Overview
Under Alberta’s Wildlife Regulation, wild wood bison are now designated and protected as Threatened in specified Wildlife Management Units (WMUs) in northern Alberta. Recovering these populations will:
- provide ecological benefits
- support food security for Indigenous communities
- provide additional hunting opportunities for Albertans in the future
This listing builds on significant actions already taken to support wood bison management and conservation by:
- collaborating with Indigenous communities and other Albertans to establish a managed harvesting regime for wood bison in northwest Alberta
- adding protections that prohibit non-Indigenous hunting on the Ronald Lake bison population
- establishing the Ronald Lake Bison Herd Cooperative Management Board and the Ronald Lake Bison Herd Technical Team
- delivering a population and disease monitoring program for all wood bison populations on provincially managed lands
To learn more about the Threatened designation for wild wood bison, please refer to:
Hunting in Bison Protected Areas (BPAs)
The regulation amendments maintain regulated hunting in specified portions of the Northwest Bison Protection Area (BPA), based on a bison special licence and allocation processes for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
A new Wabasca Bison Protection Area will provide this small population of bison with additional protection from all hunting (by both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people)—a necessary measure to avoid the near-term local extinction of this small population.
Contact
Connect with Species at Risk and Stewardship:
Hours: 8:15 am to 4:30 pm (open Monday to Friday, closed statutory holidays)
Phone: 780-427-5185
Toll free: 310-0000 before the phone number (in Alberta)
Email: [email protected]
Address:
6th Floor Forestry Building
9920 108 Street NW
Edmonton, Alberta T5K 2M4