SASKATOON – If the threat of frost isn’t enough for farmers to rush the harvest, those in the Foam Lake area face an onslaught of hungry fowl in the next few weeks.
While farmers realize they can’t blame the birds for being hungry and they can’t blame the weather for being unco-operative, some still seethe over having to pay to support Saskatchewan’s birds.
“I’m just about burned out on the whole issue,” said Dan Thorsteinson, who has been fighting for years to get the provincial government to provide 100 percent coverage for waterfowl damage.
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“If we have people creating these large marsh areas to enlarge the number of waterfowl and the people of the province or the country decide this is what we want, then why don’t we all pay for it?” he said. “Why doesn’t it come out of our taxes?”
The present 70 percent compensation covers all crops. Previously, 80 percent compensation was offered on licensed varieties only.
Kevin Callele, of the provincial environment department’s wildlife branch, said taxpayers already pay for most of the crop damage caused by waterfowl.
“It’s a real misunderstanding out there right now amongst the general public and in particular some of these interest groups.”
Callele pointed to a waterfowl damage prevention program in which the provincial government spends $375,000 every year. As well, the federal government funds some programs with general tax revenues.
“So taxpayers right across the country including our own resident taxpayers pay for waterfowl damage prevention.”
Foam Lake is near the Quill Lakes in central Saskatchewan. The large lakes provide a staging ground for thousands of migrating birds in the fall, and many live there through the summer.
The size of the conflict between birds and farmers depends on weather and whether harvest time and the mass bird migrations coincide.
If they do, thousands of birds find easy pickings in the swathed fields.
This year’s late-seeded crops intensified the problem.
After years of arguing with authorities over who should bear the cost of supporting prairie waterfowl, Thorsteinson acknowledges farmers might never receive total compensation.
“I’m very disillusioned,” he said. Meanwhile, Callele believes 100 percent compensation is not the way to go.
“There has to be some incentive that would promote taking the crop off. And that’s why compensation is not paid at 100 percent, it’s paid at a level of 70 percent right now.”
