Common tansy: Has yellow, button-like flowers and can grow 1.5 metres tall. It impacts stream banks and native grasslands and outcompetes native plants. It also produces a toxic compound harmful to cattle and wildlife.

Yellow flag iris: A wetland plant with pale-yellow flowers that have six segments (three downward-facing petals and three erect petals) with delicate purple flecks.

Purple loosestrife: Still sold in some places as an ornamental plant, it crowds out most native vegetation and creates near monocultures. A single plant can produce over two million seeds each year.

Leafy spurge: Has yellow-greenish flowers, and its leaves and stems have a white, milky sap. It spreads quickly in open areas and threatens habitats, such as tall grass prairie.

Common toadflax: Has smooth green stems and numerous hairless leaves which are wide and pointed at both ends. Densely spaced flowers are bright yellow with an orange spot like snapdragon flowers, to which they are related.

For detailed descriptions and photos, go to the ‘invasive species gallery’ at natureconservancy.ca.

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“When my family first came to this area in the 1920s, this was one of the last places people wanted to settle down,” said Shane Hansen, the third generation to work the land. “The snowfall was too deep and it was too remote.”

The Hansen family — Shane, wife Laurel and sons Riley and Carter — took over the operation in 2003 and last month announced their conservation agreement with the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

The agreement voluntarily restricts development rights on the 903-acre property, which contains several important habitats. It is located in an area referred to as the Crown of the Continent, home to wide-ranging mammals including grey wolf, wolverine, Canada lynx and fisher. It also adds to a buffer zone of protected properties surrounding Waterton Park that has helped conserve more than 44,000 acres.

Hansen Ranch is located in the headwaters region of southern Alberta. This area covers only four per cent of the province but provides fresh drinking water to 45 per cent of Albertans. Boundary Creek, a tributary of the St. Mary River, runs through the property.

It will continue to be a working ranch.

“Now my son, Carter and his wife Megan, live on the very first quarter section of land that my family bought, and he is now a shareholder in Hansen Ranches Cattle Company Ltd.,” said Shane. “He will eventually take over the farm and keep it going in the family.”

The project received funding from both the provincial and federal governments. A portion of the project was donated under the federal Ecological Gifts Program, which provides enhanced tax incentives for individuals or corporations who donate ecologically significant land.

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“From the day our White Moose Ranch first acquired this breathtaking property in 1992, I knew that we needed to find a way to preserve it in its natural state,” said Carscallen.

“We share a three-mile boundary on our south side with the OH Ranch. Over the years, I frequently spoke with our friend, Doc Seaman, about realizing a mutual dream of working together to create a single, contiguous block of conserved land extending from the Highwood River to the Sheep River that could never be developed or subdivided.

“This donation completes that dream, and my family and I are proud to be part of that accomplishment.”

The conservation agreement entered into by Carscallen (a well-known Calgary lawyer who grew up on a ranch near Priddis), wife Eva Friesen, and sons Brock and Gavin covers a 2,000-acre portion of the ranch, located just west of Turner Valley. When combined with the OH Ranch property it has created “a massive block of conservation lands that create a wildlife corridor approximately eight kilometres wide and 10 kilometres long, between the Highwood and Sheep rivers and adjacent to Kananaskis Country,” the Nature Conservancy of Canada said in a news release.

The conservation agreement allows the cattle operation to continue while preventing subdivision or development of the property. The provincial Land Stewardship Grant and federal Natural Areas Conservation Program supported the project with a portion of it donated to Nature Conservancy under the federal Ecological Gifts Program (which offers enhanced tax incentives for donations of ecologically significant land).

The land covered by the agreement has a mix of native fescue grasslands, montane forests and riparian areas that provide habitat for a large number of animal species.

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This ferruginous hawk nesting platform was installed last month on a conservation site located in the Milk River Ridge. The Nature Conservancy of Canada and FortisAlberta teamed up on the project aimed at boosting the population of the endangered bird.

Ferruginous hawks are only one of two species of birds of prey that use grasslands (the other is the burrowing owl). Ground squirrels account for 90 per cent of the hawks’ diet. But their numbers have declined sharply, mainly because of loss of nesting habitat. They are very sensitive to human disturbance and prefer not to nest close to gravel roads, power lines, development, or farmland.

The nesting platform was donated by the Alberta Conservation Association, and the nest was built by local youths during the Southern Alberta Youth Range Days.

Ferruginous hawks nest across the Great Plains, but most of their Canadian range is in southern Alberta. They build their nests in low trees, on the ground, or on badlands cliffs like this hoodoo.

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The Ferrier property, located 125 kilometres east of Red Deer, has 256 acres of wetlands and shoreline habitat that is home to deer, grassland birds, shorebirds, and waterfowl. Several species considered at risk have been spotted on the property, including Baird’s sparrow and Sprague’s pipit. One-third of the land consists of increasingly rare native grassland — less than five per cent of native fescue grasslands remain in Canada.

The property was donated by the late Agnes Isabelle (Nancy) Ferrier, who left the property to the conservancy in her will. Her father John and uncle Tom had homesteaded on the property after emigrating from Scotland in 1904.

“The family is absolutely delighted,” said Sylvia Walters, a member of the Ferrier family. “John and Nancy, the children of the John Ferrier who settled here from Scotland, never had any children of their own, so this was their wish.

