Elk Island National Park

The fenced park that kept plains and wood bison alive, under a dark-sky preserve

A fenced island of aspen parkland 35 kilometres east of Edmonton, 194 square kilometres of it, and one of the reasons there are still bison. It took federal park status in 1913 and became the refuge that carried plains bison through the years when there were almost none, and later wood bison, of which perhaps 300 were left anywhere in the world at the end of the nineteenth century. Parks Canada has run about 400 pure-bred disease-free plains bison and 300 wood bison here, and the animals from this herd have gone out to restart herds elsewhere on the continent. It is the eighth smallest national park in the country and the largest one that is fenced all the way round. The Beaver Hills dark-sky preserve, declared at Astotin Lake on 3 September 2006, takes in the whole park, so this is also the darkest sky within an hour of a million people.