Canada Upgrading Two Important Northwest Territory Parks

Wood Buffalo National Park is home to the world’s largest free-roaming herd of bison. Photo: Portal Canada

Parks Canada this week announced over $23 million will be invested in various projects at two important parks in the Northwest Territories, including a UNESCO Word Heritage Site.

This is part of the government’s $191 million investment in Parks Canada to improve tourism and highway assets in several of its national parks this year.

Approximately $22 million will be used to improve the existing gravel surface along the last 40-mile portion of Highway 5 that traverses Wood Buffalo National Park. The work on the all season-road traversing the park and connecting the communities of Fort Smith and Hay River, Northwest Territories will be completed spring 2018. Wood Buffalo National Park is the site of the last natural nesting habitat of the endangered whooping crane and is home to the world’s largest free-roaming herd of bison.

In addition, Parks Canada will spend $2.2 million upgrading the trail network and visitor services at Wood Buffalo National Park, and repairing the docks and boardwalks at Pingo Canadian Landmark, which is located just outside Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories.

Wood Buffalo National Park is one of only two of Parks Canada’s sites accessible by road in the North. It is Canada’s largest national park, protecting northern boreal plains. The park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.

The Pingo Canadian Landmark is the only site established under the Canadian Landmark program (1997). It protects a unique arctic landform: ice-cored hills called pingos. The Pingo Canadian Landmark protects 8 pingos, including Ibyuk, the world’s second tallest.