Big Grass Marsh land donation is the largest conservation agreement in province’s history
Two Manitoba municipalities have agreed to preserve the Big Grass Marsh, one of the largest and most ecologically significant wetlands on the Prairies.
It is the largest land donation for a conservation agreement in Manitoba’s history.
The marsh, located north of the Yellowhead Highway and west of Lake Manitoba, was the first conservation project by Ducks Unlimited in Canada and is often referred to as “Duck Factory No. 1.”
“It’s on the major migration route. That’s why it is such an important breeding ground for ducks,” said Chris Reynolds, who manages the Whitemud Watershed Conservation District and helped craft the agreement to preserve the Big Grass Marsh.
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The rural municipalities of Lakeview and Westbourne agreed in November to donate 43,000 acres of land in the Big Grass Marsh to the Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corp, a non-profit organization that facilitates conservation partnerships.
Stephen Carlyle, MHHC program development manager, said the agreement is significant because of its scale.
“The donation of the conservation easement on Big Grass Marsh … is equivalent to all the wetland focused work that MHHC has completed since 2005,” he said.
“The protection of Big Grass Marsh has a huge ecological impact.”
The Big Grass Marsh is still open for hunting and trapping.
The MHHC and conservation districts quietly preserve small wetlands across southern Manitoba every year.
“Over the last few years, we’ve had lots of conservation agreements (with private landowners) … within the watershed,” Reynolds said.
“We signed up many small potholes, wetlands, you name it. And we provided money for that because we specifically put money aside for these conservation agreements…. It’s not getting the press it probably deserves.”
MHHC has preserved 3,200 acres of wetlands a year over the last 16 years through conservation easements, which are known as conservation agreements in Manitoba. Landowners receive a one-time payment and agree to conserve the wetland in perpetuity.
Carlyle said easements are preferable to buying a wetland because the landowner maintains a connection to the duck pond.
“We don’t want to take those lands out of the hands of individual land owners,” he said.
“The habitat is there because they’ve been managing it appropriately… and they can continue to manage it.”
Reynolds said easements are the best way to protect wetlands because the agreement preserves the habitat indefinitely but also offers flexibility to the landowner.
“There are certain works that can take place (within the easement) … if you’ve got trees that you’d like to harvest firewood from, or something like that.”
Carlyle said Delta Waterfowl provides funding for conservation agreements in Manitoba, but most of the money comes from the United States.
“We get funding through them (Delta Waterfowl) from individual U.S. states…. That funding allows us to access other U.S. federal funding,” he said. “On the face of it, it seems very odd … but it’s all about where the ducks breed. The people in the U.S. want ducks, and ducks breed in Canada.”
Reynolds said more wetlands could be protected through conservation easements if more funding was available.
“In some cases the money isn’t actually there,” he said.
“When you’re dealing with land that’s worth $3,000 to $4,000 an acre, it’s pretty tough to go and offer somebody $200 an acre (for a wetland).”
Carlyle said farmers can make more money by draining wetlands and cropping the land. Additional funding would make a difference, but conservation easements will never compete with crop production on pure economics.
“It’s about finding the right landowners that have … a conservation ethic or connection to that land,” he said. “It all comes down to the willingness of the individual landowner.”
Like most marketing campaigns, word of mouth is the dominant factor when it comes to conservation agreements.
