Debolt, Alta. — One of the most successful wild game transplants in North America was brought about by a combination of bureaucracy and bad fences, said an early bison rancher.
Today, there are more than 2,000 bison roaming wild in northern British Columbia. That stock originated from a herd of 52 animals bought from Elk Island National Park near Edmonton 28 years ago by Lynn Ross.
Ross, a northern British Columbia guide based in Pink Mountain, bought the bison in 1972.
But when he got them back to his ranch, the animals smashed through the log corrals and pole gates that Ross used to contain his pack horses.
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“There was nothing they wouldn’t go through. They just mowed it down,” said Ross, who spent days rounding up his bison. He got all but 14 yearlings back. Over the next two years, more animals escaped into the nearby hills until his entire herd was gone.
“I learned my horse corrals weren’t very good,” said Ross, while on a break during Bison Trek 2000, a wagon ride held in late July through Canada’s largest buffalo ranch in northern Alberta.
At the time, Ross was busy guiding hunters and never thought much about the buffalo roaming the hills, but still considered the animals his.
Ross, who now lives in Westerose, Alta., with his wife, Sharon, said he thought he should pay grazing fees to the British Columbia government, but neither forestry nor fish and wildlife officials would take his money. A dispute began over who owned the buffalo.
Eventually, Ross shot a buffalo, threw it in the back of a truck and parked in downtown Fort St. John. The next morning, with local media looking on, he was charged with illegal possession of wild game.
In court a judge decided the buffalo belonged to Ross, not the government. The government then declared bison wild animals and the fight continued.
Ross eventually sold the animals to Ross Adam of Debolt, Alta., who is now the largest bison rancher in Canada.
“The fact that Ross Adam managed to capture them is a feat. They were running around like wild animals,” said Ross.
Adam caught about 150 bison, a small portion of the number roaming the hills.
“It turned out to be one of the most successful transplants of game ever,” said Ross.
