Andrew Raven
Northern News Services

Fort Providence (Sep 23/05) - You can hear them ploughing through the forest. Branches snap and tumble to the ground. Leaves rustle against their woolly coats.

Suddenly, the mammoth head of a bison pokes through the foliage and sniffs the air. Within minutes, 25 of the shaggy beasts emerge from the treeline.

Surrounded by a cloud of blackflies, they saunter into Fort Providence where they will trample flower gardens, dent cars and feast on soccer fields.

"Bison are a persistent problem here," said Albert Lafferty, the senior administrative officer in Fort Providence and lifelong resident.

"Sometimes I wake up in the morning and see horns outside of my window."

For decades, residents have called on the territorial government to do something about the bison which roam through the 800-person hamlet.

Now some believe the problem is getting worse, with the animals coming into town more often and sticking around longer.

That creates headaches for home owners like Susan Christie, whose backyard has become a preferred feedlot.

"They are really a pain," she said. "They will knock down fences and walk right over gardens. Nothing seems to keep them away."

Inconveniences aside, some residents worry that with more bison around, the chances of a serious accident are higher.

While normally passive, the massive animals can be startled and stampede, Lafferty said.

"You could see them turning on children (some of whom throw rocks at the herds) or trampling an elder who is walking across the street."

"They do not belong in a town setting," he said.

Fort Providence sits just 80 kilometres from the heart of the Mackenzie Bison Sanctuary, which is home to about 2,000 animals - the largest disease-free herd in the North.

Inviting area

Troy Ellsworth, a wildlife technician with the territorial government, said Fort Providence is an inviting area for those animals.

The hamlet was built on land that is higher and drier than the surrounding countryside, which makes for lush grass.

Its open meadows give bison some relief from the clouds of insects that follow them through the forest. They can also escape predators like wolves, which tend to avoid populated areas.

"There is really no quick fix and no one solution to the problem," Ellsworth said.

When the animals were spotted on the grounds of the Fort Providence airport, officials built a fence around the landing strip. While that solution may have worked on a small area, fencing the entire community is probably not feasible, Ellsworth said.

"Fences are high maintenance and they also make the residents feel contained."

Ellsworth said the government was working closely with residents and local wildlife officials to find a solution to the problem, though he conceded bison will probably roam through Fort Providence for years to come.

"I'm not really sure you could dissuade them from coming in," he said.