Defending Wilderness: Looking Back on a History of Protection in the Milk River Canyon

February 2, 2026

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• Grasslands
• Milk River - Sage Creek
• Protected Areas
• WLA Archive

By Ruiping Luo, AWA Conservation Specialist

Read the PDF version here.

 

There was once a time when, wandering along Alberta’s southern border, you would have been surrounded by prairie. Stretching to the distant horizon, a rolling sea of green dotted with the occasional splash of purple, yellow, or red. The native grass residents bowed and rippled under fierce winds, endured the unpredictable rains, bloomed under an unrelenting sun, and rested under bitter frost.

Since then, this boundless landscape has been fractured, torn apart in an eagerness to exploit the natural resources hidden beneath it. Settlers took advantage of the prairie’s productive soils to grow crops and extract minerals and “black gold” from below even the deepest roots. Homes and factories were built, and a network of roads cut through the terrain to service them. Rivers were tamed and diminished, lands fenced, and much of the wildlife chased away and replaced with domestic animals.

Still, pockets of this native world remain. The southeast corner of the province maintains a stronghold, despite repeated incursions that have left scars on the land. Hard-won victories have saved habitats that might overwise have been destroyed, protecting the vanishing homes of our wild species.

Recognizing and protecting the Milk River Canyon was one of those rare successes.

An uncommon refuge

The prairie, unknown to many, has surprising depths. Beyond the highways, past the crop fields and fenceposts, there is a place where endless horizon disappears and the ground steeply drops away. Around the edges of coulees, exposed rock forms strange, fantastical shapes and a few trees dot the more sheltered valley. Between green willows and cottonwoods twists the Milk River, architect of this land, flowing with cloudy blue-brown water, the lifeline of a parched region.

This is the Milk River Canyon, the deepest canyon in Alberta’s prairie, containing a diverse range of habitats and species. Here, elk silhouette the ridges and eagles soar in a cloudless sky. Meadowlarks weave between sagebrush plants, avoiding rattlesnakes and swift foxes. Along the river, leopard frogs proclaim their presence and silvery minnows and sculpin swim through the water.

The Milk River Natural Area and Kennedy Coulee Ecological Reserve both protect sections of the Milk River Canyon, and are co-managed by the Milk River Management Committee. Along with the Onefour Heritage Rangeland Natural Area, these areas contain important native prairie in Alberta’s southeast. Cliff Wallis and Cheryl Bradley are both biologists involved in the Milk River Management Committee.

“When you go there,” Bradley told me, “You’re seeing the grasslands similar to what would have been there, when bison and Indigenous people ranged freely through southern Alberta… There’s the experience of unlimited, expansive grassland, a profound understanding of our natural and cultural heritage.”

“There’s species at risk found in few other places in Alberta,” Wallis added about the region.

The management committee also includes local ranchers and producers, hunters, and provincial government representatives responsible for parks and protected areas, wildlife, rangelands and crown land enforcement. Today, these interests are united in their desire to protect and care for this exceptional area, though reaching this point required a long campaign.

Defending the canyon

By the 1970s, the Milk River Canyon was gaining attention. Researchers were documenting several unusual arid prairie species, including the short-horned lizard, the only lizard found in Alberta, and the yucca plant, found almost exclusively at two sites along the Milk River and Lost River, one of the Milk River’s tributaries. Field surveys completed in 1975 and 1976 reported a diverse range of butterfly species, and an article on the Milk River Canyon described the region as “biogeographically unique.”

In 1972, AWA approached the Alberta Minister of Lands and Forests with a proposal. AWA wanted a Wilderness Area established in the Milk River region, particularly the area known as Milk River-Lost River, to protect the native prairie and badlands. This proposal was complicated by land ownership: responsibility for the Onefour Range Research station on the east was federal, while the remaining land was provincial.

