BANFF – The Bow Valley Naturalists plan to ring in the new year with a presentation updating the community on Parks Canada’s bison reintroduction project.
North America’s largest land mammal, bison were a keystone species on the landscape of the Rocky Mountains and the eastern slopes until they were almost entirely wiped out of existence in the 1800s.
In February 2017, Parks began a five-year pilot project to reintroduce plains bison into the wild in Banff National Park.
Sixteen head of bison were translocated from herd in Elk Island National Park near Edmonton to the Panther River Valley in Canada’s first national park.
They were held in an enclosed pasture for 16 months in an attempt to anchor them to their new home, the female bison calved twice and they were released into the wild in the summer of 2018.
Join the Bow Valley Naturalists next Tuesday (Jan. 22) at 7:30 p.m. at the Banff Seniors Centre for a behind-the-scenes look at the effort to restore bison to a landscape on which they have been missing for more than 140 years.
Project manager Karsten Heuer will provide insight and context to what has been the most exciting and challenging assignment in his 25 plus year career as a warden and biologist.
