Alberta Forestry, Parks and Tourism has fast-tracked its processes to allow grazing lease, licence and permit holders to more quickly accept wildfire-displaced livestock on their land. The main condition is that key information be reported in short order.

“This is a temporary change just for this year because we have so much livestock and so many grazing leases from up north that are burnt out,” said Lindsye Murfin, manager of the Alberta Grazing Leaseholders Association.

“So we need to find alternate feed and alternate places for these livestock to go until they can get back onto the land they are normally grazed on. If leaseholders can easily open up their lease land and give cattle places to go, it’s going to be better for everybody.”

Participating grazing disposition holders must remain responsible for stewardship of the disposition and ensure rangeland health is maintained. They also must report additional livestock and any measures taken with supplemental feeding to their local rangeland agrologist within seven calendar days.

Finally, the use of the disposition by other livestock must be reported on the holder’s stock return.

Under normal circumstances, a grazing disposition holder hoping to put another producer’s livestock on their lease would need permission from the provincial government, typically by way of a rangeland agrologist who serves as contact between the leaseholder and the government.

That rule still applies in situations where cattle haven’t been displaced by wildfire, said Murfin.

The rules around supplemental feeding on grazing dispositions are primarily intended to protect local ecosystems from noxious weeds and other invasives in feed, she said.

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

“Normally, you have to get it OK’d with the rangeland agrologist but right now, because we’re in an emergency and trying to find feed for these animals that are being displaced, they’re just saying go ahead and do this and follow up with your agrologist afterwards.

“They’ll have to follow up with the control of weed species or any sort of clean-up or buffers.” 

Although these changes are a call-out to the charity of disposition holders, accepting new animals can be risky, especially in an environment still recovering from the drought of 2021, said Murfin.

“Adding more animals, especially at this time of year, can negatively impact forage production down the road and overall stewardship of the rangelands,” she said in a follow-up email.

“A lot of Alberta is still in recovery from drought so the decision process when adding more animals to a certain land base has to take that into effect.”

In many cases the forage capacity simply isn’t there.

“There are many leaseholders who would take on more animals but they simply don’t have the pasture forage production to feed them. The decision all comes down to ‘do I have forage to feed extra cows and my own cows?’ and in a lot of areas the answer is no.”

Producers with displaced cattle have other options as well. Alberta Forestry is accepting applications for temporary grazing on vacant public lands. More information is available at 310-LAND (5263).

“In the interim, the best options to hold and feed livestock are rodeo grounds, exhibition grounds and auction markets which have the needed infrastructure,” said Alberta Forestry in a news release.

READ MORE: Canada on track for worst-ever wildfire season

The ministry reported that many areas of the province had sub-optimal grazing conditions even before the wildfires.

“Central and northwestern Alberta and localized parts of the province are experiencing dry conditions, resulting in slower than usual green-up of grazing lands for livestock,” it said.

“The situation was further exacerbated in the first week of May 2023 when an extremely large number of out-of-control wildfires and wind events resulted in numerous evacuations and expansive areas of private and Crown land being burned.”

The post Province fast-tracks grazing approval for evacuated livestock appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The new Rangeland Grazing Framework recognizes that the stewardship of ranchers is critical to the health and future of Crown lands, said two signatories to the new agreement.

“It helps to solidify the place that leaseholders have in the management of Alberta Crown rangelands,” said Kyle Forbes, chair of the Alberta Grazing Leaseholders Association. “It also helps solidify that it’s a partnership between the province and the leaseholders to manage those rangelands.”

Recognizing “collaborative management” is key, said Bill Smith, a rancher from Grovedale and president of the Northern Alberta Grazing Association.

“For myself, it’s a very important document (and) not only for current producers. It helps build the confidence for new and young ranchers looking to invest in the future of grazing on Crown rangeland.”

The document, which can be found online, states that rangelands were shaped by grazing and that must continue even though herds of bison no longer roam on them.

“Today, livestock are often managed to mimic the traditional grazing and migration activities of wild bison and ungulate populations,” the document states.

“We’re just making sure that we are working towards the same goals and making sure that ranchers are still economically viable, while managing, protecting and conserving Alberta’s rangelands,” said Forbes.

Crown rangelands and grazing leases are critical to Alberta’s cattle industry. There are 5,700 grazing leases in the province covering approximately eight million acres, and about 20 per cent of Alberta’s herd is grazed on leased land.

“In southeastern Alberta, grazing leases can make up a fairly substantial part of cattle operations,” noted Forbes, who ranches near Suffield.

Many leases are on native grasslands.

“Managing that landscape with a large grazing species to help increase the biodiversity and maintain the role of those rangelands is important,” he said.

Work on the agreement began more than two years ago, when the provincial government held a grazing summit and invited representatives from the Alberta Beef Producers, the Alberta Grazing Leaseholders Association, the Northern Alberta Grazing Association, the Western Stock Growers Association, the Rocky Mountain Forest Range Association and the Canadian Cattle Association.

“For my family, this has been a huge thing because it’s a joint effort,” said Smith. “We’ve been at the table with the government and we’ve hacked through this so we can get it so it’s right. I’m pretty confident now in what we’re doing.”

The framework has a list of objectives for managing rangelands, and specific “tactics” for achieving them. These include recognizing the leaseholder at the “designated steward of the land” along with promises to “streamline regulatory applications” and “provide long-term, renewable dispositions to proven grazing stewards.”

The agreement also pledges to develop a process for dealing with situations when stewardship goals aren’t being met and to “work collaboratively to achieve desired outcomes through education on best practices.” It also sets out a process for involving leaseholders when proposed land-use changes are being considered.

In recent years, the government had increased red tape and regulatory burden on leaseholders, said Smith.

“It was sort of like we were under attack,” he said.

But the new framework recognizes the efforts of producers in a positive way.

“The government had always supported ranchers being on the land because we’ve always had the grazing act to fall back on,” said Smith. “But this here shows that they are very supportive of what we’re doing. It just shows that we’re doing the right thing. We’re managing those lands for all Albertans, not just for ourselves, and trying to do the best job.”

It also gives producers the confidence to spend money on improvements.

“I’m part of a few different leases,” said Smith. “Just to invest, it costs so much money. We worked up some land in the north. The dollar value is so huge when doing investments.”

That makes it critical to have a long-term agreement, he said.

“You feel more confident for your family’s sake when you go to pass this down and have the next generation take over, and they can do more improvements and keep making the land better and better as we move on from generation to generation.”

The post Historic document protects the role of grazing on Crown lands appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The Alberta Grazing Leaseholders Association and other groups have been lobbying the province for years for changes to the rental rate formula “so that it would reflect the true costs of holding a grazing lease.”

But a confidential survey sent out to a random sample of leaseholders earlier this year was met with a “very poor” response, said the association.

“It is crucial to have accurate and up-to-date data of leaseholder costs, which is then reflected in the rental rate formula,” the association said. “Our efforts to work with (Alberta Environment and Parks) to have a rental rate formula based on industry costs will be futile if not enough grazing leaseholders complete and return the survey.”

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