Peace-Athabasca Delta
| Peace–Athabasca Delta | |
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Peace–Athabasca Delta with Lake Claire, west end of Lake Athabasca and mouths of Peace River (north) and Athabasca River (south)
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| Location | Alberta, Canada |
| Coordinates | 58°42′N 111°30′W / 58.700°N 111.500°WCoordinates: 58°42′N 111°30′W / 58.700°N 111.500°W |
| Area | 321,200 ha (794,000 acres) |
| Type | natural |
| Designated | 1983 (7th session) |
| Part of | Wood Buffalo National Park |
| Reference no. | Wood Buffalo National Park |
| Region | List of World Heritage Sites in Canada |
 Location of Peace–Athabasca Delta in Canada
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The Peace–Athabasca Delta, located in northeast Alberta, is the largest freshwater inland river delta in North America. It is located partially within the southeast corner of Wood Buffalo National Park, Canada's largest national park, and also spreads into the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, west and south of the historical community of Fort Chipewyan. The delta encompasses approximately 321,200 ha (794,000 acres), formed where the Peace and Athabasca rivers converge on the Slave River and Lake Athabasca. The delta region is designated a wetland of international importance and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The region is large enough that it is considered one of twenty distinct natural subregions of Alberta by the provincial government's Natural Regions Committee.
Land use and occupation by the first indigenous people in the area can be traced to the retreat of the glaciers. (Finkelstein 2005) The descendants of the Cree and Chipewyan First Nations continue to carry on traditional fishing, hunting and trapping activities. It is "the longest standing tradition of native subsistence use. (Finkelstein 2005) Based on excavations in the 1980s at the Peace Point and Lake One Dune (IgPc-9) sites, archaeologist Marc Stevenson argued that the area around Peace Point has been occupied by boreal forest-related and plains-related northern hunter-gatherer groups of people "at intervals over the last 7000-8000 years."
In 1922, Wood Buffalo National Park was established to protect the remnant population of bison that escaped the slaughter in the late 19th century.(Finkelstein 2005) It became the world's largest herd of free roaming wood bison, currently estimated at more than 5,000. It is one of two known nesting sites of whooping cranes.
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