Liisa Jeffrey, executive director of Peace Country Beef and Forage Association (PCBFA), said the funding offered by the RSP is a good fit for her organization.

“We’re a forage-based research association and all of the research and everything that we are doing very much ties in with the goals of that program,” said Jeffrey.

This year, grant recipients for the 2024-2025 program include academic institutions, Indigenous organizations, non-profits and grazing associations. The RSP is funded by a portion of rental fees collected from grazing disposition holders on Crown land. The money is then reinvested into projects supporting responsible stewardship across Alberta’s rangelands.

“That’s money coming from ranchers set aside to benefit ranchers. It’s a good concept that the government has come up with,” said Lindsye Murfin, general manager of the Western Stock Growers Association.

The projects for this year include education and community outreach, adaptive grazing practices, conservation strategies, grassland bird conservation and bee biodiversity surveys.

Murfin said they submitted their application for the program in fall 2024, and funding was approved in March 2025.

The WSGA’s project is looking to develop a market for ecosystem services that would work best for ranchers.

“We have an index that we developed that measures ecosystem health, and you could take that, apply it to a parcel of land, get the score and then use the score in the marketplace,” she said.

“You could contract your management of that parcel to either keep your high score or improve it,” she said.

“Our project is fine tuning that index. We’re doing a market analysis and a cross jurisdictional scan of what metrics and measurables are already being used,” she said.

Next summer, the WSGA will be field testing the new index on ranches of stock grower members to make sure it works. WSGA is working with Solstice Environmental Management, and Green Analytics, both of which are based in Edmonton. These companies have started doing a scan of all market analysis in North America and Australia.

Field testing for the project will take place on 50,000 acres in Alberta.

Jeffrey said PCBFA has three projects funded by the RSP.

The projects include a silvopasture project, a liming project, and a perennials project.

“All three of them are three-year projects that started in 2024, so they’re in their second field season right now,” said Jeffrey.

The silvopasture project is a producer-led study that evaluates the potential benefits of grazing forest systems versus open pasture.

“That kind of intentional combination of trees, forage and livestock managed as a single integrated practice is what’s called a silvopastural system, and they have potential to provide a number of benefits to livestock and to the plant community,” she said.

Some of the benefits include increasing soil fertility and conservation, improving wildlife habitat and the quality of forage, and diversifying income. There are also some ecosystems benefits like atmospheric carbon sequestration and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.

“On top of that, trees and shrubs in these systems provide shade for animals, so that’s going to improve thermal comfort, which then improves the ability of animals to consume and digest adequate forage biomass, especially in hot weather conditions,” said Jeffrey. This research is being conducted on a ranch in High Prairie, in Big Lakes County.

The second project is a liming project, which is being run as a field study on a producer’s farm in Sexsmith. Adding lime to forages can increase soil pH, which is the primary outcome of the project.

For that project, agricultural lime, pelletized lime and wood ash (an industry by-product from a mill), are being tested to measure the impacts of PH on farm income and profitability.

“It’s assessing the economic feasibility and measuring the impact of liming over the three-year period, and the goals to design liming guidelines and management strategies, particularly for forage systems,” said Jeffrey. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to provide clear recommendations for producers. We’re seeing that soil acidity is a growing concern,” she said.

“When soils are strongly acidic, so 5.5 and under, the availability of many macronutrients for forages decreases and some elements will increase to toxic levels as well. So that’s a concern,” she said.

The Peace country, which contains the boreal forest, has a low pH and more acidic soils, so lime can increase the pH.

The third project is called the Longevity and Ecosystem Services of Perennial Forage Mixes.

Small plots were seeded in 2020, but the project will be monitored again between 2024 and 2026.

“We’re continuing to monitor the biomass production and feed quality of the forage itself, as well as water use efficiency and some soil health parameters,” she said.

A former PhD student who is now a staff member started this project to test water use efficiency, said Jeffrey.

“It’s been interesting because we have had some severe drought years in the time we’ve had these plots. We had our field day last week, and they had harvested these plots about two weeks before the field day and took their cut off them,” she said.

The project has highlighted the value of legumes in drought conditions.

