Where the Scientists Roam: Ecology, Management and Bison in Northern Canada

• Published in: Journal of Canadian Studies
• Main Author: Sandlos, John
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) 2002
• Subjects: Wood Buffalo; Wood Buffalo National Park
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/jcs.37.2.93; https://utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/jcs.37.2.93

This essay explores the historical role that scientists have played in the debates over bison management in Wood Buffalo National Park. It questions the philosophical assumption that science is inherently tied to the control and management of nature by state and economic actors. The paper closely examines four distinct periods in the history of wildlife science in the park to argue that zoologists, ecologists and veterinarians have played diverse and contradictory roles in the debates over northern bison management. Though the historical record reveals many examples of scientists who accepted an intensive managerial approach to bison conservation, many other wildlife scientists working in Wood Buffalo National Park have, in fact, resisted the utilitarian and productionist emphasis that has been promoted by administrators working within the Canadian government. The paper concludes that the practice of wildlife ecology in Wood Buffalo Park has been a diverse and heterogeneous endeavour reflecting different disciplinary, institutional and ideological divisions within the field,