Bison at Wood Buffalo National Park, Canada, where outside events are impacting the park and the quality of its ecosystems/John McKinnon

Size alone cannot be expected to buffer national parks and protected areas from human impacts. That's evident at Canada's Wood Buffalo National Park, a 17,275-square-mile preserve threatened by energy development, hydropower projects, agricultural practices, and municipal expansion. 

Renowned for being home to the world's largest free-roaming herd of wood buffalo, the national park also is a rich preserve for other year-round and migratory birds and animals. But the decline of the natural ecosystem in recent years prompted the Mikisew Cree First Nation in 2014 to petition the United Nations Education Scientific Cultural Organization to declare Wood Buffalo a "World Heritage Site in Danger."

Though remotely located in northeastern Alberta and southern Northwest Territories and larger in combined area than the Netherlands, Wood Buffalo, a World Heritage Site since 1983, nevertheless is at risk from encroaching industrial development, coupled with inadequate management by Parks Canada, a UNESCO report issued in March 2017 said.

"The proposed Teck Frontier (oil sands) project would place the oil sands development ever closer to the southern boundary of WBNP and thereby the threats and risks originating from leaks and spills from tailings ponds; additional water withdrawal; and atmospheric deposition of particles containing contaminants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), nitrogen oxides, and sulphate," the report noted. "The proposed Teck Frontier project would also result in direct encroachment into the documented habitat of the disease-free Ronald Lake Wood Bison Herd, which is of major conservation importance."

Other risks to the park are tied to the pulp and paper industry in the area, historic uranium mining near the shores of Lake Athabasca, growth of agriculture in the region, "and the increasingly intense resource development in the upper Peace River watershed. All of the aforementioned stressors should be fully considered as part of the strategic environmental assessment (SEA) for WBNP and include changes both inside and outside the property that are deemed potentially important with respect to its Ecological Integrity under the overall lens of climate change," the report stated.

In response to that report, Parks Canada launched a Strategic Environmental Assessment of Wood Buffalo National Park, a thick document released earlier this month that outlined many of the threats standing on the park's doorstep.

The consultants who prepared the report in conjunction with Parks Canada and local indigenous groups noted that water diversions and climate change are reducing flows into the Peace-Athabasca Delta, perhaps the world's largest boreal delta system. Oil sands development is contaminating the delta with heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, they added, while hydroelectric projects and climate variability are adversely affecting flows in the Peace River. At the same time, water diversions and climate variability are reducing Athabasca River flows.

Too, fewer ice jams on the Peace River are reducing the number of naturally occurring flood events that send water into "perch basins" and lakes along the river corridor. The lack of water in these areas jeopardizes birds that used to rely on them.

"…in fall time, there will be two weeks straight of snow geese coming over delta. But they aren’t landing any more," the Mikisew Cree noted. "The reason why they don’t land in delta is the lack of water and also the lack of vegetation. Goose grass is what is missing in this delta. Goose grass is water dependent. The bison, ducks and geese feed on the seeds in the stems. They come to the perch basins for goose grass… Now they don’t because of the lack of food which is because of lack of water.” 

The consultants agreed.

"Changes in hydrological regime have also decreased the quantity and quality of habitat for waterfowl. As a result, the ability of Indigenous groups, peoples and communities to practice their traditional way of life is being negatively impacted, and desired outcomes for the world heritage values are not being met," the report said.

That lack of water also is prompting a change in vegetation on the landscape, and altering prey-predator relationships by, in some cases, making it easier for wolves to chase down prey in dry areas, the report stated. Cultural impacts can be seen in the reduction or complete loss of the opportunity to gather traditional foods, such as bird eggs or moose, it added.

The resulting tenuous tie to cultural affiliation with the landscape was cited by one Cree elder:

"I may be alive, but if I can’t practice my culture, if I can’t enjoy being a Cree, what am I? If I can’t enjoy being a Cree out on the land, what am I? And like I said, when we were born, when we were raised out there [in the Delta], it was the most happiest times. Those times, those feelings…never leave you," they said. "So how could I be somebody else different when that’s who I am? That’s my connection there. I never, ever knew I’d be talking like this. Seriously, never. To fight for who you are in this day and age. Never thought that…We’re not asking them to change the whole Wood Buffalo National Park. We’re not asking them to change the whole Alberta. We’re asking them to make sure that you keep our Delta clean the way it used to be…It’s not like we’re asking for the end of the world…It’s just maintaining our way of life, that’s all."

Don Gorber, an outside environmental consultant who oversaw the report's compilation, last week expressed guarded optimism that corrective actions could improve the health of the park.

“It’s like anything else, it takes time, things get resolved. But nature is always out there, so you can solve one problem and other ones could pop up," he said during a call from the Toronto office of Independent Environmental Consultants. "But I think the opprotnity is there now for people to work together and try to make it better. Making it better, are we going to solve all of the problems? That’s beyond me to know or not. We can certainly make it better.”

Armed with the report, Parks Canada is working on a response to the UNESCO report that will outline the country's strategy for correcting the problems that confront Wood Buffalo National Park. That response is expected late this year, said Gorber.

Correcting or mitigating the threats to Wood Buffalo National Park will not be an easy task, the report noted, but its authors recommended that Canadian authorities move quickly before it's too late. Among the recommended strategies included in the report were:

* Provide "major water releases" from the Bennett hydroelectric dam on the Peace River in British Columbia to facilitate downstream ice-jam events that would flood the delta's perch basins;

* Consider manual options for building ice dams or to raise water levels in the delta;

* Develop more precise climate change model projections for the Athabasca and Peace river basins;

* Develop a hydrologic and hydraulic model of the watershed for the Peace, Athabasca, Lake Athabasca and the delta system that could be used to understand the cumulative impacts of upstream developments and activities and assess restoration options;

* Protect whooping crane habitat in the park;

* Protect wood bison habitat for herds that migrate outside the park;

* Analyze bison population data in light of the end of wolf control to better understand the population’s natural range of variability;

* Consider implementing a water quality improvement plan for each watershed draining into the delta using "inspiration" from similar plans from other places with sensitive receiving waters from multiple drainages;"

* When possible, include monitoring and research on karst and salt plains in the park in other research and monitoring programs;

* Gain better understanding of bird breeding needs in the delta "and to better understand the relationship between breeding waterfowl population trends in the PAD and elsewhere in North America;"

* Learn more about waterfowl migration around the park;

* Expand and improve water monitoring to detect contaminants related to oil sands development;

* Develop a life-cycle assessment for major pollutants, such as mercury, and identify global sources where possible, and;

* Study naturally occurring pollutants eminating from bitumen deposits through which the Athabasca River and its tributaries pass.

Working on identifying solutions are representatives from industries in the region, said Gorber.

“You’ve got one river that is somewhat impacted by hydroelectric. You’ve got another river that’s somewhat affected by the oil and gas industry, and then you have also forestry and some agriculture," he said. "So there are many (industries) that have impacts. And this action plan does involve both the federal government, the provincial government, various agencies, and some of the industries are on these committees that are doing this research and this work.”