“In the two very dry weeks since the plots were harvested, the only thing that has come back is legumes. None of the grasses have and the legumes look great, like they’re green, they’re up, they look fantastic,” she said.

The plots have been seeded with monoculture grasses, and everything in between, all the way up to monoculture legumes.

“We saw how strong of an impact those legumes had on the water use efficiency of the forage, and their ability to continue producing decent quality and decent quantity of forage in drought conditions,” said Jeffrey.

The project is now in its fifth year.

“We’re at the point where we are looking at how long can these plots continue producing a forage stand that’s worthwhile,” she said.

Jeffrey said there were other benefits to participating in the RSP.

“On the silvopasture project, we were able to get the rangeland specialists to come out to the site and do some of the data collection analysis with us. They looked at identifying all the species that were present and determined the proportion of the species that were there,” she said. “That was really cool.”

Jeffrey said the RSP is a great program, and she would encourage people to consider applying for it.

Applications for the program are now open for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. Applicants will be considered based on their knowledge and understanding of rangeland management. Applications are open until Sept. 17, 2025.

More information on the program and how to apply is available online.

The post Alberta invests $1.3 million in rangeland research appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

According to Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation, this program promotes the conservation and sustainability of the province’s rangelands, which provide ecological goods and services as well as sustainable and renewable sources of livestock forage.

It offers funding for collaborative projects between partners and stakeholders across the province that:

• Remove barriers to successful stewardship for rangeland managers to support economic, social and environmental outcomes.
• Support research programs that increase knowledge and understanding of rangeland management to achieve long-term sustainability outcomes.
• Support Albertans and industry stakeholders in their efforts to implement rangeland sustainability stewardship through education initiatives and tool development.

The provincial website at alberta.ca offers more criteria.

A few cases of projects that may receive funding include:

• applied research demonstrating adaptive range management practices;
• carbon sequestration research,
• extension and best management practices for rangelands; and
• climate change effects and adaptation on rangelands.

The Rangeland Sustainability Program is not open to individual Albertans. However, individuals may collaborate with eligible applicants to develop projects.

Eligible program applicants include academia and educational institutions; Indigenous communities and organizations; municipalities; non-government organizations registered under the Alberta Societies Act (ASA); and non-profit organizations (those that may not be registered under the ASA but are still considered not-for-profit).

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More than 1,400 feral horses roam across six equine management zones in Alberta. Some zones face significant challenges to long-term sustainability, the province says, because of the number of horses on the landscape.

Alberta’s public rangelands are productive ecosystems that support many land uses, including wildlife and livestock, the province noted in a recent release.

As the feral horse population grows, horses move into areas that are less able to support them. This puts pressure on other wildlife and livestock and creates challenges for ecological stability, the province says.

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“What a range health assessment does is provides a measure of how well rangelands are performing key functions,” said Ross Adams, range management specialist with Alberta Environment and Parks. “It would be difficult and expensive to go out and measure those functions directly, so the assessments are based on more easily observed indicators that can be rapidly evaluated.”

Healthy rangelands (whether native grasslands or tame pastures) may look different based on where they’re located, but they share something in common — long-term stability in all of their key functions, whether that’s producing forage, protecting the soil, capturing water, storing carbon, or supporting biodiversity.

So an assessment is really comparing the current state of the site to its potential, Adams said during a Cows and Fish webinar last month.

That potential depends on climate, soil, and landscape, but a provincial range health assessment guide outlines baseline parameters for different regions and sub-regions across the province. Once you know where the gaps are in your operation, you can evaluate whether your management practices are working effectively, said Adams.

“It provides a quicker and easier method than going out and trying to measure functions directly,” he said.

And that starts with training the eye so you can quickly see “the different components of rangelands and what their potential is.”

Site selection and plant communities

Start by choosing a representative site (or several if sites differ considerably).

“Some site types may show radically different vegetation or response to disturbance than others, so it’s helpful to evaluate them separately,” said Adams.

While it can be a fairly involved process to differentiate between site types, each will have a ‘reference plant community,’ or the plant community that can be found under light disturbance.

