Acho Dene Koe/Fort Liard - While complaints keep coming in about bison in Fort Liard, some help could be on the way.

"Twenty-seven years of this has got to come to a stop," said John Gonet, who serves as airport manager in the community.

A herd of bison crowd around the road into Fort Liard near the offices of Environment and Natural Resources. - Adam Johnson/NNSL photo

Deh Cho Drum spoke to Gonet in August, shortly after he had been ticketed for shooting a problem bison in the community.

According to the wildlife act, a citizen is permitted to destroy an animal if that person, or that person's property, is threatened.

However, in this situation, the property wasn't his own - it was a bed and breakfast owned by Edwin Lindberg. Therefore Gonet received a $230 fine and was forced to give up the animal.

"$230 is peanuts," he said. That's nothing. I would pay ten times that, twenty times that, to keep the buffalo out of town."

Since that time, Gonet said bison problems have only become worse.

"The last week of September, we had about 30 buffalo come crashing through the fence at our airport here," said Gonet.

He said he believes the herd was stampeded by youth in town who were harassing them.

"I managed to get the buffalo out," he said. "They kind of made their own gate, so to speak.

"Fort Liard has had this problem now for 27 years, and I think it's an accident waiting to happen. "Let's start killing them and let's start right here in town."

Representatives at the department of Environmental and Natural resources (ENR) said some new plans are underway to help residents deal with the animals - who have been in town in higher-than-normal numbers due to high water levels in the Liard River.

Paul Kraft, superintendent of ENR for the Deh Cho region said at least two initiatives are in the pipe - electric fencing and new hunting legislation.

The fencing, based on designs used on elk in the U.S. and moose in the Maritimes, will be lightweight, movable braided white rope, with electrified wire braided into them.

"It will not encircle the town," Kraft said, but rather be set in entranceways the bison like to use to get in to Liard, to "change their movement."

"You don't want to design your system that might trap an animal on the wrong side of the fence," he said.

Kraft said the system has been used for domestic bison, and has been successful at keeping wildlife off roads in many jurisdictions.

"We don't believe it will be a total solution," he said. "But we may find out it helps."

ENR also plans to propose changes to hunting legislation when it comes to bison in Liard, stemming from community concerns. At present, the community has a quota of one male bison per year.

"We're coming up with a proposal to increase that quota," while looking at amending the duration of hunts, he said.

In a previous interview, Kraft said he said he wanted to discourage people from taking matters into their own hands and killing bison that wander into their own property, or the property of others - as an injured bison could be a danger.

These ENR plans lined up somewhat with Gonet's concerns.

"These buffalo are smart," he said. "They associate people with food and protection.

"They need to associate people with pain."