Of Canada's 42 national parks, 10 are located in the territories. Wardens in these northern parks face unique challenges. Christian Bucher spent 12 years as a park warden in Nahanni, Tuktut Nogait and Wood Buffalo national parks and is now a resource conservation manager in Parks Canada's Western Arctic Field Unit in Inuvik, N.W.T. As part of our Polar Voices series in recognition of International Polar Year, Bucher offers his thoughts on life as a northern park warden.

CG: What are typical warden duties in northern parks?

CB: The main role is to provide operational support for cultural and natural resource management projects. That could mean organizing air support and handling other logistics, monitoring the integrity of an archaeological site, completing wildlife surveys, or dealing with problem wildlife. Duties also include education, public safety and search and rescue. Due to the small number of staff, warden duties in the North are quite diverse.

CG: What is involved in patrolling?

CB: Most patrols have a resource management or public safety objective. The Firth River in Ivvavik National Park, for example, is a rafting destination. Wardens raft down the river at the beginning of the season to assess it for hazards and to collect information on navigability. One year, a group of caribou tried to cross the river and drowned. This attracted a number of grizzly bears which obviously created a public safety concern.

CG: How often do you search and rescue?

CB: Every year, there are a number of occurrences. People have to register before they go into a park and deregister when they come out. If they don't emerge within 24 hours of their scheduled exit, we start to look for them. Most of our visitors are very experienced, but there is the odd person who comes unprepared for the challenging northern environment.

CG: How has climate change impacted northern parks?

CB: I believe it is one of the greatest threats to our parks. We have seen changing weather patterns, melting permafrost and slumping along the coastline. We even have new species moving in. People have seen robins, warblers and swallows in some of our northern communities. We now have thunder and lightning in the summer. This wasn't the case in the past.

CG: There are relatively few visitors to northern parks. What is the parks' value to Canadians if so few get to see them?

CB: There are few wild places left in Canada, so Parks Canada is playing a role in conserving large intact ecosystems in the North. Our parks have also been established through land-claims agreements with aboriginal people, which gives them a right to continue traditional activities within the parks. So, in a way, our parks ensure cultural survival, which makes Canada a richer society.
There is also the issue of sovereignty. Parks Canada has a huge presence in the Arctic. We are managing large swaths of land and are waving the Canadian flag in some of those really remote communities.
Finally, these parks play a role in Canadian identity. People see the North as their backyard. They may never come to visit, but they are satisfied knowing those places are protected and preserved, perhaps for their children to see one day.

CG: How do northern parks differ from parks in the south?

CB: Some of the biggest parks in the country are in the North, but we are still operating them within a system that was set up when the southern parks were established many years ago. That system works well in the south, but it's failing the North. It is not reflecting the northern reality. To be fair, Parks Canada has made huge steps in the past several years, but there is still a lot to be done.
Aboriginal people have a special relationship with Parks Canada, which gives them an equal voice in the management of resources and rights related to harvesting, access, economic benefits, training, contracting and preferential hiring. Our present system is not quite ready to address all of this. We need to understand that things have to be done differently up North.