The third in a series of stories focusing on partnerships between Memorial University and the province’s communities. Next up: Arts, Music, Literature
Place.
Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have a special attachment to our home — not just to the vibrant culture found in our communities, but to the ground beneath our feet.
It’s not hard to see why.
From dramatic mountains — the Lewis Hills of the Long Range Mountains come to mind — to bountiful and nutritious berry patches to incredibly varied and ancient geological forms, there is astounding beauty and richness everywhere we look.
Protecting and making the most of this shared resource is something we can all agree on.
So when the people of the province and the province’s only university put their heads together to make the land work for them — and ultimately all of us — incredible things happen.
Read on to learn about just a few examples of how land-based partnerships between communities and Memorial University are collaborating to do just that.
Living Lab N.L. and West Coast farmers
The Agricultural Climate Solutions Newfoundland and Labrador Living Lab on Newfoundland’s West Coast includes farmers, researchers and experts from various disciplines and backgrounds to tackle common issues.
More specifically, the living lab is a collaborative research project that brings together farmers, scientists and other stakeholders to co-develop beneficial management practices for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and enhance carbon sequestration.
It’s a partnership of the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Agriculture; Grenfell Campus, Memorial University; Agriculture and Agri-food Canada; and the provincial department of Fisheries, Forestry and Agriculture.
But the ultimate benefit is gaining insight into the complexities of successful crop production for all involved, in particular, the people working the land itself.
Ian Richardson is the owner of Larch Grove Farm in Cormack, N.L., and specializes in milk and dairy products, beef and pork.
A native of PEI who moved to Newfoundland due to affordable land prices, Mr. Richardson started off at age 22 milking 60 cows in a tie-stall barn.
More than 20 years later, he milks 320 cows in a modern five-robot barn and scaled up his operation from 120 acres to 1,200 acres.
As a partner in a forage study with the Living Lab, he offered up approximately five acres of land to carry out fertilizer and crop testing. He prepared the test field and seeded it with an oats and peas mix; Living Lab researchers tested the different rates of fertilizer to assess the effects of different nitrogen fertilizer or controlled-release urea rates on plant growth, nitrogen uptake, yield, and quality.
Mr. Richardson says he participated in the study because farming in Newfoundland and Labrador “is quite challenging.”
“If there are ways to improve input costs or enhance yields, it will help all farmers in the province,” he said. “After more than two decades of farming in this province, I still continue to learn new things every season and implement new strategies for improvements and success.”
Anahita Mireslami, a doctoral student in the Transdisciplinary Sustainability Program at Grenfell Campus who is working with the Living Lab, says that early indications of the study suggest that cover cropping and optimized nutrient management could help reduce farmers’ reliance on synthetic fertilizers and lower their costs.
Cover crops not only provide soil cover to reduce erosion, improve soil health, suppress weeds, add nutrients such as nitrogen from legumes and enhance biodiversity, but they can improve soil structure and provide additional economic value as high-quality forages for the livestock and dairy industry, as well.
“Although it is too early to draw final conclusions, the Living Lab provides a valuable space to study both the economic risks and the long-term opportunities, such as improved soil health and resilience, that these practices may offer to farmers,” Ms. Mireslami said.
Other benefits are ensuring the data reflects actual production challenges, helps identify the most relevant sustainability questions and strengthens the credibility of results.
Dr. Charles Manful, Grenfell Campus’s project research co-ordinator for the Living Lab, says Grenfell’s involvement in the Living Lab is “critical” for linking academic research with practical, on-farm innovation.
“As a university campus with recognized expertise in agriculture, environmental science, and rural sustainability, Grenfell provides scientific rigor, experimental design expertise, advanced data analysis, and interdisciplinary perspectives that complement farmer knowledge,” he said.
As Ms. Mireslami says, by engaging with farmers directly on their fields, researchers are learning from local knowledge that is rooted in generations of experience with the land.
“This partnership builds a bridge between academic knowledge and farm-level decision-making, making research outcomes more impactful and practical. The collaboration ensures that Memorial’s research is tied closely to the community it serves.”
Bonavista’s Discovery Geopark and UNESCO status
The Chimney at Spillar’s Cove.
The glacial scrape at Trinity Bay North.
Devil’s Footprints at Keels.
And the 560-million-year-old fossils Mamsetia and Haootia, which constitute the oldest evidence of muscular tissue on record.
These are just some of the reasons 1,150 square kilometres, including 280 kilometres of coastline and landscapes, on Newfoundland’s Bonavista Peninsula was awarded UNESCO Global Geopark status. The geopark was named Discovery after the highway route that runs around the Bonavista Peninsula.
UNESCO Global Geoparks are single, unified geographical areas where sites and landscapes of international geological significance are managed with a holistic concept of protection, education, research and sustainable development.
The journey to the geopark’s designation began much earlier than 2020.
It started with a conversation in 2005 between the executive director of the William Coaker Foundation in Port Union and Memorial alumnus Edith Samson and provincial government geologist Sean O’Brien, who pointed out the presence of the Ediacaran period fossils along the town’s shoreline.
From there, with numerous individuals, communities and organizations pitching in their knowledge, energy and determination along the way, the region on Newfoundland’s north-east coast was named one of five geoparks in Canada.
