Reading Time: < 1 minute Ducks Unlimited Canada has opened a new office in Strathmore. It will house an expanded number of wetland restoration and conservation staff and will complement DUC’s current network of personnel who already work in southern and central Alberta with landowners, communities and municipal governments within the counties of Acadia, Cypress, Wheatland, Foothills, Newell, Paintearth, Taber, […] Read more
Ducks Unlimited Canada opens Strathmore office
Running the ruler on what works best
Project takes a high tech appraoch to rate the value of wetlands
Reading Time: < 1 minute To answer the question ‘What is a wetland worth?’ the Alberta Land Institute will be going high tech in the Nose Creek watershed project. The province uses letter grades — A, B, C, and D — to rate the functional value of wetlands. To assign a grade, project officials will employ a type of aerial […] Read more
What’s it worth? New project aims to nail down the value of wetlands
Innovative new project features a reverse auction in which producers ‘bid’ on the compensation they’d want for giving up acres
Reading Time: 4 minutes Wetlands often present a difficult choice for producers — keep them for their environmental value or drain them for the sake of the bottom line. Until recently, converting wetlands to croppable land was commonplace, and even encouraged by government projects that paid farmers to drain them. Wetlands advocates know it will take compensation to reverse […] Read more
Carbon storage could equal cash for your grass
Reading Time: 2 minutes Alberta farmers who practise no-till cropping have been eligible to apply for carbon credits since 2002. We know that grasslands capture and store carbon, so why aren’t landowners with pasture getting paid for their contribution? That’s the focus of a University of Alberta study on the environmental benefits of things such as wildlife habitat and […] Read more
Nominations sought for pollinator award
Reading Time: < 1 minute Nominations are being sought for the 2015 Canadian Farmer-Rancher Pollinator Conservation Award. Individuals or families in Canada currently implementing pollinator protection measures on their farm or ranch are encouraged to apply. The award recognizes farmers and ranchers who have made significant efforts in conserving natural ecosystems, fostering additional pollinator habitat, and protecting pollinators. The recipient […] Read more
Nominees for Environmental Stewardship Award sought
Nomination deadline is July 1
Reading Time: < 1 minute The Alberta Beef Producers is seeking nominations for the 2016 Environmental Stewardship Award, which recognizes cattle producers whose natural resource stewardship practices contribute to the environment and enhance productivity and profitability. The winner will receive a commemorative gate sign, a video highlighting their ranching operation, and an all-expenses-paid trip from anywhere in Alberta to the […] Read more
Going ‘off label’ is a bad idea all around when it comes to pesticides
You can not only be fined, but also put your customers, the environment and your business at risk
Reading Time: 2 minutes The practice of ‘off-label’ spraying is not only illegal and can result in severe fines, but can also be very dangerous for your clients, your livelihood, and the environment, says a provincial commercial horticulture specialist. “Horticultural chemicals and pesticides often have the dubious distinction of being more expensive than their field crop cousins. In order […] Read more
Harmony Beef slaughter plant opening pushed back
Rich Vesta says plans to open last summer were ‘totally unrealistic’ but the venture continues to move forward
Reading Time: 2 minutes It was supposed to open last summer, but the owner of Harmony Beef says it will be a while yet before his plant starts slaughtering cattle. “Quite honestly, when we started, we were overaggressive in our time frame,” said Rich Vesta, an American businessman and former top executive in the U.S. meat-packing industry. Vesta completed […] Read more
Study finds riparian areas can restore themselves
A study in Oregon wildlife refuge finds ‘passive restoration’ can have a dramatic impact after cattle removed
Reading Time: 2 minutes Simply removing cattle may be all that is required to restore many degraded riverside areas. An Oregon State University study found removal of cattle from Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge in eastern Oregon helped to rehabilitate the natural environment. Riparian, or riverside, vegetation is particularly susceptible to the effects of grazing because cattle tend to […] Read more
Questions and answers on sustainable beef
Reading Time: 2 minutes Just what exactly does “sustainable beef” mean and who is deciding on the definition? The who is the members of the Global Roundtable on Sustainable Beef. There are now several hundred but the key players are companies such as Walmart, JBS, and Cargill, the World Wildlife Fund, and producer groups, including the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association. […] Read more
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