Wood Buffalo National Park
Wood Buffalo National Park,
17,577 sq mi (45,525 sq km), in NE Alta., Canada, extending into the Northwest Territories; est. 1922 to protect the only remaining herd of wood bison. It lies between Lake Athabasca and Great Slave Lake and is crossed by the Peace River. A vast, unfenced region of forests, plains, and lakes, it is the largest game preserve in North America, containing bison, bear, beaver, caribou, moose, and varied waterfowl, including whooping cranes, which nest there. Neighboring provincial wildland parks in Alberta protect an additional contiguous 4,250 sq mi (11,000 sq km).Wood Buffalo National Park
Fort Smith, NT X0E0P0
Phone:867-872-7900
Fax:867-872-3910
Web: www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/nt/woodbuffalo
Size: 44,792 sq. km.
Established: 1922.
Location:Park straddles the Alberta-Northwest Territories border. It may be reached from two communities: Fort Smith (NWT) and Fort Chipewyan (Alberta). The park headquarters in Fort Smith has year-round road access via the MacKenzie Highway and NT Highway 5. There is no all-weather road access to Fort Chipewyan; access is by air only.
Facilities:Visitor centers (Fort Chipewyan and Fort Smith), hiking trails, frontcountry campground and group camp (Pine Lake, @di), backcountry campsites (Rainbow Lakes and Sweetgrass), interpretive exhibits (é), educational programs.
Activities:Camping, hiking, swimming, boating, canoeing, fishing, wildlife viewing, birdwatching, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing.
Special Features:Canada's largest national park was originally established to protect the last remaining herds of wood bison in northern Canada. Today it is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site that protects one of the largest free-roaming, self-regulating bison herds in the world and provides the last remaining natural nesting area for the endangered whooping crane. The Peace-Athabasca Delta is one of the largest inland freshwater deltas in the world and a major nesting and staging area for migratory waterfowl in North America. Migratory waterfowl from all four North American flyways pass through the delta in the spring and fall. Archeological evidence shows that aboriginal people have inhabited the Wood Buffalo region for more than 8,000 years.
See other parks in Northwest Territories.