Rangeland plants typically fall into the categories of ‘decreasers,’ which are highly productive but decrease with disturbance, and ‘increasers,’ which are more tolerant of disturbance but less productive. Increaser plant species begin to invade the rangeland when decreasers become less dominant on the landscape.

“Under light grazing, the plant community is basically at its reference condition, and the score decreases as you see that shift from decreaser-dominated to increaser- and invader-dominated plant communities,” said Adams.

“Those are sites where communities have become so disturbed that they become invaded by non-native vegetation, and in many cases, those plant communities may not be able to revert back to reference conditions under realistic management.”

So the first step is simply taking a walk and making note of the most abundant plant species.

“If the plant community closely resembles the reference plant community, the site will receive a high score,” he said. “But as that site becomes more disturbed and decreaser species are beginning to be replaced by increasers and invaders, the score will be reduced.”

Layers, litter, and soil loss

Next, look at the physical structure of the plant community — “the layers the plants fit into and whether all of the expected layers are present on the site.”

Those layers are above and below ground, ideally including both shallow- and deep-rooted plants, as well as above-ground vegetation of different heights. Diversity above ground allows more efficient capture of energy and nutrients while different depths of root systems mean “they’re not all competing for the same nutrients.”

This measurement of range health is scored much like the first — take a walk and take a look. But instead of looking at individual species, look for different layers: Short grasses, tall grasses, forbs and shrubs, moss and lichen, even trees.

“The changes can be fairly subtle in grasslands — there’s not as many functional layers — but tall grasses tend to be the first to drop out under disturbance, and then we see a shift toward lower-statured plant communities with very little structure,” said Adams.

Next take stock of how much litter is on the soil surface.

To determine if you have enough litter, rake up all the dead plant material on the soil surface of a 50×50-centimetre plot. Then use the guide (available at www.alberta.ca/range-health.aspx) to see if your site has enough litter based on your region. More litter is usually better.

“It helps to shade and cool the soil surface, which helps to retain soil moisture and enhance forage production during dry periods,” he said. “It also protects soil from raindrop impacts, enhances infiltration, and reduces run-off, so erosion is less likely to happen where there’s adequate litter. It also contributes organic matter directly into the soil.”

Next, look for evidence of human-caused erosion or bare soil — emphasis on human caused.

“Especially in grasslands, there can be sites that are naturally unstable or have naturally occurring bare soil simply because they are in a topographic position or have some chemical characteristic that limits plant growth.

“In that case, instability or bare soil is not an indicator of human-caused disturbance, but rather just a natural characteristic of the site.”

Things such as soil loss, compaction, bare soil, and erosion are indicators that the site isn’t healthy or stable, so you’ll want to make note of these problems.

“The more widespread and severe the issue, the lower the score will be.”

Training the eye

Finally, look for noxious weeds.

“Weeds are an indicator that the plant community on the site has become stressed and is less able to compete with incoming invasive plants, which can be time consuming and costly to manage,” said Adams.

“It’s much easier to manage weeds if they’re in a couple of localized patches rather than spread out throughout the pasture. As weeds become higher in coverage or more widespread throughout the pasture, that will lead to a reduced score.”

Having done the assessment, think about what, if anything, you need to change in your management.

“Looking at those individual indicators can help to diagnose the specific management issue that’s causing the decline and will suggest how to address it,” he said.

“It’s worth looking at where in the indicators (that) the numbers are coming down. Is it an issue where the plant community is looking good but there are noxious weeds? Is there too little litter? Or are there broader-scale issues that are causing the plant community to shift?”

On most operations, conducting a formal health assessment — complete with guidebook and checklists — won’t be necessary every time you want a snapshot of your rangeland health. But when you’re starting out, these tools can help you train the eye.

“As time goes on and you have more experience, you can almost start doing these in your head. You’ll just know where to look and what you’re keeping track of.”

The post Eyeball your way to range health appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The Department of Interior, which oversees BLM, announced the move in letters to key congressional committees. The decision will save taxpayers US$50 million on costs like real estate, salaries and travel expenses and will locate BLM officials closer to the areas they serve, officials said.

