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Spilling across Alberta’s northern border into the Northwest Territories, Wood Buffalo encompasses a large area of the subarctic plain. It is a huge national park, certainly the largest in Canada and one of the largest in the world. The park extends 176 miles at its greatest length and averages about 100 miles in width, taking in more than 17,000 square miles—an area five times that of Yellowstone.
Except for some small uplands, the terrain here seems more waterscape than landscape. Countless ponds and lakes dot the vast expanse, and serpentine rivers and streams crisscross it. The park is largely roadless: Only about 150 miles of roads connect Fort
Smith to Peace Point and to Pine Lake and other recreation areas. In winter, an ice road links Fort Smith and Fort Chipewyan, the sites of the park’s two offices. Motorized boats or canoes provide access in the delta area.
A closer look reveals attributes that gained Wood Buffalo UNESCO world heritage status. Most of the 1,700-squaremile Peace-Athabasca Delta, a complex drainage system of ponds, lakes, and rivers, lies within park boundaries. Four major North American fly ways converge here, and perhaps a million waterfowl touch down to rest and feed during migration. Here also is some of the most extensive karst topography in North America. As groundwater dissolves the underlying gypsum and limestone, the surface collapses into craterlike sinkholes. Some fill with water to form ponds; others shelter lush vegetation. Azure-tinted Pine Lake formed when water-filled sinkholes connected with each other. And there are eerie plains where saltwater springs and rivers well up from below, frosting the surface with thick layers of salt.
As Wood Buffalo’s name suggests, bison have an important place here. Even as the plains bison were nearly exterminated farther south, a small herd of wood bison—a larger, darker variety—survived in northern Alberta. By 1893 even that herd had dwindled to a few hundred animals. In order to preserve them, a reserve was established. The animals thrived, and by the time Wood Buffalo was established, in 1922, they numbered 1,500.
