P'jilasi, bienvenu, welcome to Cape Breton Highlands National Park
Cape Breton Highlands National Park encompasses approximately 950 square kilometres of wilderness, located on
Cape Breton Island or Unama’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq
A third of the world-famous Cabot Trail winds through the Cape Breton Highlands National Park
a 298km highway which connects the communities of northern Cape Breton and provides visitors access to local amenities
and of course, natural wonders..
Although, this geographic region offers spectacular scenery, wildlife, and culture
at times it’s climate can be unforgiving
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Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our generation and impacts the integrity of natural and built resources found in the park.
Scientists predict that global climate change will likely create warmer, drier summers, warm winters, and increased precipitation in northern Cape Breton.
In late November 2021, the park experienced a severe weather event,
with higher-than-normal temperatures and a heavy amount of rainfall over a short period of time.
This resulted in significant damages to infrastructure,
including culvert failures and road washouts on segments of the Cabot Trail between Ingonish and Neil’s Harbour.
Additionally, raging floodwaters from the storm impacted both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems found in Cape Breton Highlands National Park.
The storm damage was so severe that that a 15-kilomtre stretch of the Cabot Trail was deemed impassable
Because this route connects northern communities to the rest of Cape Breton, many residents north of Ingonish became isolated from resources.
Climate change impacts to Parks Canada administered places are complex,
and the agency is already integrating climate change mitigation and adaptation actions into our work.
This includes restoration of important infrastructure, such as highways and waterways,
while protecting ecosystems, staff, and local communities.
Robie Gourd: We had about 270 millimetres of rain in a 24 hour period
and with that there was a lot of, obviously, rain that fell in the catchment area of Ingonish Beach
and the Ingonish and Broad cove area. And there was multiple failures of highway structures
from Ingonish Ferry all the way up to Neil’s Harbour and even beyond up into Effies Brook.
You know, I think I described as, you know, waist deep water with 200 pound boulders getting strewn about.
So, it was a real torrent down in that area.
The team had made the call to close the road and Davey was part of that
closing the road and working his way back towards Ingonish.
Things got real for us when Davey, um, uh, fell into some trouble.
He hit uh, the washout at Little Smokey. So that really brought home how serious it was.”
During the November storm, a Parks Canada staff member patrolling the highway was caught in a road washout,
thankfully this team member did not suffer any severe injuries
Davey Fraser: I was out, got called out on patrol, that Tuesday night for the heavy rain.
Checking drains, you know, washouts and stuff like that.
And, uh, I was heading back and the first thing I knew, I was down in the washout.
Down about, I would say between twelve to fifteen feet below
Uh, well, I just got out, I got out, by the time the EMT came the truck was gone, had washed out towards Broad Cove there.
Larry Dauphinee: Usually we’re used to it coming from the surge from the ocean, but this time it wasn’t the ocean
it was coming out of the mountains.
And I guess the speed that it was coming out of the mountains was probably the biggest impact
Uh, a lot of people still on the roads, that was one of our main concerns.
And, uh I guess after the incident that happened within the national park, with the road collapsing
uh we had to ramp things up and get people off of the road,
and we actually ended up declaring a state of emergency for--for Victoria County.”
Robie Gourd: The highway, obviously, is the lifeline for schools, for hospitals, for uh, healthcare, homecare
Um, it’s—it’s the number one priority, for not only this field unit, but for northern Cape Breton.
So, it was our number one priority
The team really sprung into action. It was a real, uh, all hands-on deck sort of scene.
So we had to immediately spool up and get contractors on site. Contracting involved consultants.
We had visual inspections, we had divers, we had, you know, structural assessments of that plus also all the culverts,
um, between Neil’s Harbour and Ingonish Beach.
At the same time we also had noticed three additional spots where there were large sinkholes under the highway,
that from the top, you know, you can see the asphalt is intact
but underneath there’s large cavities that were ready to go at any moment
Lyle Donovan: We plan for this. Uh, the municipality has an emergency plan and we review it all the time
and anytime you have a disaster or emergency, it certainly opens the door to making discussions uh,
uh, that you never had before.
Um, something that we never had in our emergency plan was being able to um, helicopter in uh, essential staff
Like hospital staff, nurses, doctors, uh paramedics. And we made that happen.
Narrator: Parks Canada Team members monitor assets on a daily basis and conduct investigations following storms.
Sarah Penney: The big problem with a storm like that, is the scale, and unfortunately in this case, also the timing
Because of the timing and the scale of that storm, we lost a whole generation of salmon.
It was really an unfortunate thing that had happened but I feel like it also demonstrates
the importance of programs like ours and,uh, the work that we do to try and protect and recover ecosystems
Narrator: Visitor experience may also be affected by higher average temperatures in the park.
