History Of The Park

In the 1960s, a Belgian sheep farmer, B.N. Weerts, obtained a concession of 100 gashas of land in the Gaysay Valley, north of Dinsho town. He constructed his accommodation at Dinsho Hill which later became the nucleus of the Park Headquarters and location of the BMNP lodge. Subsequently, he decided to abandon the concession due to the unpleasant and unsuitable weather conditions for sheep farming, but suggested that the area had great potential for wildlife conservation. During the same period, Leslie Brown made two journeys (in 1963 and 1965) to the Bale Mountains to investigate the status of the mountain nyala, which he knew to be endemic to Ethiopia and, upon his return to Addis, recommended that a National Park be established to conserve the thriving populations of mountain nyala and other wildlife that he unveiled in the area. Brown’s recommendation was accepted by John Blower, the then advisor to the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Organisation (EWCO).  EWCO was formed in 1965 and in 1970 gained autonomous status with the responsibility to “establish, develop and administer national parks for wildlife, game reserves and other conservation areas designed to provide for the better protection of the fauna and flora, and for purposes of education and scientific research” [Article 3(1) of Wildlife Conservation Order, 1970].  Peace Corps volunteer Curtis Buer carried out the first organised survey of area to be established as a National Park in 1969 and the BMNP was officially declared in 1970 under EWCO’s mandate. BMNP was never formally gazetted by parliament, but the boundary was later described (EWCO 1974) and it was thereafter treated as a National Park. Weerts’s initial infrastructure became the Warden’s residence, park office, store and visitor accommodation, while the sheep camp by the Web river bridge became game scout accommodation and a horse stable. A succession of Peace Corps volunteers including Buer, Golobitsh, Waltermire and Lilyestrom served as wardens of the Park for more than five years followed by Ethiopian wardens such as Tesfaye Hundessa, Abbay Tadesse and Yitayal Kebede.