Parks Canada received more than 1,000 comments on its plan to reintroduce plains bison to Banff National Park.
The public comment period on the draft Plan for Reintroduction of Plains Bison in Banff National Park ended Nov. 1 and Mark Merchant, partnership and community engagement officer for the Banff Field Unit, said the number of responses shows the public is passionate about national parks.
“We’re really happy that so many Canadians chose to participate in the consultation process on the project, it is really encouraging that people are showing such passion on the park,” Merchant said.
“It shows you that people still care about national parks. When we decide to ask people’s opinion on an important project, a large project, they’re ready to participate. We’re definitely connecting with people and they think parks are important and they definitely wanted to let us know their opinion of how they want to see their parks move forward.”
Parks staff have begun reviewing the comments and, once that process is complete, will compile a synopsis indicating key concerns or points and how the final five-year pilot project plan will address those concerns.
Parks Canada is proposing to re-introduce disease-free, genetically pure plains bison to a remote corner of Banff National Park along its eastern boundary in the Panther/Dormer river systems.
Former Environment Minister Peter Kent, the minister responsible for Parks Canada, announced the start of the public consultation process in January 2012, building on a commitment in the 2010 Banff National Park Management Plan to re-introduce a breeding population of bison to the park.
“Bison has been on people’s radar since the minister announced it in 2012,” Merchant said. “So we know people are thinking about it. The initial round of consultations we did with key stakeholders were quite important. People definitely expressed their opinions there. We thought we’d have a handful of stakeholders (that) would be interested and we ended up having 23 that we talked to. We’re really, really pleased with the number of people that chose to participate in the consultation process.”
Parks will refine the re-introduction plan once the comments from the public consultation process have been reviewed.
The project will require an environmental impact assessment, Merchant said.