BLM is charged with overseeing programs on vast swathes of public lands including grazing, oil and gas drilling and recreation.

Most BLM land is in the western U.S. and includes about 155 million acres of grazing land and rangeland in 14 states, among them Montana, North Dakota, Idaho, Washington and Alaska. U.S. cattle and sheep producers hold almost 18,000 grazing permits and leases on BLM-managed public lands.

The BLM will move 27 Washington-based staff to a new headquarters in Grand Junction, about 390 km west of Denver, and an additional 222 positions will be relocated to other agency offices in the U.S. west close to where their work is needed.

For instance, staff working on the agency’s timber program would move to Oregon, and those working on rangelands and grazing would move to Idaho.

Conservation groups were quick to say the move amounted to a dismantling of the agency by moving it away from the place where decisions are made. Such groups have been critical of the Trump administration’s efforts to open up more public lands to oil and gas drilling and to loosen environmental policies aimed at protecting federal lands.

In a statement, Center for Western Priorities executive director Jennifer Rokala called the move “another cynical attempt to drain the Interior Department of expertise and career leadership. Our public lands deserve an agency that is effectively co-ordinating with the Interior Department more broadly, and with Congress.”

On a conference call with reporters, BLM officials said such critics lacked an understanding of how the agency’s business is conducted.

“Most of the work of the bureau gets done at the state and local level,” said Joe Balash, Interior’s assistant secretary for land and minerals management.

Experienced BLM employees who choose to relocate will be able to mentor a new generation of BLM staff, he added.

— Reporting for Reuters by Nichola Groom. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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“Pollinators are critical to rangelands themselves, and the plants that are there,” said Cameron Carlyle, an assistant professor at the University of Alberta, who is not only studying the benefits pollinators provide, but tracking how well they are doing.

The range of pollinator species is diverse but they roughly fall into two groups, he said.

“Bumblebees, are the large fuzzy bees that we commonly think of when we think of bees. Solitary bees tend to be smaller and take many forms. Bees aren’t the only pollinators — moths, butterflies and flies are other insect pollinators — but generally most pollination done by insects in our grasslands is done by bees.”

Pollinators have “co-evolved” with native plant species, said Cary Hamel, conservation science manager of the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s Manitoba region.

“These ecosystems have been evolving for thousands of years,” he said.

Most ranchers think of rangelands in terms of their ability to produce grass for their cattle, but it goes beyond that. Healthy and productive rangelands have a diverse array of species, including native forbs (such as buffalo bean or pea vine) or introduced ones (such as clover or alfalfa).

“The productivity of that grass could be partially dependent upon forb (flowering plant) species that are present,” said Carlyle. “Anything that is flowering is going to be dependent upon pollination and a lot of that is dependent upon insect pollinators.”

So if pollinators disappear out of the rangeland ecosystem, then some plants, such as nitrogen-fixing legumes, will, too.

“If we start to lose (legumes) then we would see declines in productivity,” said Carlyle. “Not to mention the loss in diversity in forage types on the landscape.”

In Alberta, we don’t know if native pollinators are on the decline. But Carlyle said other research indicates bumblebee numbers are falling. The exact cause isn’t known but there are indications that their ranges are shifting and that a changing climate is a factor.

“Climate change is likely going to impact these native bees,” said Carlyle. “They are getting ‘squished’ as the climate changes because southern areas will become too warm for them but their populations can’t move north fast enough.”

Helping them out

So what can grazers do to sustain a diverse and abundant pollinator community?

Keeping your range in good health tops the list.

“Our research has found a fairly strong positive relationship between range health and bee diversity and bee abundance,” Carlyle said. “In general, a lack of invasive species, a diversity of plants, and the maintenance of structure is more conducive to a healthy pollinator community,” added Hamel. “If you have land with flowers or flowering plants, that’s a great start. Continue to maintain those habitats.”

Diversity is also a good thing as shrubs and forest, grassland, and wetlands provide a variety of habitat for different pollinators. However, in the Aspen Parkland zone, keeping open meadows and prairie areas intact and free from shrub and tree encroachment benefits pollinators.

Having different types of grasses also helps.

