Reading Time: 5 minutes The Eastern Slopes are what many people picture when they think of Alberta — a sweeping landscape of grass and rolling hills giving way to forests and ridges framed by the majesty of the Rocky Mountains. But all that beauty masks serious issues, including the considerable strain on riparian areas. Key to the effort to […] Read more
Foothills ranchers share rules for water resiliency
Keep it simple: Riparian areas play an outsized role in vital watersheds, and caring for them isn’t complicated
Cowboys and conservation: The battle for the Eastern Slopes
The fight to stop new coal mines in this iconic Alberta landscape is far from over
Reading Time: 5 minutes Nearly three years after the province tried, and failed, to open the Eastern Slopes to coal mining, this iconic piece of Alberta is still under threat, say those who live and work there. “We have to make sure that this land is going to continue for generations,” said Laura Laing, a Nanton-area rancher and part […] Read more
Restoring marginal lands can be a long-term money-maker
New conservation program offers $125 per acre to seed unproductive annually cropped lands to forages
Reading Time: 4 minutes Alberta producers are finding a way to make their marginal lands pay, with a little help from Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC). “Not all parts of a field are created equal,” said Darwin Chambers, head of DUC’s conservation programs in Alberta. “There can be certain areas of a field — often low-lying areas — that just […] Read more
New calculator estimates the dollar value of Prairie wetlands
The USask tool aims to show that wetlands are worth far more to society than usually thought
Reading Time: 3 minutes A new online tool developed at the University of Saskatchewan will help both policy-makers and producers estimate the value of wetlands across the Prairies. “When we push for wetland conservation, sometimes the language that our leaders and policy-makers understand best is the dollar value,” said researcher Eric Asare, who led the project for the USask […] Read more
Rancher goes from ‘naive’ novice to Alberta’s Outstanding Young Farmer
Reading Time: 4 minutes Ten years ago, Alberta’s newest Outstanding Young Farmer wasn’t even a farmer. He was a lot of other things — an engineer; an environmentalist; a former vegetarian — but although he had family who ranched, Ben Campbell was never a farm kid, and never really thought he would be. But when he learned about the […] Read more
U.S. aims to double cover crop planting to address climate change
Farmers in 11 states to be eligible for program
Chicago | Reuters — The United States aims to double the country’s cover crop plantings to 30 million acres by 2030 under a new Department of Agriculture (USDA) conservation program launched on Monday. The agency’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) will spend US$38 million to help farmers in 11 states plant crops at a time […] Read more
Doing the right thing in the right way is the key, says award-winning rancher
Brazeau County’s Duane Movald has been a keen supporter of ALUS, and the feeling is mutual
Reading Time: 4 minutes [UPDATED: Oct. 28, 2021] When it comes to conservation, Duane Movald looks beyond his farm gate. “How we manage what we do on the farm is part of the bigger picture,” said the owner of Movald Ranches. “This is a tiny little spot on the Earth, but providing an ecosystem service here helps everyone. “In […] Read more
Using a conservation assessment as a springboard
Program offers a check on wildlife and ranch health, and works with ranchers to make improvements
Reading Time: 4 minutes Sometimes, you don’t know what you’ve got until you have a wildlife habitat assessment done. That was the case for Melissa and Murray Downing, who were among the first to participate in a relatively new initiative by the Alberta Conservation Association. “We learned a lot about the different species that exist here,” said Melissa who […] Read more
Putting Mother Nature’s water filter to the test
It’s called phytoremediation and using native species as filters could be big for the feedlot sector
Reading Time: 3 minutes Walking through the wetlands at Olds College is an education unto itself: Native plants and trees line every path that loops around 20 constructed ponds where waterfowl swim and songbirds flit from cattail to cattail. But the wetlands are also home to something equally important — wetland research. “Managing resources like water is critical,” said […] Read more
New grazing stewardship program for 6,000 Prairie acres
Program has a component to help ranchers adopt multi-paddock grazing and regenerative agriculture
Reading Time: 3 minutes After growing its acres by 20 per cent last year, ALUS has lined up two big sponsors for a new initiative called Grazing Forward that will fund stewardship projects on 6,000 acres of Prairie ranchland. “A&W Canada and Cargill will together provide $1.8 million to support ranchers in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba as they continue to […] Read more
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