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History

Cypress Hills History

Date Event
May 2008 The Environmental Impact Statement for Naturener’s Wild Rose 1 Project is approved. A public open house is planned for 2009. The plan includes 82 turbines, each 80 m tall with 38-m blades. Since the leased land base for the original West WindEau wind farm proposal has not changed, AWA has the same concerns as with the original application. Because the Cypress Hills are an ecological island in the midst of an ocean of grassland, the species that live here are particularly vulnerable, and a protected buffer zone is critical to their continued protection.
September 23, 2007 Naturener Energy Canada Inc. purchases 100 percent of the shares of Alberta-based West WindEau Inc., the original proponent for the Wild Rose Wind Farm proposal. Naturener subsequently withdraws the project application because the turbines will be louder than the manufacturer had originally stated, and then re-applies, using the same documentation as for the previous application.
August 2007 The West WindEau Wild Rose Wind Farm proposal in the Cypress Hills Provincial Park Fringe Area is being assessed by Natural Resources Canada. AWA issues an action alert, urging people to express their opposition to this proposal, which will damage rare and sensitive native prairie lands.
July 19, 2008 A visitor centre is opened in Cypress Hills Provincial Park.
May 2006 AWA attends an open house regarding West WindEau’s wind farm proposal. The event adds little information to those following the company’s plans.
February 2005 AWA becomes aware of a wind farm proposal next to Cypress Hills Provincial Park on environmentally sensitive native prairie. Ontario-based West WindEau Corporation is planning to cover a township (almost 100 km2) of largely native prairie with their project. AWA opposes private interests benefitting from the destruction of these environmentally sensitive and valuable public lands.
June 7, 2005 Cypress County passes an amendment to its Municipal Development Plan and Land Use Bylaw allowing wind energy facilities in the Cypress Hills Provincial Park Fringe Area.
2004 Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park is designated a Dark-Sky Preserve.
September 2003 The Cypress Hills Elk Management Plan process is initiated to address the issue of elk depredation on agricultural lands outside the park.
2003 Cypress County releases the Cypress Hills Fringe Area Structure Plan for the area surrounding Cypress Hills Provincial Park, recognizing the Cypress Hills as a “special and unique place.” The 278-km2 Fringe Area is to be maintained as a buffer zone to preserve high-value native rangeland.
1996 A revised management plan is released. In a letter to Cliff Thesen, District Manager of Cypress Hills Provincial Park, AWA expresses concern in regards to logging, grazing, road access, and other issues not addressed in the management plan. AWA emphasizes the necessity that no interventionist measures be taken with respect to natural environments and wildlife populations until the ecosystem-based management plan can rationalize why intervention is necessary. AWA believes that most of the roads on the plateau should be closed, grazing should be prohibited in sensitive environments, and logging should not be undertaken.
1995 The Government of Alberta begins public consultation for an updated park management plan.
1993 A community-based (non-government) Cypress Hills Advisory Association is formed to work toward consensus on issues involving management of the greater Cypress Hills ecosystem.
1991 In a report entitled “Recommendations Related to a Comprehensive Forest Management Plan for Cypress Hills Provincial Park, Alberta,” consultants recommend that the clear-cutting occurring in the park be discontinued because it is not meeting the park plan’s stated objectives. AWA writes a letter to Dr. Steve West, Minister of Recreation and Parks asking him to assure AWA that no timber harvesting permits will be renewed until the management of the Cypress Hills has been given the benefit of a public review.
August 25, 1989 The governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan signed an agreement committing themselves to cooperation on ecosystem management, education and park promotion. Thus the Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park becomes Canada’s first interprovincial park.
1987 Under the guise of forest management, a small-scale commercial logging operation in Cypress Hills is approved without any opportunity for public input. AWA suggests that prescribed burns are a better forest management technique and should be considered.
1985 All proposals requested by the Alberta government for parties interested in developing a ski hill and related recreational activities are refused.
1984 An Alberta Fish and Wildlife position paper states that elk depredation is not a problem; Fish and Wildlife feel its elk management strategies are working.
