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Only 2.1% of the Foothills Parkland ecoregion is protected within any federal or provincial park in Canada. Waterton Lakes National Park (WLNP) is the only national park where this scenic and biologically diverse ecoregion is protected. Scarcity of fire and lack of bison grazing have contributed to encroachment of aspen forest and homogenization of the fescue grassland. This area also has the highest occurrence of non-native invasive plants.

Non-native plants have invaded most low-elevation habitats and physically disturbed sites in Waterton Lakes National Park (WLNP). Parks Canada devotes substantial resources annually to efforts to control or eradicate the most invasive and persistent non-native plants. A Non-native Plant Condition Monitoring protocol was developed to detect changes in the abundance and distribution of non-native plant species across vulnerable regions of WLNP, and to gain an understanding of the severities and differences in impacts that non-native plants have on native plant communities. Relative abundance (I.e.

Waterton Lakes National Park (WLNP) protects one of the last tracts of native fescue prairie habitat in the Parks Canada system. Native Fescue grasslands are an important element of biodiversity in the park, as well as an endangered ecosystem in Canada. It is not just aspen encroachment that is a concern, but also the increasing density of existing aspen stands. Aspen sprouts (aspen < 2.5m height) and shrubs adjacent to grasslands will be removed through prescribed burning of grassland areas, with the goal of increasing the area of fescue grasslands in the project area's prescribed burn units by 2019 through removal of 5% of 2014 shrub and aspen sprout cover.

Both native and non-native fish inhabit many lakes and ponds across Jasper National Park. Prior to stocking practices in the past, many lakes in Jasper National Park did not have fish or had a low diversity fish assemblage. These past stocking practices have altered fish communities today. Introduced non-native fish may outcompete some native fish populations and the stocking of historical natural fishless lakes may affect their food webs.

Fire plays an important role in maintaining health of forests and grasslands, and maintains biodiversity by creating a mosaic of varying age structure. The fescue grasslands of the Foothills Parkland Ecoregion were historically maintained by fire, both from natural causes and by First Nations. More than a century of fire suppression has contributed to loss of open grasslands due to shrub and aspen encroachment. The Area Burned Condition Class (ABCC) measure is designed to be evaluated and reported as a management effectiveness monitoring measure within the Waterton Lakes Conservation and Restoration (CORE) project (Rescue the Fescue).

Invasive plants can reduce biodiversity and compromise ecosystem function by out-competing native species, altering nutrient cycling, destabilizing soils and causing erosion, among other impacts. Prevention of colonization by weedy invaders is achieved through rapid restoration and reduced disturbance, both providing an advantage to native species to resist future invasions by non-natives. Jasper National Park monitors non-native species and carry outs control measures where non-native species have the potential to threaten vulnerable habitats and ecosystem in the Park.

Freshwater fishes are some of the most imperiled taxa worldwide as evident by the number of threatened and endangered species. For example, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife (COSEWIC) in Canada has listed bull trout (BLTR, Saskatchewan - Nelson Rivers populations) as “threatened” and westslope cutthroat trout (WSCT, Saskatchewan - Nelson Rivers
populations) have been listed as threatened under the Species at Risk Act (SARA Schedule 1). Parks Canada developed an occupancy
monitoring protocol to understand the relative distribution of both native and nonnative species, and to track these distributions over time. This occupancy survey program is being used to track replacement and/or displacement of our native species and could potentially track the efficacy of restoration
projects.

Fire plays an important role in maintaining health of forests and grasslands, and maintains biodiversity by creating a mosaic of varying age structure. The fescue grasslands of the Foothills Parkland Ecoregion were historically maintained by fire, both from natural causes and by First Nations. More than a century of fire suppression has contributed to loss of open grasslands due to shrub and aspen encroachment. The Area Burned Condition Class (ABCC) measure is designed to be evaluated and reported as a condition monitoring measure within the Parks Canada Agency National Ecological Integrity (EI) Monitoring program in all national parks with fire-dependent vegetation.

Terra Nova National Park monitors non-native mammal browse pressure on forest plant communities on transects and plots.

Kootenay National Park monitors invasive alien plants with the use of permanent, random stratified, belt transects established in the alpine. Occurrence frequency of all detected non-native species is recorded along a belt transect.