Transfer program adds to Manitoba First Nation’s bison population

The herd of bison that calls Chitek Lake Anishinaabe Provincial Park in Manitoba home just grew a little larger.

Last month, the herd welcomed 10 new bulls and cows to their territory, nestled between Lake Winnipegosis and Lake Winnipeg, more than 300 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.

They’d travelled 12 hours in a massive cattle trailer from Elk Island National Park in Alberta.

Wood bison (bagwaji-bizhikiwag), once on the brink of extinction, have seen their populations climb thanks to conservation efforts. And although historically the species wasn’t known to live in this herd’s area, the vast isolation of the park’s boreal forest, fields and lakes helps keep the animals safe from disease.

Skownan First Nation serves as steward of the free-ranging herd of nearly 200 bison, Rychelle Catcheway said.

“It’s a very proud and meaningful (and) fulfilling role to know that our bison were nearly extinct or on the endangered species list and now, to see their numbers come rise back up,” said Catcheway, who is Skownan’s operations director.

“This was years in the making.”

The First Nation submitted a request to the Elk Island bison transfer program several years ago with talks ramping up last fall, “to discuss how many animals they were able to give us… and to see if we had the capacity to take them in,” Catcheway said.

Moving wood bison, each of which can weigh up to 1,000 kilograms, is not an easy task.

It required many steps, starting with a memorandum of understanding between the First Nation and the program outlining responsibility for sorting, tagging, handling, loading and transporting the animals.

It also required helping the newest members of the herd integrate. As the transferred bison were unloaded in Manitoba, one of the cows refused to leave the trailer.

So Catcheway stepped in. She made eye contact with the scared animal through a hole in the trailer’s side. And then she told the bison that she’d arrived in her new home.

Finally, Catcheway’s spouse Paul Marion — who serves as their First Nation’s herd manager — lured the cow out with a bell and some hay.

The transfer wasn’t the first between the national park and Skownan. Elk Island sent several animals 40 years ago when the Manitoba program began.

At that time, the federal government had declared the large bovine species as officially endangered; by 1988, its status was downgraded to threatened.

Today, the species is still listed as of “special concern,” with between 5,000 and 7,000 mature animals spread among nine wild subpopulations.

Without many natural predators to hunt bison, their populations have been able to slowly bounce back, said David Bruinsma, a Parks Canada resource management officer at Elk Island.

There are two distinct herds —wood and plains bison — in the national park.

“There’s limited amount of grass and other forage in the park for them,” Bruinsma said.

“Every so often, we have to remove surplus bison from the park to prevent overgrazing… and then transfer them to conservation projects and Indigenous communities.”

Such transfers usually occur in winter, because it’s easier to lure the bison with feed when the ground is covered with snow. Additionally, the calves will have been weaned by that time.

Bruinsma said Parks Canada is trying to increase the number of bison it transfers to Indigenous communities, calling it a “small but tangible act of reconciliation” supporting ecological and cultural restoration of a species considered sacred to many First Nations in the region.

The 10 bison were introduced to add genetic diversity to the local breeding population, Catcheway said.

Their new provincial park home sits on the traditional lands of the Skownan Anishinaabe. In 2014, it became the first area the provincial government designated as a Traditional Indigenous Use Park.

The 1,000-square-kilometre protected area draws hunters, fishers and gatherers from local Indigenous communities and beyond.

The bison roam within a 50-square-kilometre enclosure of the park.

“Taking care of the land and conserving endangered species is our responsibility,” Skownan band councillor Nelson Nepinak said in a news release. “Our priority is herd health.”

The First Nation added that, as Indigenous people are increasingly recognized internationally as environmental stewards, the Skownan wood bison program demonstrates how nations are reclaiming their role as “caretakers of the land.”

— IndigiNews