Ag program boosts flora and fauna

It was time to chew the cud on a littleknown agricultural program at the Rotary Club of Lloydminster’s Monday meeting.

Environmental land stewardship for local producers was the topic presented by speaker Chris Elder, program coordinator of Alus in the County of Vermilion River, based in Kitscoty.

Alus is originally an acronym for Alternative Land Use Services.

However, it’s best defined these days as helping farmers and ranchers build naturebased solutions on their land to sustain agriculture and biodiversity for the benefit of the community and future generations.

“We focus on land stewardship projects,” said Elder, who lives in Vermilion.

“We do a lot of things around wetlands, fencing wetlands and building watering systems to support livestock production. We also do riparian tree buffers and tree planting projects and anything to support wildlife habitat including pollinators.”

The first Alus project in Alberta kicked off in the County in 2010 with Elder named the coordinator in 2015 after graduating from Lakeland College in Vermilion with a bachelor of applied sciences degree in environment management. in the County are wetlands and surface water management.

Numbers to date include 49 participants, 4,152 acres, 30 kilometres of fence, 76 conservation agreements, 268 improved wetlands, 32 watering systems and $968,000 invested since 2015.

While most of the projects are on marginal land, Alus is also piloting enhanced grazing projects on working land with seven of these new projects in 2022.

Elder provides technical and financial support to local agricultural producers to develop, implement and manage environmental stewardship projects.

Currently, there are 18 such community programs in Alberta with local leadership and decision making a key point to attract producers.

“We’re in our 13th year and we have a good roster of producers in the program and we expand every year,” said Elder. “We usually do about 10 projects a year with 10 producers.”

The priority projects

Elder says producers are responsible for making sure fence lines are intact for example, and making sure the projects are moving along in the way they were originally agreed upon.

“It’s an ongoing partnership,” said Elder with a partnership advisory committee of producers, the County, NGOs and industry.

Project funding comes from federal Alus and provincial grants, private and corporate donations and local government grants among other sources.

“Most of it is private funding that flows through from those funders to the producers,” said Elder.

Thursday, April 27, 2023 MERIDIAN SOURCE

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Guess what, everyone, we’re bringing streeters back!

The idea is simple, and quite a bit of fun. We go out into the community and ask the same question to five random people. Streeters will be a regular thing in the Source , so if you’re approached with a questions by our editor, Taylor, play along!

Taylor took the opportunity

This week’s question ...

to ask this week’s question at a few different locations and was pleasently surprised with the answers.

Let’s keep the conversation going!

With the warmer weather finally coming, what are you most looking forward to?

- I’m excited for biking and playing outside.

- Im looking forward to playing more outdoor soccer.

- FISHING! I always fish the river here, or go down to Paynton and take the ferry.

- I want to do some skateboarding, fishing, and camping, anything outdoors, I can’t wait.

- I’m looking forward to doing some dumb things outside!

New mom talk and walk on tap

The Timber Café at Lloydminster Home Hardware will host a mental health awareness event and walk for new mothers and their babies.

A call is out for moms, partners, babies, family and friends to attend.

The café is the venue to bring awareness and promote early identification of perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.

The event kicks off on May 3 at 9:30 a.m. during World Maternal Mental Health Day.

The Maternal Mental Health Day Initiative wants to ensure the best beginning for every new mother and her child.

The event highlights local support available for families and provides a time to connect with others in the community.

Members of the MMHI have also signed up for Flora’s Walk to raise money and awareness for perinatal mental health care in Canada.

The Lloydminster walk will start at 10:45 a.m. and follow the path that will be outlined around Messum Park.

Flora’s Walk is organized by the Canadian Perinatal Mental Health Collaborative (CPMHC). This is the second annual national fundraiser walkathon being hosted in 40 cit - ies across Canada during the first week of May.

Flora’s Walk honours Canadian mom, Flora Babakhani, whose lifelong dream was to be a mother.

At 44 years old, after years of fertility treatments, she finally and happily became pregnant. Tragically, on Jan

14, 2022, two months and 10 days after Flora gave birth to her daughter Amber, she died by suicide due to undiagnosed postpartum psychosis.

“This shouldn’t have happened,” said Patricia Tomasi, co-Founder and co-executive director of CPMHC.“

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