Ducks Unlimited offers land to dried-out farmers

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Published: April 18, 2002

One of Western Canada’s largest landowners is allowing farmers to use

its property for haying and grazing this year.

Ducks Unlimited Canada is making at least 40 percent of its conserved

lands in Saskatchewan and Alberta available to drought-stricken

livestock producers from those provinces.

“The drought will limit duck production this year, just as it’s

limiting crop and forage production for Saskatchewan’s agricultural

landowners,” said Gord Edwards, DU’s director of regional operations

for the prairie region.

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“With our wetlands drying up, many Ducks Unlimited Canada lands will

have limited benefit to waterfowl and other wildlife.”

The group said Manitoba has enough water to support waterfowl and

agriculture.

Approximately 40,000 acres will be available to farmers in

Saskatchewan. An estimate wasn’t available for Alberta.

“We know what landowners are dealing with in terms of drought,” said

Keith LePoudre, manager of DU’s field operations in Saskatoon.

“It’s the driest we’ve ever seen it in some areas. Many of our

drought-stricken areas will provide good forage reserves for our

neighbours on the landscape.”

Reaction from some of those neighbors has been lukewarm. Agricultural

Producers Association of Saskatchewan vice-president Evans Thordarson

called DU’s announcement a public relations move to improve its

tarnished relationship with farmers.

He was referring to the conservation cover incentive program that DU is

pitching to the federal government. It would take 5.2 million acres of

riparian and cultivated marginal lands in Western Canada off of

farmers’ hands for conservation purposes.

Participating farmers would be paid an estimated $13 per acre for land

taken out of production.

“APAS sort of beat up on Ducks Unlimited over their attitude towards

removing land from agriculture,” Thordarson said.

“This (drought response program) is a response to that.”

He said APAS and individual farmers don’t like the idea of the

non-profit agency pushing to take agricultural land out of production.

A DU official said most of the conservation land will be offered to

farmers on a tendered basis, except for leased lands, which will be

first offered to the landowners.

Money paid by farmers to use the land will be invested in forage- and

livestock-related projects in Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Ducks Unlimited is using the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation

Administration’s winter precipitation map to identify drought stricken

areas.

It is targeting areas on the map labeled “record dry” or “extremely

low,” which encompasses a large portion of central Alberta and

Saskatchewan and southwestern Alberta. Co-ordinators say that doesn’t

rule out other regions of either province.

More information about the program will be available in the next week

or two. Producers are encouraged to watch their community newspapers or

to contact their local Ducks Unlimited office for details.

About the author

Sean Pratt

Sean Pratt

Reporter/Analyst

Sean Pratt has been working at The Western Producer since 1993 after graduating from the University of Regina’s School of Journalism. Sean also has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Saskatchewan and worked in a bank for a few years before switching careers. Sean primarily writes markets and policy stories about the grain industry and has attended more than 100 conferences over the past three decades. He has received awards from the Canadian Farm Writers Federation, North American Agricultural Journalists and the American Agricultural Editors Association.

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