“Bunchgrasses can be really important in terms of where they nest,” said Hamel, noting butterflies complete their life cycle on the rangeland and the caterpillars will use grass as a source of food.

“Many native species are tied to native grasses.”

Having nearby tame pastures can also be a plus as they provide an additional food source for pollinators, which can travel several hundred metres or even, for some species, a few kilometres.

“Tame pastures usually have a significant floral component and they can play a role in conservation,” said Hamel, adding having different food sources at different times in the growing season “makes the landscape stronger.”

Both Hamel and Carlyle have seen different pollinator communities use different stages of rangelands at different times throughout the year.

“On recently grazed rangeland, the grazing resulted in a reduced litter layer, we suspect,” said Hamel. “It meant the site warmed up early in the spring and it had a greater abundance of pollinators in the springtime and a greater diversity.”

Large ranches, for example, that have a diversity of land uses and grazing approaches typically have a greater diversity of pollinators. And when rangeland borders cropland, particularly canola fields, both landscapes benefit.

“When we look at Alberta, or anywhere on the Prairies, there is this mosaic of different land uses — cropland and rangeland,” said Carlyle. “What we are also seeing is areas that have more rangeland, whether you’re in a canola field or in rangeland, if a piece of land is surrounded by more rangeland, you’re going to have more bees and a more diverse bee community.”

However, canola and other flowering crops only provide their abundance of pollen and nectar for a brief period, so rangelands are the key provider — and not only for food.

“Many bees nest in the ground or amongst dead plant material, so rangelands and other areas with undisturbed soils are important nesting grounds for bees,” said Carlyle. “Areas such as cropland where soils and the soil surface are regularly disturbed are less suitable nesting grounds.”

Both Hamel and Carlyle said there is little research on native pollinators — but both are working on changing that.

“As we learn more, I suspect there are going to be some surprises,” Hamel said.

The post You want pollinators to make their home on your range appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Whether it’s a simple or detailed plan, a few key components will not only save your grass, but maybe save you a few dollars in the long run. Adjusting your stocking rate will allow you to get good-quality forage and vigorous regrowth.

“Managing the amount of forage harvested has a significant effect on economics, mainly because of the effect it has on forage quality and rate of regrowth,” said Pete Deal, a rangeland specialist with the Florida branch of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the U.S. agency that helps farmers and landowners with conservation.

“Underutilization results in wasted forage and lower yields in terms of animal production. Excessive utilization will also result in lower yields and increased problems associated with weeds, soil erosion, and water quality issues.”

In a webinar last month, Deal and Idaho NRCS colleague Brendan Brazee gave a step-by-step guide to creating a grazing plan.

“A well-planned grazing system is the key to maintaining or improving productivity, health, vigour, and ecological condition,” said Brazee.

When developing a grazing plan, there are eight different elements to consider, he said.

Goals/objectives

They need to be clearly defined and written down, said Brazee.

“The objectives should be specific, measurable, achievable and able to occur within a given time frame.”

Resource inventory

“This is one of those important parts that often gets overlooked,” said Brazee. “Your resource inventory is a collection of all the information you know about the operation.”

This includes maps that identify land use and ownership, grazing units, structures (such as fences and water areas), areas of concern (poisonous plants, for example), soils, an animal inventory (both livestock and wildlife), and the location of key areas and monitoring sites. Also include any threatened or endangered species or areas of cultural significance.

Forage inventory and analysis of resource conditions

Knowing what is growing in your pastures is paramount, so devote some time to these two related parts of your plan, said Brazee.

“The inventory of expected forage quantity and quality, and species of each management unit for the whole area, should be noted. The production of each unit should be determined based on the available forage for both livestock and wildlife,” he said.

Adjustments need to be made if pastures have steep slopes or if there is a distance for the livestock to go for water. These areas may not be fully utilized, and therefore would have less available forage. Use terms you are familiar with, such as animal unit months per acre (AUMs/ac.). Any past history of grazing would also be useful.

“Stocking rate, type and class of livestock, season of use, brush management, and wildlife numbers (observed) should also be collected,” said Brazee.

