As Banff herd grows, Alberta still won’t classify bison as wildlife

Advocates are calling for the province to classify free-roaming plains bison as wildlife as their population grows.

In 2017, Parks Canada reintroduced 16 plains bison to the backcountry in Banff National Park following their near-extinction from North America.

The herd has grown to 150 bison ahead of this year’s calving season.

“They’re a keystone species and their role has been absent here for nearly 150 years,” said Dillon Watt, Parks Canada’s bison reintroduction project manager. “[It’s] also important culturally; restoring those cultural connections is a big part of the approach to this project.”

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The bison are free-roaming on the eastern slopes in the park.

The pilot project from Parks Canada, which included public consultation, concluded in 2022.

“The reintroduction, so far, has been a success,” Watt said. “What we heard was a desire to keep bison on the landscape here in Banff.”

Watt says the bison are “finding everything they need year-round.”

Controversy over classification of free-ranging bison in Alberta

The bison herd inside Banff National Park is classified as wildlife under the Alberta Wildlife Act, but outside of it, free-ranging bison are classified as livestock.

It’s something wildlife and Indigenous groups have called on the provincial government to change for some time.

“They are native species. There are keystone species for most of the grasslands and they’re really, really important in a lot of Indigenous cultures,” said Ruiping Luo, a conservation specialist with the Alberta Wilderness Association.

“They are an animal that’s associated with North America. We think that they should be considered wildlife.”

The wildlife classification protects them from being killed.

“If we could get bison as wildlife, that opens up different options and different opportunities for how we protect them, for how we manage them,” Luo said.

The province has no plans to change the designation, according to a statement sent to CTV News.

“Environment and Protected Areas is not considering changes to the designation of plains bison. Plains bison are not free-ranging in Alberta,” said the office for the minister of Environment and Protected Areas.

Bison are closely connected with Indigenous culture.

The International Buffalo Relations Institute, an Indigenous-led organization, would like the province to consider designating a portion of the land to the animals for wildlife classification.

“We have a long story and history of interwoven relationship with the plains bison,” said Marie-Eve Marchand from the International Buffalo Relations Institute. “For a lot of people, it’s something of the past. For many of the Indigenous community, it is something of the future and how we work together.”

Marchand suggests designating west of Highway 22 from Drayton Valley down to Lundbreck, and allowing bison to roam near the U.S. border in the Waterton National Park and Milk River area over to the boundary with Saskatchewan.

“It would be totally doable to have a wildlife-friendly area that roams from the north to the south,” Marchand said. “The bison in Banff could get into the best winter habitat around Ya Ha Tinda, where we have huge potential of reconciliation trading landscapes.”