Glacier FarmMedia – Five watershed districts in Manitoba now have more land under their purview.
Boundaries expanded April 1 for the Central Assiniboine, Pembina Valley, Redboine, Seine Rat Roseau and the Souris River watershed districts to include areas previously uncovered by any district.
The province announced the move March 22, saying that enhanced core funding will support the increased role of affected districts.
“Water is life, and our government is committed to protecting Manitoba’s lakes and rivers for generations to come,” said Environment and Climate Change Minister Tracy Schmidt. “Expanding watershed districts and making new resources available to help Manitobans make smart water decisions are part of this work.”
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The amended boundaries now include the RM of Headingley, covered under the Redboine Watershed District, and the Town of Melita, now part of the Souris Rive Watershed District. The RM of Morris is split between the Pembina Valley, Redboine and Seine Rat Roseau districts.
Coverage is also growing in two existing participant municipalities. The RM of Portage la Prairie and RM of Rockwood now have new areas within their watershed districts.
It is the second expansion for the Pembina Valley and Redboine watershed districts in the last 12 months. Last spring, the province also announced bigger boundaries for those two districts. That announcement included growth of the Northeast Red Watershed District.
Lynda Nicol, executive director of the Manitoba Association of Watersheds (MAW), said the goal is to have buy-in from all municipalities in agro-Manitoba. The latest expansion brings them closer to that goal, she said.
“We are happy to report that we have a total of 116 municipal members in the watershed districts program.”
Municipal participation was, by design, voluntary when the watershed district program emerged from Manitoba’s old system of conservation districts in 2020.
That left gaps when MAW was tagged as the delivery organization for funding programs related to sustainable ag. Only farmers living in a participating municipality were able to access those programs.
That became a sticking point of the federal government’s On-Farm Climate Action Fund (OFCAF). That fund provided the financial seed for the Prairie Watersheds Climate Program, administered in Manitoba and Saskatchewan by MAW.
Farmers could get support for three types of projects under that program: rotational grazing, cover cropping or sustainable nitrogen management. In it’s first year in 2022, the program handed out $15.6 million between the two provinces.
Funds for nitrogen management projects were particularly popular, MAW later reported.
But farmers outside the watershed district network were locked out.
Nicol said the latest expansion will ensure more farms have access to OFCAF programming, as well as a number of other programs offered exclusively through Manitoba’s watershed districts.
She said she understands the frustration of farmers unable to access programming.
“When we have the chance to talk one-on-one with farmers and speak about where those gaps exist, they’ve always been very understanding of why it is the way it is.”
Nicol added that those conversations often prompt farmers to contact their municipal council and those municipalities sometimes engage with the program.
“I think it goes to show the power of individual farmers and the amount of sway that their voice has as a ratepayer within their municipality to make sure that they do have access to programming that otherwise they may not.”