The provincial minister replied that the proposal was “not receiving active consideration at this time.” However, they indicated that if the federal lands were returned to the province or the status of provincial grazing leases changed, “the disposition of these lands will be referred to the Director of Parks before any other dispositions are made,” suggesting that a protected area would be considered under those conditions.

Undeterred, AWA wrote to the federal Minister of Agriculture, who was much more receptive to the proposal. They appointed Dr. Andrews, Director of the Lethbridge Research Station, to work with AWA. AWA then reached out once more to the provincial government.

The province replied that it “does not at this time consider it necessary to designate personnel to meet and consider decisions would would [sic] affect the existing status or use of public lands” in this area.

Meanwhile, others were starting to express support. Organizations, including the Federation of Alberta Naturalists, Rocky Mountain Ramblers Association, and Alberta Fish and Game Association, as well as members of the public, began advocating for the protection of the area. During this time, AWA opposed a pipeline development that threatened to fragment the region and continued to voice a need for protection from motorized use, development, and seeding of tame forage. As policies changed, the focus eventually shifted to establishing protection on the provincial lands.

A large part of the provincial public land was under grazing lease to Lost River Ranches, managed by the Ross family. The area remained largely unbroken open range because of their efforts and sustainable use of the land. However, newly adopted limitations on the amount of grazing lease land one individual could hold resulted in the lease — which had covered approximately 144,000 acres — being reduced by nearly 100,000 acres.

In 1977, the Alberta Ecological Survey nominated the Milk River Canyon for Major Ecological Reserve status. AWA, with the Canadian Society of Environmental Biologists, sponsored a symposium on the Milk River-Lost River wilderness, showing that public interest in protecting the area remained. Alberta’s Minister of Recreation, Parks and Wildlife informed AWA they “have agreed to prepare an integrated land use plan for the Milk River-Lost River area and surrounding grasslands” for the provincial public lands.

In 1979, AWA learned that 17,000 acres in the Milk River-Lost River area, formerly part of Lost River Ranches, had been proposed for an ecological reserve, with an additional area forming the Sage Creek Grazing Reserve. At this time, the legislation for ecological reserves had not yet been passed; the ecological reserve would be enacted years after Alberta’s Wilderness Areas Act was passed in 1980.

Until then, an “operational management plan” — rather than the “integrated land use plan” that had been promised — would determine administration of the Milk River-Lost River lands. Implementing the management plan was the responsibility of the nearby Pinhorn Grazing Reserve; this meant that instead of considering the goals of multiple interests across the region, management was highly local and heavily focused on grazing. There was no public input on this plan.

There was, however, some good news. In a reply to AWA, the provincial government promised grazing “will only be used as a management tool,” and that expired oil and gas leases in the proposed ecological reserve would not be renewed. Still, active leases were allowed to continue operating, and extensive fencing had affected the area. In 1979 and 1980, representatives from AWA toured the Milk River-Lost River region, and in 1983, AWA attended several public meetings on ecological reserves.

Assembling a task force

In March 1984, about 200 people attended a public forum hosted by the provincial government’s Alberta Wilderness Areas and Ecological Reserves Advisory Committee, eager to share their understanding of the Milk River Canyon and its importance. These people arrived from across the province, asking for the 72-km2 area to be designated an ecological reserve.

Except, there was another delegation present, mostly local farmers, ranchers, and hunters. The opinions of this group, about 50 strong, stood in sharp contrast to those pushing for ecological reserve status.

“Local ranchers saw an opportunity to expand their grazing allotments,” Bradley explained, “Fish and Game Associations that used that area for hunting wanted to protect their use of that area.”

It was not that they didn’t care about protecting the Milk River Canyon and the surrounding lands. In fact, the stewardship of this local group was one reason there was still an intact landscape to protect. But they were worried that, once the area was formally protected, they would be locked out. This group wanted to be involved in deciding the area’s future.

