Grasslands National Park Official Guide Collection for Prairie Ecosystem Exploration

Protecting Canada's last remaining dry mixed-grass prairie

Grasslands National Park

Grasslands National Park occupies a unique position in Canada's national park system as the primary protected area for the Prairie Grasslands natural region. Located in the semi-arid southern reaches of Saskatchewan, the park safeguards an ecosystem that once stretched across vast stretches of the North American interior but has been largely lost to agricultural conversion and development. The park's two blocks—the East and West—together preserve a representative sample of the Northern short grasslands ecoregion, protecting not only the native grasses and shrublands but also the complex web of wildlife that depends on this open grassland environment. The Frenchman River Valley, running through the West Block, provides a dendritic landscape of coulees, cliffs, and Cottonwood groves that breaks the otherwise horizontal expanse of the prairie. This valley system and the surrounding uplands support the park's bison herd, which grazes across a 181-square-kilometre section of the West Block. The East Block, centered around the Rock Creek Badlands, presents a dramatically different character with eroded clay and sandstone formations, the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary marker visible in the badlands, and sweeping views across the Wood Mountain Hills. Both blocks support the black-tailed prairie dog towns that are essential to the park's ecological identity, providing habitat for the reintroduction of the black-footed ferret after a 70-year absence from the Canadian prairie.