“This property has come full circle, from being homesteaded in 1904 to going back to nature the way it was in 1904.”

The Nature Conservancy of Canada has helped protect more than 2.8 million acres nationally, including more than 280,000 acres in Alberta. The provincial and federal government and other donors contributed to the securement and ongoing stewardship of the Ferrier conservation project.

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When it was founded in 1882, Oxley Ranch covered 200,000 acres, making it one of the four largest ranches in the foothills. The remaining 2,266 acres will now be preserved from cultivation, drainage of wetlands, subdivision and development of the land.

“This land is our family’s legacy; it’s been my personal sanctuary for my entire life,” said landowner Jennifer Barr, whose family has been living on the ranch since 1919. “I have a great appreciation for what my grandmother, my aunt, and my stepfather all sacrificed to hold on to this ranch. I have always felt a great responsibility to care for it, to preserve it, for future generations.”

The southern foothills are a priority for the Nature Conservancy as the region is one of the last pieces of relatively intact fescue grasslands in the province. It’s estimated that less than five per cent of native fescue grasslands remain in the country, making this area one of the most threatened regions of Canada.

“It is a precious piece of God’s country that can never be replaced once it’s gone,” said Barr. “Knowing that it will remain as it is and will be protected from now on gives me great comfort.”

The ranch looms large in Alberta’s ranching history and was associated with the Fort Macleod-Calgary Trail — the primary north-south transportation route prior to the Calgary and Edmonton Railway. It is located near several other properties that have reached agreements with the Nature Conservancy, including the Welsch Ranch, Waldron Ranch, and King Ranch. All are located in the headwaters region of southern Alberta — an area that covers only four per cent of the province but provides fresh drinking water to 45 per cent of Albertans. The southern foothills remained mostly ranch country until the mid-1990s, but ranch economics cannot compete with land prices paid by urban developers.

Oxley Ranch is home to a variety of bird species, including prairie falcons and bald eagles, as well as native plant species, which grow along the banks of Willow Creek, which runs through the property for several miles.

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The iconic 30,535-acre ranch, located along the Cowboy Trail (Highway 22) northwest of Lethbridge, is home to the largest intact native fescue grassland remaining on the eastern slopes of Alberta’s Rocky Mountains. It connects the 70,000-acre environmentally significant Bob Creek Wildland Park (Whaleback), to the 97,000-acre Porcupine Hills Forest Reserve.

The conservation agreement ensures the land will continue to be utilized as a working landscape and preserves habitat for numerous wildlife species that depend on this corridor. It prohibits development, subdivision, cultivation or drainage.

That will protect headwaters of streams and rivers, as well as species at risk, such as golden eagles and ferruginous hawks, that have been observed on the ranch.

“The Waldron Grazing Co-op and the Nature Conservancy of Canada have created an alliance that will ensure that the Waldron Ranch will remain intact, healthy, and agriculturally productive for ever. We are proud of this accomplishment,” said Tim Nelson, chair of the 72-rancher co-operative.

The total project cost more than $37.5 million, with co-op members making the largest donation. The province contributed $12.2 million while Ottawa provided $4 million and the Calgary Foundation provided $1 million.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada has conserved more than 234,000 acres in Alberta.

• More from the Alberta Farmer Express: Historic conservation agreement reached for Waldron Ranch

The story of Waldron Ranch

Ecology

• Comprised primarily of native habitat in a broad valley between the Bob Creek Wildland Park to the west and the Porcupine Hills Forest Reserve to the east.
• Rough fescue grasslands dominate, but the ranch also has extensive and diverse montane ridges and riparian areas, as well as Douglas fir and lodgepole pine forests and aspen woodland.
• Habitat for grizzly bear, black bear, cougar, golden eagle, ferruginous hawk, moose, white-tailed deer, bald eagle, and wild turkey.
• Part of an ecosystem that once extended from the Rocky Mountains to Winnipeg, a 1,300-kilometre stretch that was the North American equivalent to (and triple the size of) Africa’s Serengeti. Only 0.5 per cent of this area remains and is known as The Last Five Miles.

History

• First ranched in 1883 as The Walrond Cattle Ranch, with 8,500 head of Hereford and Polled Angus cattle from Montana grazing 260,000 leased acres.
• When the original ranch ceased operations in 1908, most of the land was first leased but eventually sold with the Waldron Grazing Cooperative becoming the owners in 1962. The co-operative was established by Ed Nelson, Bill Greig, Ellis Oviatt, Axel Sundquist and Bernie Kokesch. Many of the original shareholders were southern Alberta grain farmers who also raised cattle and needed summer range for their animals.

Quotes

“I grew up in Alberta’s foothills; our family ranch is just outside of Waterton Park. I’ve travelled all over the world and haven’t seen anything as pretty. They should be preserved.”

– Corb Lund, Canadian country music artist

“Preserving large chunks of rangeland such as the Waldron Ranch on Alberta’s eastern slopes is a very good thing;
Good for the elk, bear, deer and all the wildlife that shares the fescue grasslands.
Good for the rivers and streams that filter and bring our clean water.
Good for the beef cattle that begin their lives in an open-range environment.
Good for the urban folks driving Highway 22 to give their kids a glimpse of our last golden west.
Good for my soul.”

– Ian Tyson, singer-songwriter, cowboy

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