Conservation of an urban jewel:
Assessing the impacts of human activities in Pippy Park, St. John's, NL
Located minutes from downtown St. John’s, Pippy Park is one of the largest urban parks in Canada. The land reserve consists of 3,400 acres of protected area as well as areas vital in nature conservation and public recreation (1).
Pippy Park was created with three main goals in mind;
1) Provide readily accessible recreation opportunities for the residents and visitors to St. John’s
2) Protect and conserve the natural ecosystems that reside within the park boundaries
3) Maintain a land bank for the development of institutions in a connected parkland setting (1).
Introduction to Pippy Park
Pippy Park encompasses an area and perimeter of approximately 12 km² and 28 km respectively. It is divided into three zones: institutional, semi-rural and natural (barren-lands).
The institutional zone include Memorial University of Newfoundland, and is very urbanized.
The Semi-Rural Parkland is similar to the institutional zone but is significantly more parkland than in the institutional zone.
The Barren-lands zone consists of completely natural park land.
Pippy Park offers many services, such as camping, skiing and golf. It also has many trails that are popular areas for hikers, geocachers and dog walkers.
Source: www.pippypark.com
Aerial photograph of Pippy Park. Click on the image for an enlarged view. Source: Pippy Park (2012)
Long Pond
Source: www.pippypark.com