The moose exclosure

No, that title isn't a typo. Newfoundland is known for having lots of moose.  (Not mooses, and not meese or meece, but that's an aside for grammar pedants.) Several breeding pairs were brought to the island in the early 1900's. There were no natural predators and more bogs than they could shake an antler at, so they got busy producing more moose. It is said there are about 110,000 moose on the island, though I don't know how they know that. Moose meat is one of the staples of Newfoundland diet. Moose burgers are tasty.

The problem is that they disrupt the natural forest regeneration after a fire by eating the young trees. And since they don't grow back, the entire ecosystem changes. Part of the solution is to build a fence to keep the moose out while the forest grows back. I'm pretty sure you had never thought about what sort of a fence is needed to keep a hungry moose from a food source. 

But when I saw a sign for the moose exclosure on the (long) trail to Baker Brook Falls, I had to detour off and get proof for my readers. I knew they would want that. There is a loop of the trail that goes through the exclosure so people can compare, but that added to the distance, so I didn't. The exclosure fences off a hectare, or an approximate square 100 m on a side.

And since you ask, we did not see a live moose, nor any evidence of one, anywhere in Newfoundland. Just birds, fish, and parts of a few whales.

1. What you first see.

2. A couple hundred m off the main trail you come to this.

3. The fence disappears into the forest. I couldn't help but think how hard it must have been to build.

4. Linda for scale. I'm guessing the fence is11 feet high.

5. Some scenery on the way to the falls.

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8. A first view of the upper falls.

9. Several views of the main falls.

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12. There was a bit of a scramble to get to the beach for this composition. I'm trying to figure out the light and exposure, and fine tune the framing and focus. As far as I knew, Linda was the only other person around, having a snack on the viewing platform. I'm all ready to press the shutter button when a woman walks into the frame and moons me as she unties her shoes to wade in the water. Grrr. If she had kept moving I wouldn't have minded because then she'd disappear from the image, but no. She just stood there. Her husband figured it out and asked her to move so I could get the photo.

13.

It's a lovely set of falls, and I'm pretty sure there's a really nice composition if one was willing to wade into cold water on slippery looking rocks. However, it's at the end of a 5K hike. Much of it is easy, but the last K is difficult, and quite boggy. The walk back turned into a bit of a trudge because the sun came out and it got really hot.

Of the Day

Driftwood (NZ)

Driftwood (NL)

Yukon

Water texture in Miles Canyon.

Film (new)

The kayaker completely disappears from a long exposure.

Linda and a really interesting rock.

Newfoundland

One of the misty morning photos from the deck of the Chance Cove house.