This series highlights Canada's stunning parks and sites that protect the environment and showcases the various historic aspects of our country. Parks Canada protects and administers 37 national parks, 10 national park reserves, 171 (out of 1004) national historic sites, 5 national marine conservation areas, and one national urban park (as of 2023).
Prince Albert NP (Saskatchewan) showcases the amazing ecological diversity found in the transition between prairie fescue grasslands and the lakes and wetlands of the mixed wood boreal forest. Indigenous peoples have lived here long before the park was established. The Woods Cree, Plains Cree, Dakota, Dene and Métis communities accessed the forest for fuel and shelter in winter, the rivers and lakes for fish, and the prairies for bison and other large animals for hunts in the fall. The mid-1800s saw dramatic changes to life in this region. Bison and other game were in decline, diseases like smallpox decimated communities, and the West was purchased and annexed by Canada from the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1870. Many settlers from eastern Canada, United States, and Europe flooded onto the prairies. The Mistawasis Nêhiyawak and Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation signed onto Treaty 6 in 1876 with many other nations across what is now Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 1889 an adhesion to Treaty 6 was signed by the Lac La Ronge Indian Band and Montreal Lake Cree Nation. The spirit of Treaty 6 remains unfulfilled. The trees and lakes of the region were also a growing draw for private businesses in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In 1927 Prince Albert NP was established as a natural recreation area which began the sharp decline of commercial resource extraction in favour of early conservation measures.
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