Preserving grasslands | Video shows what producers do to protect wildlife habitat without compensation
Prairie grasslands provide homes to many endangered species, but recently those grasslands have become endangered themselves.
Operation Grassland Community launched a 12-minute short film on YouTube in October to demonstrate how important these lands are to the livelihoods of animals and ranchers in Alberta rural areas.
The film, Conservation Caravan, interviews five ranchers in southern Alberta who participate in land stewardship programs: Top Grass Beef Ranch, TK Ranch, Integrity Ranching, Holtman Farms and Three Triangle Ranch. It explores how they use the land and find sustainable ways to conserve it.
Read Also
Ag in Motion speaker highlights need for biosecurity on cattle operations
Ag in Motion highlights need for biosecurity on cattle farms. Government of Saskatchewan provides checklist on what you can do to make your cattle operation more biosecure.
“Operation Grassland has been working with ranchers for over 20 years now, and basically we’re looking for win-win solutions between ranching and species at risk,” said executive director Kerry Grisley.
“A lot of people aren’t aware that grasslands habitats are an endangered habitats. She said more than 75 percent of Alberta species at risk reside in 14 percent of the province’s landmass.
Interest in buying local and sustainably produced food has in-creased in recent years, and the film was an opportunity to show people what producers are doing.
Grisley said there is little else producers can do to provide sustainable production.
“And I think a large part of that has to do with market failure, which is basically that the price that we’re paying here in the city for our steaks is not accounting for the stewardship that land stewards are partaking in,” she said.
“Like everybody in a business, you max the margin and you can go no further, otherwise you’re going to shoulder that cost and lose money. They go as far as they can and there’s not money there to do more.”
Grisley said the stressful financial situation has prompted producers to discourage their children from taking over the business. The next step is to inform the public about sustainability.
“I think that what we need is stronger conversation (about) where are we going as a province, as a country, and what do we want to see for our landscapes and our rural communities that are stewarding those communities,” she said.
Operation Grassland Community plans to hold additional public viewings of the short film in urban areas such as Edmonton, Red Deer and Calgary. V iewings are set to start in January.
Conservation Caravan can be found at grasslandcommunity.org.