Forage/animal balance

Along with ensuring there’s enough forage to meet the demand of animals and wildlife, also consider whether a few tweaks (such as brush management or water improvements) will make more forage available.

Deal said some ranchers he works with find it’s more profitable to understock pastures. By conservatively stocking, they reduce the need for purchased supplement feed or forage.

Grazing schedule

This is the heart of a grazing plan. It should be site specific and based on all the information that has been collected. It’s at this point you choose a grazing system.

“The system selected should consider economics and time constraints of livestock movement,” said Brazee. “It should also provide flexibility to adjust for climatic conditions and other factors.”

The schedule should span at least three years, and cover grazing periods, how many times a pasture is grazed during a season, rest (no grazing for 12 months), and deferment (resting for just part of a season).

“Livestock movement needs to be based on plant growth and recommended use levels, not calendar days,” said Brazee.

“The most profitable grazing systems reduce or eliminate the need for stored forages,” added Deal.

Contingency plan

“Flexibility is needed in any grazing management plan to adjust for changes in forage production, availability of water for livestock, drought, fire, floods, or other natural events,” said Brazee.

Listing potential problems in advance not only allows you to respond quickly if the number of grazing animals changes or feed or water becomes limited or unavailable, but also to take advantage when conditions are favourable and there’s more forage than expected.

Monitoring

Collecting data is key to ensuring your grazing management is working and for assessing stocking rates are correct for the plant types present. Select representative areas in different pastures, said Brazee, adding some pastures may have multiple key areas. However, don’t select areas where there’s animal concentration, stream crossings, water access points, or fencelines.

The bottom line

Having clear goals and objectives are the keys, Brazee said.

“Make sure they are smart, measurable, attainable, repeatable, and able to be completed in a timely manner,” he said. “Even though plans are recommended to be written for three years at a time, that plan is rarely followed completely after the first year after monitoring and adjustments to the plan. Flexibility is the key.”

The webinar can be found at www.conservationwebinars.net. A grazing template can be found at: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs141p2_023594.doc.

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The agreement will ensure rangeland studies continue at the historic research ranches of Stavely and Onefour.

In 2013, the future of both sites was thrown up in the air when the federal government decided to discontinue to use them following a round of budget cuts. The herd at Onefour was disbanded later that year, but the province stepped in to allow research to continue at both sites.

Stavely sits on 930 acres near the town of the same name midway between Calgary and Fort MacLeod. It was established by the federal government in 1949 and located in Foothills fescue region, which is susceptible to invasion by introduced plant species. One of the most comprehensive stocking rate studies in North America was created at Stavely, and is still ongoing.

Onefour, a 42,000-acre ranch south of Medicine Hat along the United States border, was was also set up by Ottawa (in 1927). Located in one of the driest areas of the province, it’s unique because of its biodiversity and species at risk, and is challenging to manage from a productivity perspective. At Onefour, plots have been used to monitor the productivity of grasslands in regards to long-term climate trends.

Both ranches have conserved valuable native prairie, flora, fauna, and wildlife habitat — and are considered “the birthplace for range management in Western Canada,” said Agriculture Minister Oneil Carlier. “Both sites have been examples of how land stewardship can lead to extraordinary results. In fact, the knowledge of grazing stewardship at Stavely has been instrumental in developing the good stewardship implemented by producers that conserves valuable Foothills fescue grasslands.”

The new deal will ensure this valuable research continues, said Edward Bork, director of the Rangeland Research Institute at the University of Alberta.

“If we didn’t have that agreement in place, those long-term studies would disappear,” he said.

“In agro-ecological work, the biggest payday comes when you run studies for five, 10, 20 years because you get the accumulative respects of how the ecosystem is responding, how the carbon is responding, how the biodiversity is responding, and so on.”

The ranches are utilized by local producers under grazing leases and they will continue to be full partners, he added.

“When we go in as researchers, they know what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and we have the opportunity to extend our results back to those same producers or the local rural community,” said Bork.

Stavely and Onefour will now be additional sites for research started at other university locations.

“We are now diversifying the work we are doing elsewhere,” said Bork, “for example, at Kinsella and at Mattheis (research ranches) where we are looking at drought effects and how that affects everything from grassland productivity to grassland health to greenhouse gas uptake.”

