List of protected areas of Alberta explained

Alberta Parks
Type	Number	Area km^2 (sq mi)
Provincial Parks	76	2214km2
Wildland Provincial Parks	31	17314km2
Provincial Recreation Areas	208	899km2
Wilderness Areas	3	1010km2
Ecological Reserves	15	268km2
Natural Areas	139	1299km2
Heritage Rangelands	2	120km2
National Parks	5	63045km2
Total	476	90747km2

This is a list of protected areas of Alberta. Protected areas are managed by the Government of Canada or the Government of Alberta. The provincial government owns 60% of Alberta's landmass^[1] but most of this has not been formally protected. The total protected area throughout Alberta including federal and provincial protected areas is approximately 90700km2.__TOC__

International recognition

Six of Canada's 14 UNESCO World Heritage Sites are entirely or partially located in Alberta:

• Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks (shared with British Columbia)
• Dinosaur Provincial Park
• Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump
• Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park (shared with Montana, United States)
• Wood Buffalo National Park (shared with Northwest Territories)
• Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park

Alberta also contains the following UNESCO Biosphere Reserves

• Waterton Biosphere Reserve (since 1979)
• Beaver Hills Biosphere Reserve (since 2016)

Federally protected areas

Five National Parks of Canada (Banff, Elk Island, Jasper, Waterton Lakes and Wood Buffalo), managed by Parks Canada are located in the province. Several former national parks (such Buffalo National Park, Wawaskesy National Park, and Nemiskam National Park) formerly existed in Alberta, but were delisted in 1947.

There are several National Historic Sites of Canada in Alberta, but only two are operated by Parks Canada: Rocky Mountain House, which features an indoor interpretation centre and year-round in-person interpretation, and Frog Lake which has only outdoor interpretive panels to mark the site.

Alberta is also home to Suffield National Wildlife Area, a protected area within the military reserve at CFB Suffield.

Provincially protected areas

There are several different departments and agencies that deal with land use in Alberta, however Alberta's provincial parks are managed by Alberta Parks, which since 2022 is part of the Ministry of Forestry, Parks and Tourism^[2] whose mandate is to protect the province's natural landscapes in Alberta, as well as the Ministry of Environment and Protected Areas. Seven categories of protection exist, provincial parks being one. These categories are:

• Ecological reserves
• Wilderness areas
• Wildland provincial parks
• Provincial parks
• Natural areas
• Heritage rangelands
• Provincial recreation areas

, the province of Alberta managed 76 provincial parks, 32 wildland provincial parks, 208 provincial recreation areas, 15 ecological reserves, 3 wilderness areas, 139 natural areas and 2 heritage rangeland.^[3] Although these areas are the responsibility of the Alberta government, private companies have been contracted to handle various aspects of the operation of many parks (e.g. maintenance and campground operation).

List of wilderness areas

Wilderness areas have the strictest level of protection, no development of any kind is permitted, and travel is only permitted by foot.^[4]

• Ghost River Wilderness Area
• Siffleur Wilderness Area
• White Goat Wilderness Area
• Willmore Wilderness Park

