WINNIPEG – As long as there’s not too much rain, the new lakes in western Manitoba that once were fields should slowly start to dry up.
“Things are generally moving in the right direction,” said Rick Bowering, a river forecaster with the province’s natural resources department.
Bowering said the Assiniboine River has had its second peak at most places in western Manitoba, and water levels are a little lower than three weeks ago. The first peak on the river is from runoff and the second peak came after releases from the Shellmouth Dam.
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At Russell, reeve Wayne Collins said he’s looking at rebuilding about 50 washed-out roads and culverts in the area.
“We’re just sitting and waiting and hoping this water goes down so we can get the clean-up job done.”
Snow has been melting in the Riding and Duck mountains, causing higher but manageable levels on the Turtle, Ochre and Vermillion rivers.
“We managed to dodge a bullet this weekend,” said Bowering. “There was a forecast of 25 millimetres of rain which didn’t materialize. We were really nervous about that.”
He’ll be keeping an eye on the skies for the next few weeks since a heavy rainfall could seriously affect already swollen rivers.
Agriculture Canada’s Brandon centre is sharing the pain of farmers who have land along the Assiniboine.
Director Al Robertson said more than 250 acres of the centre’s land is under water. More than half is grass-legume permanent hay and pastureland.
“It’s quite questionable whether that will survive all this, so that would mean reseeding all of that this year or next,” Robertson said. The damage could total more than $30,000.
He said the centre will try to plant barley for silage on some of the pasture land, but the centre will need to buy more feed this winter and may need alternate pasture this summer for its 350 mother cows.
Some plots for barley breeding and weed research are also under water, but Robertson said the tests will be done on other land at the centre or on rented land.
