Yellowknife (July 25/03) - In 2002 there were 14 vehicle-on-bison collisions across the NWT -- and all of them took place on Highway 3.

These NWT Department of Transportation statistics are prompting officials to try and keep the bison, who come from the Mackenzie Bison Sanctuary, away from the highway.

Ed Savage, a truck driver who's been driving on Highway 3 for around 12 years said he's surprised the government hasn't done anything about the bison on the highway in the past.

"I think they are a real hazard," said Savage.

Savage said in his years on the highway he's been in at least two accidents with bison, resulting in extensive damage to his truck.

Savage said he thinks the bison problem is getting worse.

"Before they were only around Providence in the bison sanctuary, but now they're getting worse and moving closer to Yellowknife," he said.

Savage said he thinks the bison are attracted to the highway because of the salt placed on the road in the winter. He also said the calves who grow up near the highway aren't afraid of traffic.

Art Barnes, Hay River regional superintendent for the South Slave region office of the Department of Transportation, said he hoped to have some kind of remedy by this fall, but when he began looking into the situation he discovered there was much work to be done.

"The more we talked about it, the more we realized what we were up against," said Barnes.

Several environmental professionals from the NWT Department of Transportation have joined with Resources Wildlife and Economic Development (RWED) ecologists to explore the options available.

The options

So far, two ideas are currently being researched and discussed, but will not be acted upon until next year.

Option one is for John Niche, a bison ecologist with RWED from Fort Smith, to find a way to modify the bison behaviour, either through creating a place the bison would prefer to frequent or perhaps using scare tactics to make the bison fearful of the highway.

"The bison get desensitized to the traffic very quickly and are not afraid of the vehicles," said Michael Brown, manager of environmental affairs in the transportation planning and policy division for the NWT Department of Transportation.

Although John Niche was unavailable for comment, according to Troy Ellsworth, an RWED wildlife technician from Fort Smith, one of the scare tactics being considered is to shoot the bison with plastic bullets, something which he said has been used to scare away bears. But Ellsworth said this is one of many alternatives.

Option two is for the Department of Transportation and RWED to try and change the vegetation surrounding the highway to a type of plant that will not attract bison.

"We believe the current vegetation could be a contributing factor of why they want to be on the highway," said Barnes.

Ellsworth said RWED is currently taking inventory around areas where bison strikes have occurred.

"We're trying to determine what the vegetation is and what is attracting the bison to these areas," Ellsworth said.

Other alternatives are being researched. Public consultations across communities on Highway 3 will be held this fall to find more ideas.

"In the end it may have to be a combination of options," said Ellsworth. "It's definitely going to be an intensive project."

How did the bison get there?

According to the RWED Web site, the Mackenzie bison represent the first successful transplant of healthy wood bison.

In 1963, several wood bison were captured from Needle Lake in Wood Buffalo National Park, Alta. After testing for diseases, 18 bison were transported to an unoccupied area near Fort Providence, which is now known as the Mackenzie Bison Sanctuary.

The bison have since grown to become the largest wild herd of free-roaming wood bison in the world.

The bison are free of the cattle diseases plaguing herds in Slave River Lowlands and Wood Buffalo National Park.

Although the Canadian status of wood bison is threatened and they are classified as one of Canada's species at risk, 1994 statistics show the Mackenzie herd have reached a population of over 2,000 bison.