Goldeye Centre is much more than a building just outside of the west-central Alberta hamlet of Nordegg. It is a place many have called home throughout their summers over the past 65 years.

However, without more support , the camp may not be able to host anyone else or have another year of memories made around its campfires.

The Goldeye Centre was built in 1958 by the Junior Farmers Union as a space for youth to spend their summers making friends and learning life skills. What started as a few bunkhouses has grown over the years to accommodate the many groups that came through its doors.

The facility now has 24 hotel rooms, three cabins, seven bunk houses, a fourplex, a hostel, two dining halls, a commercial kitchen, meeting spaces and a seminar room with several other smaller spaces beside it.

“We used to boast that we were a hidden gem,” said Lanny Anderson, chief operating officer of Goldeye Centre. “I think in hindsight, we shouldn’t have been a hidden gem, because we’re in a time of need. Now we need to reach out to say we need help and those connections, those contacts, that awareness just isn’t there.”

Adults and youth from all over Alberta would come to Goldeye for summer camps, work retreats, quilting weekends and more. It was a place to escape, but recently the facility hasn’t been able to host people in the same way.

The two most important barriers were pandemic restrictions and required building maintenance that the group lacks the funds to perform.

The pandemic might have shut down camp operations, but it also revealed a nostalgic interest.

“We had a lot of people wandering around the province and stopping and some people who came to camp when they were kids in the ‘60s and the ‘70s, had no idea it [still] existed, [they] just came for a drive.”

The camp has had difficulty bouncing back after restrictions were lifted. It has been tough finding staff and the facility needs many updates to withstand the winter.

“Right now, you’re talking to 50 per cent of the staff,” said Anderson.

In 1983, the facility had sold close to 350 memberships, he said. Today that number is less than 20.

The diminishing number of participants isn’t surprising. It’s simple demographics in action.

“We’re starting to lose those people because they’re getting older,” said Colleen Zimmerman. She has been either a camper or volunteer for the past 45 years at Goldeye. However, as she looks to the future of the camp, she isn’t sure where the next generation of volunteers, staff and members will come from.

Despite worry for the future of Goldeye, both Anderson and Zimmerman are optimistic because of something they describe as the ‘Goldeye magic.’

“The stories that people tell about their experiences, they call it Goldeye magic,” said Anderson.

While neither of them believes there is a magical fix to the problems at the camp, the Goldeye magic is held in people’s memories and in sharing its stories.

With tears in her eyes, Zimmerman read a letter she wrote that calls for support.

“The most important thing I see at Goldeye is that it’s an investment, an investment in ourselves and our community, and our futures,” she wrote

The facility is looking for people to invest in its infrastructure, but more than that, it seeks people who want to invest in the next generation by helping repair and modernize the infrastructure – a generation that will learn and create memories in the same place many have done before them.

“We all know that good investments pay off in the long run,” read Zimmerman, “Yes, Goldeye is magic. And we all have to believe in magic.”

Anyone interested in supporting the organization can do so through the Goldeye Foundation at goldeye.org/goldeye-foundation.

The post Goldeye Centre seeks support for future appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The operation is a century farm that, from 1910 to 1998, was a mixed farming operation with mostly annual cropland and some native pasture.

In 1998, Doug and Linda Wray took over the operation and changed directions slightly by seeding down 1,000 acres of cropland to high-legume perennial pastures and focusing the operation on cattle and regenerative agriculture.

This change in their operation was a conscious decision to create an environment more conducive to the nature that surrounds them.

“Having the major component of our land base be perennials [has] been a very good thing for the birds and the bugs and the rodents that live on the ranch as well,” said Doug.

In 2015, nephew Tim Wray and his wife Joanne returned to the operation.

In his acceptance speech, Tim described stewardship as taking care of something that doesn’t belong to you. He described all farmers and ranchers as stewards of the land who care for something that was there long before them, and will be there long after.

“When we stop paying attention to our surroundings, we shrink,” said Tim.

Doug said cattle play a crucial role in the operation and have positive impacts on the environment.

