Bringing Bison Back to Banff (Who Doesn’t Love Alliteration?)
November 9, 2009 · By Jonathan McLeod
I never thought this would be a top story in a major newspaper, but the first item on National Post’s website details Parks Canada’s plan to re-introduce bison to Banff National Park.
Parks Canada wants a home where buffalo can roam. They’ve got their eyes on scenic Banff, Alta., but the Alberta government is cool to the idea.
The recently released draft of the Banff National Park Management Plan calls for the reintroduction of a breeding herd of plains bison into the front ranges of the park.
Park officials say the idea essentially is to complete efforts to bring back large species native to the Banff region, which was home ground for massive herds of bison for thousands of years following the end of the last ice age.
The province of Alberta isn’t so bullish:
Dave Ealey, spokesman for Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, said the province is concerned bison would wander out of the national park.
“Bison, of course, would not end up confining themselves to a national park and that would create fairly significant management issues for us,” he said.
Mr. Ealey said reintroducing bison into Banff would have impacts on the province’s elk population, raise concerns for public safety and affect outdoor recreation.
I’m not exactly sure where to come down on this, so I thought I’d throw this out to the readers of ThePolitic; I know a lot of you are from Alberta. Personally, I’m inclined to think it’s a well intentioned but ultimately misguided idea… that will no doubt waste a lot of money.
Of course, if we’re not going to be wasting it on the gun registry any longer, we might as well waste it on Bison.
The problem, as I see it is confinement for protection of the cattle industry. buffalo are very susceptible to brucellosis which could be devasting to the cattle industry if an infected bison got into a cattle herd.
From the hunting standpoint – it would certainly open up an interesting opportunity to hunt buffalo in southern Alberta. Providing they even allowed hunting of the buffalo that wandered outside of the park area. There would be an economic benefit to this type of hunt – However, I doubt it would be enough to counter the management cost.
Bison in Banff is not a bad idea. Whether it is necessary is a different matter.
As for whether they will leave the park or not, you can build a paddock like is built for them in Waterton Lakes National Park. It is a massive enclosure with a WILD Buffalo herd enclosed in it. It keeps them from wandering outside the park. Something like this could be incorporated in Banff.
I would not be too concerned about the negative reaction on the elk population. In Elk Island National Park you have the highest concentration of ungulates (mostly elk and buffalo) in North America. They can co-exist.
The only other negative effect on the elk is that they may push more of them into town. Some say this is bad, but tourists love it. So it is probably a risk worth taking.
It is probably a good idea. I think it is worthwhile anytime that we have an opportunity to reintroduce a native animal into its native habitat.
Buffalo Roam – sure they were native to the Park area, but only seasonally. The same with the Natives and the elk. In the summer they would roam into the high country to get away from the heat and flys on the prairies but come winter they all roam back down out of deep-snow country to open grasslands. Now those open grasslands have been taken up by farms and ranches.
There is not enough grassland in one place in BNP to sustain a herd year round so they would have to be fed if fenced in, as they were for many years until the l970’s when that was given up as a bad job. It was more of a zoo for the tourists than a native-species habitat.
The elk still migrate but are a big problem to ranches along the foothills and other facilities that are on their migration paths. ie the Trans Canada Highway.
We fenced in the Natives but because we stopped their seasonal migrations for food we have to feed them.
They are a migrating animal so if we can’t accomodate the whole of the migration we had better leave things as they are.