In its effort to protect Lake Winnipeg, the Manitoba government has banned the application of fertilizer beside the province’s rivers and streams.
On March 22, Christine Melnick, Manitoba’s water stewardship minister, announced buffer zones of 15 metres next to rivers and 30 metres for the province’s lakes.
The regulations apply to all types of land including parks, golf courses and farmland and create a minimum buffer zone of three metres for all waterways in Manitoba.
“The establishment of the new water protection areas signals our further commitment to restoring the health of Lake Winnipeg,” said Melnick in a news release.
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The policy, which will affect thousands of farmers across Manitoba, did not surprise Ian Wishart, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers.
“We knew about it and we have (had) a lot of input into this,” said Wishart.
“This is really sort of consensus document, between what the government wanted and what we (realistically) could do for them.”
The new rules, which take effect Jan. 1, 2009, will also require producers to submit a nutrient management plan. However, Wishart said farmers shouldn’t be too concerned.
“Most producers won’t have to change … their application of fertilizer or manure at all. They’ll simply have to document it,” he said.
Wishart also noted that the 15 metre zone would not drastically change farming practices for land next to rivers, because those waterways already have natural buffers of trees, brush and grass.
But it will mean a loss of arable land for farmers with manmade drains on their field, he said.
“We’re going to see some loss of farmable land to buffer strips on those,” Wishart said.
Farmers will certainly be affected, but this is not a policy directed solely at the agricultural industry, said a Manitoba government official.
“The same measures will be in place on the same stream, regardless if it is running through an agricultural piece of property or an urban property,” said Dwight Williamson, a director in the water stewardship department.
The buffer zones are part of a new set of regulations in Manitoba designed to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus runoff, which is linked to the lack of oxygen in Lake Winnipeg.
Williamson said the new rules for fertilizer application would definitely reduce the amount of nutrients flowing into Manitoba’s biggest lake.
“About 15 percent of the phosphorus that makes its way into Lake Winnipeg comes from our modern day agricultural practices,” he said. “This measure will, and this is just an estimate, will probably reduce that by a few percentage points.”
Williamson said the province will launch an education campaign to ensure “that all of the people potentially affected, will know exactly what is required of them.”
So far, the response to the buffer zones has been much more positive than the reaction to the province’s policy on hog barns. Earlier this month, Manitoba’s NDP government extended a ban on new hog barns in the eastern and central parts of the province, and a variety of groups are lining up to condemn the decision.