The effects of climate change on visitor experience may include increased prevalence of climate
and weather-related medical emergencies such as heat exhaustion, heat stroke and dehydration.
Julie Cossette: I mean when you think of climate change in general there could be a lot of little impact here and there
having an increase of warmer days in the park, could also uh, could go with having a little more days where we have to
uh, um not allow any campfires for campers in the park because it could be too dangerous as its too dry
As these, these huge weather events seem to happen a little more now during our visitor season,
which usually happen mostly over the winter, when we don’t offer as much service
but now that we are in full season with visitor we have to make sure we have all we need to, uh, for evacuation,
for informing our visitor for road closure and all other things that might be impacted by weather events.
Narrator: While our team was making this video another storm swept through Cape Breton Highlands National Park
As a result of this storm, sections of the Cabot Trail at North Mountain were closed due to landslides and road washouts.
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Climate Change drives some of the research undertaken by Parks Canada teams
in their work to protect landscapes in Cape Breton Highlands National Park.
Lindsay Marshall: Well, I think you have to understand that climate change is, is what, uh, is what the word im–implies,
that it is a change over time. And so, if you have a people, like the Mik’maq people
who have been here for thousands of years and they know the landscape and know the environment,
you can use that knowledge to act as a base, a foundation and then you take the, like the two-eyed seeing approach
where you have the western and you have the Indigenous knowledge come together.
And so working together you are able to see—have a very accurate picture of what’s happening to your environment
Anne Claude: Well, Parks Canada is doing, well its like applying a climate change lens, if you wish,
to everything that we do now.Uh, it starts from, you know, um, reducing our own greenhouse gas emissions in our operations,
to uh, which is you know, at the root cause of the problem.
But we’re also putting a lot of effort on adapting to climate change.
Sarah Penney: So, the work that we do as a Resource Conservation team is two-fold.
We do, uh, lots of monitoring work to try to track changes in the ecosystem overtime.
So, that includes things like water temperature monitoring, and forest monitoring, and breeding bird monitoring—
all the different pieces of the ecosystem that fit together.
And we also do lots of work with partners, uh, researchers and other organizations
to try to improve our understanding of the ecosystem as it is right now.
Things are gonna change, you know they always have and they always will. You know,
climate change certainly is accelerating that and sending things in a direction that they might not have otherwise gone
So, trying to understand as best we can what we have right now, we hope, will help us predict how those changes
are going to affect the ecosystem and its components in the future
and help us make informed decisions about how to protect it going forward.
Infrastructure renewal doesn’t immediately seem like its related to environmental integrity but, in fact, it is!
Especially when it comes to fish, like migrating fish populations.
So, every time we get a chance to replace a culvert,
we try to make it a culvert that is better able to allow fish to pass through.
So, replacing culverts, even though it seems like so distant from fish, is super important.
Lindsay Marshall: Every Canadian has an opportunity to do something
and I think slowing down and listening to nature is one thing that all of us can do
because we seem to be in a hurry to get to nowhere fast.
Parks Canada is a new place, we have new people, we have new ideas, we have a real appreciation of how nature
—how it behaves—how we behave around nature.
So, you want to protect the areas that need protection because you have to protect it for the next generations that
that-- that are not even here, so you have to protect it for the future.
A young voice: My favourite thing to do at the park is doing camping.
I like hiking with my brother, do sand castles and hearing the animals.
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Sarah Penney: When we talk about climate change, it’s really easy to go down a path of, of, gloom and doom,
and , and think that this is all a foregone conclusion and there’s no way that we can help anything
but I think we have to do our best to avoid that. You know, people are doing really incredible work
to try to reverse the effects of climate change and mitigate the changes we’ve already seen
and I think we have to hold out hope that that’s going to make a difference and it’s going to mean something going forward.
Additionally, I, I think we have to have a little bit of faith in the planet itself.
You know, salmon for example, have been around a very long time. The oldest salmon fossil is 50 million years old.
So, this species has seen changes before. They’ve survived them and you know
they’ve been strong enough to stick around until now, which is incredible–in 50 million years, right?
So, rather than just assume that our references aren’t going to mean anything and you know, to lock the doors and go home,
I think that we have an obligation to do the best we can, to make it possible for salmon
and the other species and the ecosystem to try to adapt going forward.
Since the establishment of Cape Breton Highlands National Park in 1936,
it has been Parks Canada’s mandate to preserve natural heritage, making it available to visitors,
while promoting an awareness and appreciation of the natural world.
To this day, we hope to encourage understanding of the forces that shape and change the landscapes here in the park.
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