Public Comment Period on Intent to Make a Determination
Installing artificial nest burrows as part of the Wilder Institute Burrowing Owl Project - Canadian Forces Base Suffield

September 3, 2025 — The Department of National Defence must decide whether the proposed project is likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects.

To help inform this decision, the Department of National Defence is inviting comments from the public on the project and its potential effects on the environment. All comments received will be considered public. For more information, individuals should consult the Privacy Notice on the Registry website.

Written comments must be submitted by September 22, 2025 to:
Sheri McNamara, Base Environmental Officer
Mailing Address:  CFB Suffield, Box 6000 St Main, Medicine Hat
Alberta, Canada, T1A 8K8
E-mail:  Sheri.McNamara@forces.gc.ca

or

Graham Dixon-MacCallum, Population Ecologist
Mailing Address:  1300 Zoo Rd NE, Calgary
Alberta, Canada, T2E 7V6
E-mail:  GrahamDM@wilderinstitute.com

The Proposed Project

This is a proposal to install artificial nest burrows as part of the Wilder Institute Burrowing Owl Project, which has been ongoing since 2016. Wilder Institute is the rebranded Calgary Zoo Foundation and oversees the Zoo's conservation portfolio. The Wilder Institute Burrowing Owl Project is using a technique called head-starting to boost the burrowing owl population in Alberta and contribute to halting this species' decline in prairie Canada.

This program involves collecting owls from nests in the wild, holding them in human care over their first winter, and releasing them the following spring as adults near capture sites. Each spring owls are released into artificial nest burrows and installing additional burrows in the Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Suffield National Wildlife Area (NWA) would increase the program's capacity to help this Endangered species. Each artificial nest burrow consists of a nest box approx. 0.45 m² buried 1.5 m deep. Two tunnels, each 3 m long, extend from this box to the surface. In total, we propose to install nine artificial nest burrows in three sets of three burrows within the CFB Suffield NWA.