Wood Buffalo National Park

Jennifer Landry Tremblay

The park was established in 1922 to protect the bison herd of the area. It now support and protect many cultural and natural resources from rare species to traditional activities of Aboriginal residents. Larger than the area of Switzerland it is the second largest national park in the worlds and the thirteenth largest protected area in the world.

At 44,807 km 2 , Wood Buffalo National Park is Canada's largest national park and one of the largest in the world. It became the eight site in canada to be granted the World Heritage status by UNESCO, in 1983, due to its rare and superlative natural phenomena like:one of the largest free-roaming, self-regulating bison herds in the world, the only remaining nesting ground of the endangered whooping crane, the biologically rich Peace-Athabasca Delta, extensive salt plains unique in Canada, and some of the finest examples of gypsum karst topography in North America. This status confirms the value of a cultural or natural site which deserve protection for the benefit of all humanity. The characteristics that led to its designation as World Heritage site are:

one of the largest free-roaming and self-regulating bison herds in the world
the last remaining natural nesting area for the endangered whooping crane
the Peace-Athabasca Delta, one of the largest inland freshwater deltas in the world
some of the finest examples of gypsum karst landforms in North America
unique salt plains
vast undisturbed expanses of boreal wilderness.

The international union for the conservation of nature (IUCN) recognized that Wood Buffalo protected 2 wetland areas important enough to be considered “ of international significance. Those areas are the Peace-Athabasca delta and the whooping crane nesting area. These were also designated as Ramsar site- a designation by the Ramsar Convention which focuses on identification and protection of critical habitat for migratory birds.

The Wood Buffalo National Park actually host 3 endangered species; the whooping crane the wood bison and the peregrine falcon. The park was established in 1922 to protect the worlds largest herd of free-roaming wood bison, currently estimated at around 10 000 animals. It is also one of the two nesting areas of the whooping crane, though their number was never considered abundant - 1500 in the 1800’s - it has dropped to an all time low of 21 birds in 1941. Whooping crane are considered as endangered by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) and Parks Canada is working on its recovery with national and international partners. The situation is the same for the peregrine falcon, though there are more, the COSEWIC still consider them as endangered and are working with park canada and other national and international partner for its recovery.

Each years the National Park attract canadian and international visitors who wish to experience and learn about the unique cultures, landscapes and wildlife of the boreal north. The park offers many activities for the visitors such as:

Hiking
Camping
Canoeing
Wildlife viewing
Fishing
Boating
Winter activities ( cross-country skiing, snowshoeing )
Viewing of aurora borealis and northern light

The park was designated as Canada’s newest and the world’s largest dark-sky preserve by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada in 2013. Parks Canada believe that this designation will help preserve nighttime ecology for the park’s large population of bats, night hawks and owls, and meanwhile create new opportunity for the visitors to experience northern lights.

Sources:

http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/nt/woodbuffalo/index.aspx

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_Buffalo_National_Park

Pictures

Aurora borealis :PARKS CANADA/JOHN D. MCKINNON