Ottawa announces new N.W.T. park reserve

The federal government has quietly created another national park reserve, to be located next to the Nahanni National Park Reserve in the Northwest Territories.

The Privy Council Office posted an order-in-council on its website Feb. 26, announcing a 7,600-kilometre land withdrawal for areas that will make up the new Naats'ihch'oh National Park Reserve.

Once established, the park reserve will protect the headwaters of the South Nahanni River, west of Tulita, N.W.T. The area is within the settlement area of the Sahtu people.

The area, traditionally known as Begadeh in the Dene language, will take in the upper quarter of the watershed, including Mount Wilson and the Mooseponds.

The area is known as a habitat for Dall's sheep, mountain goats, woodland caribou and moose. It has the northernmost population of mountain goats in Canada, while upland areas provide calving grounds for woodland caribou during the summer, according to a draft Sahtu Land Use Plan published in 2007.

The land-use plan also states that oil, gas and mineral potential in that area is low.