BOTANICAL INVESTIGATIONS IN WOOD BUFFALO PARK 
INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL SUMMARY 1 
Wood Buffalo park is a tract of nearly virgin wilderness, 17,300 square 
miles in extent (Figure 1), set aside by the Canadian Government for the 
preservation of the remnant herds of wild bison and other game & fur- 
bearing animals that inhabit it. It lies partly in northern Alberta and partly 
in southern Mackenzie, and has its administrative organization at Fort 
Smith, on Slave river. Wild life is completely protected within its bound- 
aries, with the exception of certain limited hunting and trapping rights held 
by treaty Indians through long-standing agreements. As originally desig- 
nated in 1922 its southern boundary was at Peace river. With the increase 
of the bison herds it was found necessary, in 1926, to enlarge the area to 
its present extent. 
Investigations directed specifically to the plant cover of the country 
have been very meagre, and in most of the park area have never been 
attempted previous to the writer’s activities. Some members of geological 
and topographical survey parties, and a few hunters and travellers have 
made minor collections or notes on the general aspects of the vegetation. 
Since the present report involves not only the floristie content of the vege- 
tation, but also its geographic distribution and economic importance, these 
notes, even though random, have proved valuable in many cases. Most 
travellers have passed directly through by the main waterways — Atha- 
baska, Peace, and Slave rivers — so their accounts largely duplicate one 
another. It is to the few who have got away from these routes and have 
described parts of the inland country that particular attention will be given 
in the brief sketch that follows. 2 
The earliest white travellers in the region, who have given us written 
accounts, were probably antedated by Canadian coureurs des bois who left 
no records. According to Petitot (1884) , the family of Beaulieu had already 
become established at Salt river before the first of the traders descended 
the Slave (47). Samuel Hearne, who was the first to describe Great Slave 
lake, came to it from the north in the winter of 1771-72, and after crossing 
it departed eastward to Hudson bay, without having come far enough south- 
ward to enter the present park area (30) . Peter Pond, a fur trader, descended 
Athabaska river in 1778 and built a trading post about 30 miles above 
Athabaska lake. Ten years later a post called Fort Chipewyan was estab- 
lished on Old Fort point, on the south shore of lake Athabaska, by the 
Northwest Company (4) . This was later re-established on its present site at 
the western end of the north shore of the lake. Although a trading post 
had already been established on Great Slave lake by one Laurent Leuroux in 
1 See References Cited, page 173, for all reference numbers inserted through text. 
2 For a more complete account of the exploration of the region See the writer’s “Range Conditions 
in the Wood Buffalo Park, 31 etc. (54). 