List of provincial parks

Park	Nearest community	Established	Coordinates	website (ID)
		2014, 4 December^[5]	51.722°N -111.937°W
		1932, 21 November	52.4578°N -113.9775°W	1
		1954, 1 February	49.4108°N -114.1092°W	6
		1957, 22 November	51.2517°N -114.3883°W	12
Big Island Provincial Park		2023, February	53.4406°N -113.6458°W
		1962, 2 October	52.4903°N -112.2208°W	11
		1959, 27 July	51.0681°N -115.0464°W	293
		1960, 19 January	50.9417°N -114.5872°W	324
		1992, 29 October	50.8161°N -114.4344°W	16
		1971, 20 July	55.1808°N -113.2444°W	248
		1988	51.0981°N -115.3897°W	294
		1982, 19 May	54.3044°N -115.6417°W	247
Castle Provincial Park		2017, 17 February^[6]	49.444°N -114.117°W
		1969, 23 December	50.2067°N -114.1964°W	19
		1976, 18 August	54.4606°N -110.12°W	22
		1955, 22 November	52.45°N -115.0333°W	27
		1955, 22 November	54.6381°N -113.8144°W	28
			55.7964°N -112.1817°W	574
			49.5753°N -110.0064°W	29
		1957, 8 January	52.5964°N -110.0808°W	38
		1955, 27 June	50.7622°N -111.5181°W	246
		1970, 15 December	51.9361°N -112.9614°W	39
		1992, 21 May	55.9233°N -118.6006°W	40
		2007, 29 August	53.2444°N -114.8744°W	589
		1975, 10 June	50.9031°N -114.0153°W	45
		1953, 14 July	54.1831°N -111.7394°W	49
		2008, 17 April	51.1669°N -114.3928°W	593
		1932, 21 November	52.1178°N -110.7517°W	51
		2000, 6 June	56.1981°N -117.2417°W	147
		1969, 21 October	56.4731°N -111.1986°W	52
		1978, 24 October	55.4992°N -116.0194°W	3
		1965, 8 July	52.3664°N -114.1322°W	61
		1951, 14 November	50.4478°N -111.9111°W	65
		1992, 16 January	54.79°N -111.4881°W	280
			55.4175°N -114.8108°W	68
		1954, 20 January	50.2194°N -112.9656°W	69
		1957, 8 April	51.3717°N -112.1983°W	71
		2005, 19 April	53.6061°N -113.6781°W	437
		1957, 25 March	54.4256°N -112.7572°W	72
		1979, 5 June	51.4781°N -112.7869°W	78
		1958, 20 May	53.2475°N -112.8875°W	81
		1959, 21 April	55.9253°N -119.2308°W	82
		1967, 19 April	54.2639°N -110.9319°W	83
		1979, 20 November	57.2886°N -117.1508°W	87
			53.5553°N -117.1289°W	203
		1954, 29 June	55.0636°N -118.8244°W	88
		1932, 21 November	49.8039°N -112.925°W	143
		1953, 21 September	53.605°N -114.9992°W	92
		1977, 7 October	50.6833°N -115.2264°W	307
			53.9064°N -118.5883°W	209
		1967, 26 May	53.0264°N -114.1344°W	98
		1970, 21 April	49.0061°N -113.4589°W	108
		1956, 1 March	56.2286°N -117.6894°W	110
			52.0892°N -115.8364°W	213
		1951, 7 May	51.9439°N -114.2697°W	114
		1957, 8 January	52.4642°N -112.8908°W	116
			53.4672°N -118.2528°W	215
		1932, 21 November	55.2056°N -119.085°W	118
			50.6469°N -114.6453°W	330
		1952, 29 September	54.8292°N -111.9625°W	120
		2000, 1 December	50.8372°N -115.2467°W	308
		1979, 12 December	53.5608°N -113.3839°W	123
		1999, 28 April	53.6414°N -116.8797°W	142
		1980, 16 January	52.3453°N -114.1697°W	125
		1958, 28 January	54.1331°N -114.7325°W	137
		1965, 20 July	50.5378°N -111.8083°W	138
			54.3728°N -119.7586°W	222
		1953, 29 May	53.3647°N -110.8819°W	152
			53.5661°N -114.4544°W	154
		1982, 23 June	53.83°N -110.4967°W	158
		1958, 22 December	53.5428°N -117.8056°W	159
		1960, 7 November	55.0811°N -117.5572°W	165
		1957, 10 December	50.115°N -113.7706°W	167
		1956, 13 November	55.6292°N -116.6781°W	169
			49.1758°N -113.1889°W	173
		1957, 8 January	49.0803°N -111.6392°W	177
		1979, 2 May	50.8297°N -113.4497°W	178
		1971, 3 August	55.1175°N -117.5581°W	180

Other parks

• Birch Mountains Wildland (wildland)
• Caribou Mountains Wildland Park (wildland)
• Chinchaga Wildland Park (wildland)
• Dillon River Wildland Park (wildland)
• Fidler-Greywillow Wildland Park (wildland)
• Gipsy-Gordon Wildland Park (wildland)
• Hay-Zama Lakes (wildland)
• Kakwa Wildlands Park (wildland)
• Kananaskis Country (not a park but a provincially run tract of land containing several parks)
• Kazan Wildland Park (wildland)
• Richardson Wildland Park (wildland)

Other provincial lands

Approximately 60% of land in Alberta is public land owned by the Alberta government.^[7] For administrative purposes, the province is divided into two broad land use areas: the Green Area (forested land, almost entirely provincially owned) and the White Area (other).^[7] The Rocky Mountains Forest Reserve was created by the Forest Reserves Act of 1964.^[8] There are also 32 provincial grazing reserves located throughout Alberta. They are administered by Alberta Sustainable Resource Development.

Municipal parks

See main article: Urban parks in Canada.

See also

• List of Canadian provincial parks
• List of provincial parks in Alberta
• List of National Parks of Canada
• Buffalo National Park (delisted national park)

External links

• About Alberta's Parks
• Alberta Parks -list of provincial parks
• Alberta Community Development - Parks and Protected Areas Land Reference Manual

Notes and References

1. Web site: Provincial Grazing Reserves. Alberta Sustainable Resource Development. 2009-05-08 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080518204218/http://www.srd.gov.ab.ca/lands/usingpublicland/provincialgrazingreserves/introduction.aspx . 18 May 2008.
2. Web site: Forestry, Parks and Tourism .
3. Web site: Land Reference Manual. Alberta Parks. Government of Alberta. 6 October 2016.
4. http://www.albertaparks.ca/aboutparks.aspx About Alberta's Parks - AlbertaParks.ca
5. Web site: O.C. 455/2014 . Government of Alberta . 4 December 2014 . 8 December 2014.
6. Web site: O.C. 22/2017 . Government of Alberta . 20 January 2017 . 21 January 2017.
7. http://www.srd.alberta.ca/lands/geographicinformation/resourcedataproductcatalogue/greenwwhiteareas.aspx
8. http://www.qp.gov.ab.ca/Documents/acts/F20.CFM