The sites will also be used for teaching students about topics such as grassland ecology, wildlife management, carbon sequestering and storage, impacts of climate change on rangelands, land reclamation, and grazing systems.

The post Historic research ranches won’t be riding off into the sunset appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Government Relations Minister Donna Harpauer on Monday announced the POV on non-arable (range) land such as pastures will be set via regulatory amendment at 45 per cent, up from 40.

POVs, set by the province, are used to calculate taxable assessments from land’s assessed values, calculated by provincial assessment appraisers.

In Saskatchewan, revaluations on land for tax purposes are done every four years, at which time POVs are also reviewed and, if need be, adjusted.

Taxable assessments are then multiplied by the mill rate, which is set by municipalities and the province for local and education property taxes respectively.

The POV on rangeland was set at 40 per cent in 2005, the province said, as a support for ranchers in the wake of the 2003 BSE crisis.

The update on rangeland for 2017 is meant “to reflect current values and to mitigate some of the tax shift onto cultivated agricultural properties.”

The value of Saskatchewan’s total taxable assessment on farmland has risen by over 100 per cent since the last revaluation in 2013, the province said.

The POV on cultivated agricultural land remains at 55 per cent, while the POV on residential, multi-unit residential and cottage properties will rise to 80 per cent, from 70. The commercial/industrial POV remains at 100 per cent.

Across all land categories, the value of Saskatchewan taxable assessment has risen from to $146 billion in 2017, from $108 billion in 2013.

“The ministry carried out extensive consultations last summer on projected revaluation-driven tax shifts,” Harpauer said Monday. “Municipalities have the tools to provide additional tax relief if they wish to do so.”

Education property tax mill rates are decided in the provincial budget process and are to be announced on budget day in March, the province said. — AGCanada.com Network

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“Grasslands store a lot of carbon and we should be proactively thinking about the value of that carbon, not to mention all the environmental goods and services they provide,” said Edward Bork, professor of rangeland ecology at the University of Alberta.

“In my opinion, that’s the reason why the retention of grasslands is so important. It adds social licence because these benefits are received together with forage production and livestock production.

“It’s one of the drivers for why grazing on public lands should continue.”

Grasslands are not only valuable for grazing, they’re also necessary for wildlife habitat.

“The conservation and retention of these grasslands is important and grazing is an important vector to help maintain them,” Bork said at a recent Alberta Forage Industry Network meeting.

Bork and his research team, in association with Alberta Environment and Parks, surveyed 114 sites throughout Alberta to study the effects of grazing. The sites were in the upper parkland, the upper foothills, the montane, and mixed grass areas of the province. The researchers measured biomass, carbon stores, and the diversity of plants species.

“Grazing is an intrinsic step to help us maintain plant biodiversity,” said Bork. “It knocks down the vigour of the dominant grasses and allows other species to increase in the understory.”

The largest and most significant results were seen in foothills fescue sub-region, southwestern Alberta, and in the central parkland.

The researchers found only 10 per cent of plant communities consisted of introduced plant species. Dry mixed grass and the parkland had the same abundance of introduced species, whether or not there was grazing. The only places where more introduced species appeared was in the wetter environments, like the montane or the upper foothills. The increase in introduced species also coincided with greater productivity and increased diversity in the grazed environments in the montane and upper foothills.

This all translated into a boost in production.

This is a good thing for cattle ranchers, but it may also be a good thing for wildlife habitat and management.

Grazing also helped to mitigate or reduce the presence of shrubs in the montane and upper foothills.

“With fire suppression, we’ve seen large-scale shifts in that part of Alberta, away from grassland to shrubland-dominated habitats,” said Bork.

Grasslands are enormous carbon captures. Worldwide, they contain over 50 per cent of the world’s organic carbon. The amount of carbon in the soil helps offset the rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

But converting grassland into other land use can have a significant impact on carbon storage and carbon release.

“We’re losing up to 20 to 50 per cent of the carbon through land-use conversion. These are staggering numbers when you think of it,” said Bork.

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