Wood Bison Regulation

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

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.

• Map - Northwest Bison Protection Area

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.

• Map - Wabasca Bison Protection Area

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