Acknowledging this reaction, AWA requested the creation of a task force, which aimed to “protect the ecological character of the Milk River Canyon.” The task force consisted of three ranchers (Tom Gilchrist, Warren Brower, and Leonard Piotrowski), a member of the Foremost Fish and Game Association (Ken Kultgen), a professor from the University of Lethbridge (Julian Guay), and two environmentalists (Ray Sloan and Cliff Wallis). The meetings were facilitated by Norbert Kondla, a regional planner for the Alberta government.

“It was several meetings,” Wallis said, “About three months of meetings.”

And these meetings did not always go smoothly. There were views that every area needed to be grazed, and views that grazing could damage the vegetation. There were opinions that hunting could support wildlife management, and opinions that hunting should be forbidden in an ecological reserve.

“Very interesting things would go from agreement to nope, I don’t think I like this,” Wallis said, and then they would have to start again.

“But,” Bradley added, speaking for the environmentalists, “there was also recognition that livestock grazing could be managed in a way that maintained ecological integrity, and a few hunters would not have a major impact.”

Wallis agreed: “[The ranchers became] easier to deal with when they found out we wanted to put grazing back in.”

There were discussions. There were compromises. Luckily, the committee members all agreed on one point: the area was worth defending. And so, the committee eventually came to an agreement, recommending a 72-km2 Natural Area and creating a management plan with low-impact grazing and recreational use.

“We started with the assumption that the area would be protected,” Wallis noted, “It was only how to manage it.”

Creating protected areas

The task force had reached an agreement, though it would still be some years before an official designation was assigned. In 1984, after AWA criticized two large watering holes that were dug within the proposed ecological reserve, a land planning management committee was appointed. In 1985, Alberta’s Advisory Committee on Wilderness Areas and Ecological Reserves recommended to the Minister of Recreation and Parks the establishment of a 72-km2 Natural Area and Ecological Reserve. AWA, with a local rancher, proposed bison grazing in the area, but was denied.

In June 1987, Alberta at last announced the establishment of the Milk River Natural Area, covering 54.3 km2 (13,206 acres). A new permanent Milk River Management Advisory Committee was formed to manage the area. In October, the 10.7-km2 (2,640-acre) Kennedy Coulee Ecological Reserve, bordered by the Natural Area on the east and the Pinhorn Grazing Reserve on the west, was created.

The Milk River Management Society was established in 1990 to administer grazing, direct research, and advise on management in the Milk River Natural Area and Kennedy Coulee Ecological Reserve; AWA was one of the founding members. In 1992, the society helped prepare a management plan that the Government of Alberta then endorsed. The Milk River Natural Area and Kennedy Coulee Ecological Reserve continue to be managed by the Milk River Management Society to this day, over 30 years later.

After several years, the federal lands were transferred to the province, where they became part of the Onefour Heritage Rangeland Natural Area. Established in 2000, this new protected area comprised approximately 111.5 km2 (27,589 acres) in three disconnected sections: 26.9 km2 immediately west of the Kennedy Coulee Ecological Reserve, 39.0 km2 along the Lost River valley and surrounding uplands, and 45.6 km2 on the east side of the Sage Creek Grazing Reserve.

In total, the Milk River Natural Area, Kennedy Coulee Ecological Reserve, and Onefour Heritage Rangeland Natural Area protect approximately 176.2 km2 (about 43,434 acres). These areas ensure a substantial amount of grassland habitat is conserved, although they represent only a small part of the precious grassland ecosystem of southeastern Alberta. In other areas, the fight for native prairie continues.

Our prairie ecosystem remains under threat, from mining and energy development cutting through the land, to cities, roads, and agriculture stripping sections away, and there are many challenges still to come. But some of our best grasslands have been formally protected, like those in the Milk River Canyon, and AWA and our allies continue to strive for conservation and restoration of these vital ecosystems. One day, we may have flourishing and valued native grasslands, with the constant threat of destruction a distant memory. Until then, we celebrate the smaller victories, and remember the power of collaboration, discussion, and cooperative management that led to success in protecting southeastern Alberta.