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Since 1969 there's been a wild free ranging herd of wild plains bison on the southwest corner of Prince Albert National Park.
Parks Canada actually brought them from Elk Island.
Just a herd, a small herd of about 6 animals were dropped off. It was to create eventually a sustainable source of food for the people living in that area.
Starting the 80's and into the 90's the herd had grown to a point where it was coming out on farms and ranches quite a bit
and that was causing some conflict. When the bison come, I mean at one point we went onto a guy's field and we counted 385
and you know these are 1200 pound animals, so you know, it's a bit of a different impact from a wildlife perspective.
On the flip side, it's the only herd of its kind in Canada.
So you know it obviously has some relevance and some importance to the rest of society
and so there's an obligation to try and preserve and conserve that and help it to thrive.
It's in the parks best interest to see that population protected and it's also in their best interest to protect it as farmers and ranchers,
because it can bring tourism into their area.
So they, a group of them got together and tried to come up with a way
that they could work as a grass roots group working with the national park, working with the provincial government
and through the Model Forest, we were able to support them in creating this stewardship group
that looks after the bison and assists with the research that's done
and to come up with strategies for how to keep bison away from their own domestic bison and cattle,
tries to create paths to encourage the bison to go around their wheat field or their hay field and into another area.
We're releasing a long term management plan that was developed with Parks Canada and the provincial Government.
The unique thing about this though is that it was led by the ranchers.
With a lot of help from local aboriginal communities and then supported by the governments
and so essentially what's in the plan is, a lot of really good and aggressive conservation initiatives
but some also really good and aggressive tools to deal with conflict,
to really truly work on creating this environment where land owners and bison are co-existing in this mutually beneficial way.
We've definitely reduced financial loss through our project, we've definitely improved tolerance of local people
and then definitely brought a lot of international attention.
The real benefit, if there's one that stands out, is the ability to establish relationships with First Nations Communities.
Because the Model Forest is so adapt of having those relationships and maintaining those relationships,
and that's provided us with the connections we've needed to continue to foster those relationships and bring those people into our project as well.
So they've been really successful, but that whole seed of an idea started here with Model Forest support.
Again, the same network, it's just over and over again this Model Forest network has just shown so much value to me in my work
where I can just go to this table and draw the people I need to make a project work.
And you know, that's an invaluable asset that no matter what happens going forward,
that network that the Model Forest brings to the table is incredible.