Wood Buffalo National Park– An ecological treasure
Something to Cherish and Preserve Forever
A national park is not a “sea of stems” to be logged and pulped by industry. It is a complex web of intertwined naturally run ecosystems that must be preserved – not only for our children and our children’s children to cherish and enjoy but also for wild animals to live for generation upon generation – forever.
Chronology
1922 - Wood Buffalo National Park is established to protect a herd of 500 wood bison. Encompassing an area larger than Switzerland, it is largest park in the world at the time.
1925-8 - Over 6,000 plains bison are transferred to Wood Buffalo Park from Wainwright Alberta. Scientists warn Ottawa of the threat of introducing brucellosis, which was introduced to Wainwright herd through cross-breeding experiments with domestic cattle.
1934 - Buffalo population in Park estimated to have increased to 11,000 animals. Interbreeding of two herds noted.
Whooping Crane
1951 - First logging rights-a "timber berth" -granted in park to U.S. Army. Wood used for building barracks in Fort Smith.
1959 - To reduce herd size, park officials approve first buffalo hunt inside the park.
1962 - Last and largest of five timber berths granted by the federal government. Swanson Lumber Company, the recipient, is the first company to make an economic success of logging in Wood Buffalo Park.
1963 - BC completes massive Bennett Dam which reduces spring run-off of the Peace River into the Park's Peace-Athabasca delta. Consequently, delta begins to dry up and prime buffalo grazing habitat shrinks.
1971 - Edmonton Journal, in an editorial, is among the first to condemn logging in the park.
1972 - Government committee appointed to assess impact of Bennett Dam on park. Over next few years some weirs are constructed on the Peace in an attempt to restore water flows to the delta.
1981-2 - Federal Government renews timber berths in the park. This allows clearcutting to continue to the year 2002 with no replanting required. Soon afterwards, Swanson sells logging rights to CanFor.
"It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that logging is an activity that has no place in a national park!"
- Louis Landry, Advisor to the Federal Minster of the Environment
1983 - United Nations declares Wood Buffalo National Park a World Heritage Site.
1990 - Agriculture Canada tables plan to slaughter nearly all of the Buffalo in the park to get rid of bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis and replace them with disease-free bison.
- Federal Environment Minister Robert de Cotret says government wants to buy out the logging rights in the park.
- Daishowa, a Japanese owned multinational, purchases CanFor's Alberta operations, increasing the rate of logging and initiating massive clearcutting in the park.
1991 - Report by the Canadian Environmental Council tabled in the House of Commons states that "Areas within the park (Wood Buffalo) have been systematically violated by logging activities and the park is now one of our most threatened protected areas."
"We may well be the most endangered protected area in Canada."
–Doug Stewart, Wood Buffalo National Park Superintendent
1992 - Alberta provincial government tells federal government that all the forests in Alberta are already committed to industry and that it has no forests available to trade for the logging leases in the Park. The Federal Minister of Environment says that the federal government has no money available to buy out the timber leases! Logging continues despite growing national and international pressure to halt it.