1981-2004 Twenty-one formal complaints are registered in Cypress Hills for elk depredation on and damage to agricultural operations.
1981 The Cypress Hills Provincial Park Master Plan is released. The comprehensive plan guides all aspects of park management and brings in policies of allowing hunting and grazing as management tools to maintain range health and control problem wildlife populations.
1976 Elk hunting season becomes established in the park. The portion of the Cypress Hills known as the West Block in Saskatchewan becomes a provincial park.
1970 Premier Harry E. Strom allows the drilling of a natural gas well inside the boundaries of the Cypress Hills Provincial Park.
1968 The manager of Cypress Hills Provincial Park states that elk should not have to compete directly with cattle.
1967 The Cypress Hills Visitor Centre is built. Commercial lumbering operations are terminated. Domestic grazing is allowed to continue. The director of Alberta’s Fish and Wildlife Division argues that there is extreme competition between elk and cattle in the park and that the park should be for wildlife.
Late 1960s Fort Walsh National Historic Park is established.
1955-1956 Red squirrels and moose are introduced to the park.
1954 The park is expanded and facilities developed.
1951 The Cypress Hills Provincial Park is established in Alberta, encompassing the portion of land known as the Elkwater Block. A warden and an assistant warden are appointed to manage it.
1947 Administration of the townsite on the shore of Elkwater Lake is transferred to the Provincial Parks Board. Elkwater Provincial Park is established.
Early 1940s Cobbles are mined from the Cypress Hills for the war effort. There are reports of hay damage by Elk in the West Block (Saskatchewan side), and by the 1950s, Alberta ranchers are seeking compensation and an open season on elk.
1938 A number of pieces of land are removed from the park to help administer lumber and grazing activities. Other pieces of land are added to the park as a fire boundary area.
1937 At the request of some Saskatchewan ranchers around the Cypress Hills, the government imports elk from Wainwright Park. The elk spread quickly to the Alberta side.
1930 Control of natural resources is transferred to Alberta and Saskatchewan, putting an end to almost 30 years of federal administration of the Cypress Hills public reserves.
1930 -1951 The Elkwater Block is administered by the Forestry Administration of the Department of Lands and Mines (later renamed the Department of Lands and Forests).
1930s Development occurs in a subdivision on the shores of Elkwater Lake.
1929 The land beside the south shore of Elkwater Lake is designated Elkwater Provincial Park.
1921-1922 Eleven permits are issued to hunt wolves in the Forest Reserve. Three wolves are killed a short distance from the west end of the Forest Reserve.
1920s The Elkwater Block becomes a popular picnicking and camping area.
1911-1930 The Cypress Hills constitute a Dominion Forest under the authority of the Canadian Department of the Interior.
1911 The Forest Reserves and Park Act expands the Dominion Forest from 47 to 492 km2, of which 207 km2 lie within Alberta’s border. This area is referred to as the Elkwater Block – it roughly corresponds to the current Alberta portion of the Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park.
1909 Elk have been extirpated from the Cypress Hills.
1906 The Forest Reserves Act is passed, establishing a 47 km2 reserve in the area.
1890 The last great plains grizzly is shot in the Cypress Hills.
1886 A fire burns through most of the Cypress Hills. Much of what is left unburned is cut down shortly after the fire.
1883 The CPR is extended to Maple Creek. By this time, the bison, and the First Nations who depended on them, are gone from the area.

Fort Walsh is closed. The RCMP outpost moves to Maple Creek.
1876-1881 Sitting Bull and his followers escape to the Cypress Hills after the Battle of Little Bighorn.
1875 The Cypress Hills Massacre leads to the formation of the North West Mounted Police and the establishment of Fort Walsh.
1873 A group of First Nations people and a group of trappers argue and then battle over stolen horses. Thirty-five First Nations people and one person of European descent are killed. The event becomes known as the Cypress Hills Massacre.
1872-73 Metis trader Abe Farwell establishes a trading post in Cypress Hills.
1860s,1870s Prospectors and whiskey traders come to the Cypress Hills area after the discovery of gold in Montana. These decades are lawless, chaotic times.
1869 An outbreak of smallpox occurs when a whiskey trader purposefully distributes infected blankets from the U.S.
1859 Captain John Palliser comments that the Cypress Hills are “a perfect oasis in the deserts we have travelled.”
1806 William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1803-06) shoots a Blackfoot man, an event that creates hostility between First Nations people and traders in the area.
1754 Anthony Henday becomes the first European to traverse the Cypress Hills.
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