Using electric fencing, they allow cattle to graze on a small portion of pasture at a time. Doug said they get about 30 per cent more days of feed from the field.

“By doing that, there’s less waste, they clean it up better and their diet is more consistent than if you just turn them into a field,” said Doug.

“And the other benefit [is that] livestock drop 85 per cent of what they eat back on the land. [This] recycling of energy has helped to increase the health of the soil and raise our organic matter. Our soils are now more open, they’re less dense, and they take in water more readily.”

The Wray Ranch utilizes a lot of its own resources to increase soil and grass health, in part by using cattle as natural fertilizer spreaders and grazing in increments.

Moving the cattle more frequently gives the land more time to rest and grow. Doug says that this is a part of regenerative agriculture.

“[Our cattle] graze a paddock for two or three days and then it gets 45 to 60 days’ rest,” said Doug. “And (it) turns out grass functions very well under that kind of intense graze, long rest scenario rather than having cattle on a quarter section of grass for a month or two at a time.”

Doug said it is important to understand the land and try new processes to protect the environment.

“It’s about improving the conditions and the state of our soil. Then I think we will leave it better then we found it.”

Another generation of Wrays will work with the land and the environment around them.

“Where the growth happens, that’s how we know where our roots are,” said Tim, noting the roots of family grow along with the roots and livestock in the fields.

The award was presented at the Alberta Beef Producers’ Stampede Summit on July 10, in conjunction with the Calgary Stampede. Alberta Agriculture Minister R.J. Sigurdson said the award was fitting recognition of the province’s history and future in cattle production.

“Alberta is a beef province, and we are proud of it,” he said.

The post Wray family honoured for environmental stewardship appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Despite a cool and wet day in late June, a full house of farmers made their way through the damp fields.

While a lot can be learned in a classroom or conference hall, field days allow farmers to see research under way and are an important aspect of Farming Smarter’s mission, says Sean Kjos, communications coordinator for the applied research organization.

“It [the field school] allows us to directly share the research we are doing at Farming Smarter and showcase researchers who are undertaking research that’s relevant to finding solutions for growers in our area,” said Kjos.

Cover crops are among the studies. Research scientist Gurbir Dhillon demonstrated roller crimping, a process primarily used on cover crops as a form of weed control that bends rather than cuts stalks. Done at the right time, it creates a layer of biomass that can improve soil health and help control weeds.

“If you can at least reduce herbicide applications, then it’s still helpful,” said Dhillon.

Complex questions

Maryse Bourgault is an assistant professor and Western Grains Research Foundation chair in integrated agronomy at the University of Saskatchewan. She said there are few scientific studies on cover crops in Western Canada because the Prairies have a varied set of obstacles for growing season and soil nutrients.

However, studies in processes like roller crimping can prompt further research and support for cover crops and encourage producers to experiment in their own fields.

Bourgault said many features are said to improve soil health but it isn’t as straightforward as it may seem because a unique combination of nutrients are needed from the soil for each type of crop. Her cover crops research explores options available to growers that fit their needs while improving soil health.

Kjos says conversations between producers and researchers are an important aspect of field days.

“They allow us to hear from producers in our area directly,” Kjos said. “The problem areas they’re experiencing on their farms directs our research proposals for the following years so we can continue to do relevant research.”

New crops

Other Farming Smarter research includes novel crops. The research team successfully grew rice this year as an experiment.

Research coordinator Mike Gretzinger showed a plot of upland rice grown in fields rather than flooded paddies, noting that flooding is a form of weed control in countries without access to other options.

Producers are obviously loath to experiment with crops unlikely to turn a profit, Gretzinger argues that growing a novel crop is a great learning tool.

“I like the challenge. You learn so much when you are first trying to grow a novel crop,” he said.

Kjos echoed that goal, which is important to Farming Smarter.

“Not only are farmers exposed to new research they could have been unaware of, but the events also provide the chance to gain new perspectives on practices they may be considering adopting or how they can improve those they’re currently undertaking,” said Kjos.

“Additionally, the nature of the events allows for attendees to meet new people and grow their networks.”

