Cull on agenda

Meeting about moose set for Orangedale

Mi’kmaq moose harvesters will discuss issues and concerns about this year’s cull in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

The meeting, which is being organized by the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq Chiefs, is scheduled to take place at Stoney Point in Orangedale on Tuesday at 1 p.m.

Parks Canada plans to hold its third moose harvest in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. It is tentatively scheduled to begin as early as the first week of November and could last until Dec. 18.

The hunt is part of the fouryear Bring Back the Boreal Forest project, which began in 2014 in an attempt to help limit and reverse the damage being done by a moose population in the park that has been estimated at around 1,800.

Parks Canada officials have said that population density is about four times what it should be and the moose are turning the boreal forest into grassland by eating young trees, affecting many species that rely on the habitat, including at-risk species like the American marten and the Canada lynx.

Indigenous hunters with treaty rights help with the cull in partnership with the Unama’ki Institute of Natural Resources.

The conservation and restoration project focuses on three areas in the 960-square-kilometre national park — Skyline Trail, North Mountain and Warren Lake — and includes tree planting and building fences to keep moose from browsing young trees, as well as reducing the moose population in a specific 20-square-kilometre area of North Mountain.

Last year, about 50 moose were harvested by Mi’kmaq hunters. The 2015 hunt yielded 37 moose.

The project, which is expected to continue until spring 2018, hasn’t been without controversy, with some people opposing it because they believe the park is a sanctuary for moose, while some non-Aboriginal hunters have argued they should be allowed to participate in the harvest.

Last year, protesters led by a group calling itself Friends of Cape Breton Moose blocked part of the Cabot Trail leading into the Cape Breton Highlands National Park for a few hours before police warned they could be charged with obstructing a public highway and disobeying a peace officer. The 2015 harvest was interrupted when about 30 protesters enter a restricted zone and confronted the hunters.