In addition to local individuals and groups, the Bonavista Peninsula’s Discovery geopark was built with discoveries by, and with support from, researchers and students from Memorial’s Department of Earth Sciences in the Faculty of Science.
Shawna Prince, a resident of Trinity who operates Sea of Whales tours and the outgoing chair of Discovery’s board, says Memorial’s palaeontology group has and continues to support the geopark through advising on geo-heritage and geoconservation matters and offering public education and engagement sessions, particularly in relation to significant fossil discoveries.
“The work that is done here and published on, continues to bring international recognition to the very important fossils of this area including the newest discovery, Mamsetia, which Drs. Duncan McIlroy and Rod Taylor say is one of their most scientifically important discoveries,” said Ms. Prince.
Dr. McIlroy, a faculty member in the Department of Earth Sciences, has worked in the Discovery area since 2009, supported and guided the park’s development and served as an advisor since 2020.
In that time, he and his team have regularly helped catalogue and classify the palaeontological geosites at the geopark in terms of their vulnerability and geotourism potential and visited schools and youth groups for geoeducational support, just to name a few examples.
Recently, they helped Discovery meet one of its conservational goals by working with the College of the North Atlantic to use lidar mapping and photogrammetry to assess the vulnerability of some prominent palaeontological sites.
This was done by mapping in the fall and spring to see what changes happened over the winter that might negatively impact the sites. They also set Discovery up with a protocol that the geopark can use to continuously monitor the sites, along with advice on remediation strategies.
Dr. McIlroy and the team also helped onboard new geosites, expanding Discovery’s geotourism offerings, such as the aforementioned glacial scrape and the fossil site at Capelin Gulch in the town of Melrose.
“It’s a process that involves us determining significant sites of interest to the public and helping with the creation of information boards to help visitors understand some aspect of the geology, geomorphology or palaeontology of the site,” Dr. McIlroy said about the process.
This close collaboration between Memorial and the Discovery team is one of the main factors UNESCO points to when it comes to the strength of the geopark.
In fact, the United Nations’ agency recently re-evaluated its status, which Memorial graduate students Helena Muirhead-Hunt and Simon Rosse-Guillevic assisted with by guiding the assessors at the fossil sites.
“When the whales and birds migrate, the rocks are still here.”
On Sept. 7, at the International Conference on UNESCO Global Geoparks in Chile, Discovery was awarded its green card.
Ms. Prince says the designation, an internationally recognized brand, is “great” for tourism.
“The geology underpins everything else that we do here. When the whales and birds migrate, the rocks are still here.”
Labrador Campus, the Pye farm and accessible trail systems
A special project is underway at the Labrador Campus’s Pye Centre for Northern Boreal Food Systems in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
The first phase of a new accessible trail system, with the ultimate goal of routing the trail through the Pye farm’s entire 80 acres, is almost complete.
The first phase, encompassing 185 metres of hard-packed gravel surfaces, benches and interpretive signage, will allow visitors of various mobilities to more easily observe the animals, birds and biodiversity on offer at the farm.
“This important infrastructure allows staff, students and visitors an inviting path through the heart of the natural boreal forested areas that we’ve been blessed with here in Happy Valley-Goose Bay,” said Jamie Jackman, the program co-ordinator of community connections and education at the Pye Centre.
During the development phase of the project, Mr. Jackman and the other team members involved kept a special focus on Labrador’s senior population.
That’s due to the Pye Centre’s longstanding partnership with N.L. Health Services.
Throughout the summer months, the health authority’s long-term care residents visit the farm each week.
It’s a relationship that’s been in place since 2022, when Mr. Jackman approached the facility staff to bring residents to the farm to enjoy the numerous health benefits of getting into the outdoors and socializing together.
“So, because of the relationship that we’ve built with our friends at long-term care, we were inspired to construct the trail with them in mind, but for the benefit of all programming here at the Pye Centre, including our land-based programming,” Mr. Jackman said.
Up until this point, the senior visitors arrived at the farm’s gazebo that serves as a gathering space by bus — and that’s as far as they’d get.
Due to the sandy soil and tree stumps, the bus can only take them so far.
The new trail changes all that.
Jeffrey Anderson, a recreation development specialist with N.L. Health Services, says the compacted gravel trail is suitable for wheelchair users and individuals with limited mobility.
“They are able to venture much deeper onto the farm and see the gardens and plants that we often hear about from the staff during our conversations,” said Mr. Anderson. “Residents will be able to move themselves freely on the trail systems and not have to rely on staff or volunteers to push them around sandy areas or roots.”
There is a multicultural aspect of the trail, as well: the region’s rich Indigenous culture has been incorporated into the signs and interpretive elements.
Sophie Tuglavina of Makkovik, Nunatsiavut, and Alex Andrew, a resident of the Sheshatshiu First Nation, provided Inuttitut and Innu-aimun descriptors for the variety of flora and fauna that can be found along the way, such as wild berry patches and Labrador tea.
Mr. Anderson says getting outside gives a sense of belonging and allows visitors to come full circle, as many Labradorians spend many hours of their lives in the woods hunting, gardening, berry picking and trapping.
He says the trail system will provide a freedom that some of the long-term care residents may have forgotten about.
“Being able to move freely in the woods is an amazing opportunity for our residents. I believe that many of them will not realize how important this trail system is until they are actually on it and the feelings and memories of being in the woods or out in the garden come back to them.”