The post Soil health main topic of Farming Smarter field school appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“Whenever you see smoke in the air, everybody comes around,” said Jeff Lewandoski, chief of the Jenner volunteer fire department.

“We live an hour away from any major centre and if you had to wait an hour or more for a fire department to come, you would lose everything.”

As a volunteer firefighter and a farmer himself, Lewandoski said volunteer departments play a crucial role in fire management for farmers and ranchers. He has seen fires ravage crops, destroy lands and kill cattle but notes the impact on land owners goes much further than the initial burn.

“I think the biggest thing [is] the loss of grass, and the cost… of having to rebuild all the fences. And especially native grass, when it burns, if it’s leased land, they have to fence it off for three years and let the grass recover,” said Lewandoski.

READ MORE: Province fast-tracks grazing approval for evacuated livestock

These costs can add up quickly, creating a major financial burden on farming operations.

Andy Kirschenman farms outside of Hilda, northeast of Medicine Hat, and saw his land burned by wildfire in October 2017. He says he is still seeing the effects of that fire on his and his neighbours’ land.

“I think it was a [total of] 40,000 acres that were burned,” said Kirschenman.

Accompanied with 100 km/hour winds, the fire traveled fast and much of the area’s crop and grasslands were burned.

“Two or three weeks after that we had lots of high winds … and being that our area has no trees, there was lots of soil erosion,” said Kirschenman. That erosion had a longer-lasting impact.

“Just a fire where the ash stays where it burns, the nutrients are [still] there,” he said. “It was the winds that removed the nutrients and topsoil.”

Soil erosion is one of the greatest fire-related risks for landowners. As a fire burns, it destroys plant material and the litter layer of the soil. That layer is mostly made up of dead plant material that stabilizes the soil and aids in water absorption.

After a wildfire burns away this protection, there is nothing holding the soil together. Kirschenman says this can also cause soil to become hydrophobic, unable to retain moisture.

“It’s been really hard to regain that residue. It seems like the drift soil was almost water-repelling. We’d get rain, or pour water on it when we were still trying to fight the fire, and it would run off. You’d look under it and the water hadn’t soaked in at all. And I think we’re still seeing effects of that in some of the fields that we have.”

But Kirschenman has found ways to combat the situation.

READ MORE: Air quality deteriorates as wildfires rage in Western Canada

“We’ve seen the benefit of more cereals in our rotation just because we are trying to get our crop residue back to the levels that it was before.”

Wheat, oats and triticale have fibrous roots, which help stabilize soil, and the seeds can be planted deeper. The deep roots anchor the soil and begin to rebuild the litter layer.

As well as rotating in more cereal crops, Kirschenman says he has invested in more equipment that can be used in emergencies.

“We definitely have more equipment around in the area that can be used to fight fire. One thing we saw that day was … that the only thing to really slow it down is heavy equipment. There’s no amount of water you can dump on in time to put that kind of a fire out in those kinds of winds.”

Despite those safeguards, both Lewandoski and Kirschenman said the community has the biggest impact in fighting and rebuilding after a fire.

“We found our community really came together,” said Kirschenman. “So many people were affected, and I know it was something that actually brought the community together.”

Platforms like the Alberta Beef Producers Wildfire Resource webpage, which offers support and resources for those affected by wildfires, but the wider agriculture community has also come to help those affected. The webpage includes sources for emergency alerts and updates, livestock evacuation, insurance claims and mental health services.

Such information is vital for those affected by wildfires this spring. In Alberta, at press time, there were 53 active wildfires with 14 classified as out of control. Provincial wildland fire fighters were working to reduce those numbers and were calling volunteer fire departments from across Alberta to assist. Many are eager to help.

“[Volunteer firefighters] have a huge role… we’re closest to the scene. And… we’re usually there right away,” said Lewandoski.

He said most rural volunteer firefighters are also farmers and ranchers, people that work on the land and who have been personally affected by wildfires in the past. They are typically the first to see smoke and the first to respond.

The post Earlier fires offer insight for this year’s situation appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.