Moose-ion accomplished: Gros Morne reports forest growing back after 7-year cull

Gros Morne National Park says a seven-year effort to control the area's moose population seems to havebeen a success.

Even just going for a casual stroll in the park you can see this difference.- Tom Knight

Hunting within national park boundaries is usually prohibited.

But in 2011, Parks Canada began allowing a small hunt in Gros Morne.

About 200 moose were killed that year, and about 600 in each subsequent year.

It was an attempt to cut down the population, after studies showed that the roughly 5,000 moose in the park had eaten so much regenerating forest that up to 65 square kilometres had been converted to grasslands.

Now, those overseeing the project say they've reduced the population to their target of about 2,000 moose, which equals roughlytwo moose for every square kilometre of forest and scrub in the park.

Tom Knight, who'sin charge of forest health with Gros MorneNational Park, saidboth monitoring studies and anecdotal evidence showthe moose cull has already led to forest regrowth.

"We're seeing a lot more young trees and shrubs starting to grow in the understory and we're seeing a lot lower browsing rates on those trees," he told the Corner Brook Morning Show.

"It's quite striking, even just going for a casual stroll in the park you can see this difference where a lot more of that next generation of forest is starting to come back now."

Now that the target moose population has been reached, hunting licencesfor the park area will be scaled back until the number of animals has stabilized.

Knight saidthe moose population in Gros Morne will continue to be closely watched.

"Given that we don't really have a significant predator on the island for moose, without the hunting activity we suspect the moose population would quite rapidly respond to any reduction in hunting pressure," he said,