RIGHT STUFF
Young farmers, show you have the right stuff.
The long, thrilling dance — $50,000 pickups, quarter-million-dollar motor homes, palatial houses, tropical winter cruises — is over and now it’s time to pay the piper: banks, mortgage companies, machine and commodity dealers.
Our rural prairie culture of self-reliance and independent pioneer spirit is the envy of the world. Your safety nets are infinitely better than what we had, although (former prime minister John) Diefenbaker promised us a “lifeline” of $1 per acre of cropland, but it never happened.
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Agriculture needs to prepare for government spending cuts
As government makes necessary cuts to spending, what can be reduced or restructured in the budgets for agriculture?
This is next-year country. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again.
Don’t get greedy. Leave “government aid” to those who need it.…
“Non illegitimacy carborundum:” ask any old timer for a translation.
Vern Hoff
Gleichen, Alta.
Preserving wetlands
A new approach is needed to protect wetlands in southern Saskatchewan.
Ducks Unlimited estimates the current rate of wetland loss at 28 acres per day. This rate of wetland drainage is not in the public interest, yet with the demand to increase farm acreage and accommodate larger farm machinery, it continues unabated.
Saskatchewan’s best quality wetlands deserve to be inventoried and preserved. Provincial drainage permits for these wetlands should not be granted.
As the government of Saskatchewan prepares a new farm drainage policy, it needs to grapple with the wetlands preservation issue head on, demonstrating that it believes in the value of wetlands.
Retaining and restoring wetlands makes good sense because they provide so many valuable ecological services. Wetlands protect water quality by intercepting and dissipating pesticides, absorbing phosphorus and taking up excess nitrate that would otherwise degrade downstream surface water.
In times of severe drought, our wetlands are often one of the few areas around which hay production can be sustained. And in times of heavy rainfall, wetlands are essential for flood control, providing crucial surface water storage capacity.
As concern grows about the dangers of climate change and the steady rise of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, wetlands will be valued for another critical role they play, that of carbon sinks that can take man-made carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
For all these reasons, I hope the government will make preservation of Saskatchewan’s best wetlands a fundamental part of provincial drainage policy.
Murray Hidlebaugh
Saskatoon, Sask.
