Prairie NWA Reorganized into Five New NWAs

Summary#

The final rule titled Regulations Amending the Wildlife Area Regulations reworks the old Prairie National Wildlife Area. It removes 19 scattered parcels, creates 5 new National Wildlife Areas focused on higher-value habitat, and fixes two mapping errors for Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area. The changes came into force on March 12, 2025 (registered), and were published in the Canada Gazette on March 26, 2025.

What it does#

• Removes the old Prairie National Wildlife Area (which covered 2,873 hectares) and replaces it with 5 new, smaller National Wildlife Areas:
  • Great Sandhills National Wildlife Area — 474.7 hectares
  • Harris Sandhills National Wildlife Area — 372.1 hectares
  • Longspur National Wildlife Area — 193.4 hectares
  • Moose Mountain Creek National Wildlife Area — 162.7 hectares
  • Thickwood Hills National Wildlife Area — 298.6 hectares
  • The five new NWAs together cover about 1,501.5 hectares.
• Delists 19 former Prairie NWA units that the government says have low conservation value and are no longer suitable to keep as NWAs.
• Adds a short list of activities explicitly allowed in the five new NWAs (these mirror previous authorizations for the Prairie NWA):
  • Wildlife viewing
  • Hiking
  • Non-commercial berry picking
  • Sport hunting under conditions: hunted without a commercial guide, from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset (with required federal and provincial permits/authorizations), and without the use of toxic shot; some additional limited hours are also allowed for certain non-hunting activities.
• Corrects two land-survey plan references in the legal boundary description for Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area (administrative fix).
• The changes are final and in force as of registration on March 12, 2025.

Who's affected#

• Ranchers and farmers who used to apply for permits to graze, hay, or farm on the delisted parcels. Permit numbers recently were small: 24 permits issued last year across the old Prairie NWA, 12 of them on lands that now form the new NWAs.
• Permit holders on the delisted lands: the government says licences (not annual permits) would replace the permit process for agricultural uses on delisted parcels.
• Visitors and recreational users of those landscapes (hikers, birders, berry pickers, hunters) — rules for allowed activities are carried into the new NWAs.
• Environment and Climate Change Canada, which manages the NWAs and will focus resources on the newly designated high-value areas.
• Environmental groups and local Indigenous communities. The government consulted widely; some environmental groups opposed delisting some units, and Indigenous groups in the area were consulted and offered opportunities for further discussion around any future land divestment.

Why it matters#

• The government says this narrows federal protection to the parts of the old Prairie NWA that have the most conservation value. In practice, that means focusing limited management and enforcement resources on about 1,501.5 hectares of higher-value habitat instead of the full 2,873 hectares previously designated.
• Administrative and cost effects:
  • Officials estimate net discounted benefits of about $235,000 over 10 years from lower administrative and enforcement costs, with first-year costs of about $9,700, and net benefits of about $226,000.
  • Small agriculture businesses are expected to save about $8,045 over 10 years from reduced permit paperwork — about $95 per affected business per year on average, according to the government’s analysis.
• For ranchers and farmers, the rule reduces the number of federal permit applications needed for use of the delisted parcels (the government estimates a roughly 50% drop in permit applications for these lands).
• For conservation: environmental groups warned that delisting parcels reduces the total area protected and could harm biodiversity or carbon storage in some places. The government insists the parcels removed are of low conservation value and says it will look for other ways (transfers, easements, or sales with protections) to keep residual conservation value after delisting.
• The boundary corrections for Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area are administrative and do not change how the area is managed on the ground, according to the department.

If you use or manage any of these lands, or care about prairie conservation, the practical effects will be whether a parcel remains an NWA (with stricter permitting) or is delisted (handled differently, and possibly subject to future transfer or sale).