parks, and the Piping Plover Guardian Program continued at J.T. Cheeseman, Sandbanks and Codroy Valley Provincial Parks.

A mushroom foray organized by the Humber Natural History Society took place in four protected areas on the Avalon Peninsula (La Manche and Butterpot Provincial Parks, Salmonier Nature Park and Cape St. Mary�s Ecological Reserve), and a total of 99 mushroom species were identified.

Permits to conduct scientific research and monitoring in parks and reserves are mandatory and can be obtained by contacting Jeri Graham, biologist, at 709-635-4529 or by visiting www.gov.nl.ca/parks. For further details on research conducted in reserves in 2006 see the table below. The Parks and Natural Areas Division of the Department of Environment and Conservation is the management agency responsible for the 18 wilderness and ecological reserves and 32 provincial parks in Newfoundland and Labrador.

List of Scientific Research in Parks and Reserves in 2006

Researcher	Reserve/Park	Project Title
Bill Montevecchi, Memorial University	Baccalieu Island, Cape St. Mary�s, Funk Island, Witless Bay Islands	Foraging and feeding ecology of Newfoundland seabirds
David Fifield, Memorial University	Witless Bay Islands Ecological Reserve	Winter ecology of Atlantic Puffins: diet, distribution and movement
John Reynolds, Dept. of Environment and Conservation	Butterpot Provincial Park	The effects of hunting on snowshoe hare abundance
Andrus Voitk, Humber Natural History Society	13 parks	Mushroom survey of Newfoundland
Hubert Crummey, Natural Resources	Butterpot, Lockston Path, Sir Richard Squires, Marine Drive, Jipujijkuei Kuespem, Pistolet, Barachois, Little Grand Lake, King George, Hare Bay	Insect Survey (Forecast)
Gregory Robertson, Canadian Wildlife Service	Witless Bay, Funk Island, Gannet Islands	Demographic studies of seabirds in Witless Bay Islands Ecological Reserve, with additional banding of murres at Funk and Gannet Islands
Gregory Robertson, Canadian Wildlife Service	Witless Bay, Cape St. Mary's	Censuses of selected seabirds in the Witless Bay Islands Ecological Reserve (ongoing) and Cape St. Mary's (new)
Anne Storey, Carolyn Walsh, Memorial University	Witless Bay Islands Ecological Reserve	Reproductive and parental behaviour of common murres
Anne Storey, Trina Hancock, Memorial University	Witless Bay Islands Ecological Reserve	Parent-young interactions in Atlantic Puffins under different foraging conditions
Peter Thomas, Canadian Wildlife Service	Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve	Harlequin Duck and Purple Sandpiper Survey at Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve
Paul Saunders, Dept. of Environment and Conservation	Bay du Nord Wilderness Reserve	Middle Ridge Mark/Re-sight Caribou Census
Sabir Bin Muzaffar, Memorial University	Witless Bay, Cape St. Mary's, Gannet Islands	Ecology of parasitism in seabird colonies in eastern Canada
Rob Otto, Dept. of Environment and Conservation	Bay du Nord Wilderness Reserve	Spatio-temporal habitat selection patterns and the functional role of eastern coyotes in insular Newfoundland
Mac Pitcher, Salmonier Nature Park	Cataracts Provincial Park	Lichinodium collection in Cataracts Provincial Park
Paul Harris, Canadian Wildlife Service	Codroy Valley Provincial Park	Newfoundland and Labrador Shorebird Survey
Paul Harris, Canadian Wildlife Service	Chance Cove Provincial Park	Newfoundland and Labrador Shorebird Survey
Grant Humphries, Memorial University	Witless Bay Islands Ecological Reserve	A comparative study of Leach's Storm Petrel vocalizations between Buldir Island, Alaska, and Gull Island, Newfoundland
Patricia Cousins, Piping Plover Project	J.T. Cheeseman, Sandbanks, Codroy Valley	The Piping Plover Guardian Program
David Langor, Natural Resources	Burnt Cape, Watt's Point, J.T. Cheeseman, Pistolet Bay	Arthropod Study of Newfoundland: Bio Blitz 2006
Claudia Hanel, Dept. of Environment and Conservation	Burnt Cape, Watt's Point, Table Point	Reconnaissance survey of mosses in Burnt Cape and/or Table Point and/or Watts Point Ecological Reserves
John Chardine, Canadian Wildlife Service	Funk Island Ecological Reserve	Estimate of the number of common murres nesting on Funk Island
Guy Narbonne, Queen�s University	Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve	Ediacaran Fossils at Mistaken Point
Scott Nielsen, Queen�s College	Red Fir Lake - Kapitagas Channel Ecological Reserve	Archeology Beyond the Horizon: Pre-contact Land Tenure in Labrador West
Rob Otto, Dept of Environment and Conservation	Bay du Nord Wilderness Reserve	Caribou calf mortality of Middle Ridge Herd
Paul Harris, Canadian Wildlife Service	Chance Cove Provincial Park, Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve	Newfoundland and Labrador Purple Sandpiper Winter Survey
Brian Nakashima, Dept of Fisheries and Oceans	Bellevue Beach Provincial Park	Spawning, egg deposition, and recruitment of capelin � Bellevue Beach, Trinity Bay
Ian Jones, Memorial University	Gannet Islands Ecological Reserve	Seabird ecology and demography at the Gannet Islands in relation to environmental variability

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Media contact:
Diane Hart
Director of Communications
Department of Environment and Conservation
709-729-2575, 685-4401
dianehart@gov.nl.ca

2006 11 28 9:20 a.m.

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