Environmental Partnership to Restore Wetlands and Wildlife Habitat in the County of Two Hills

Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser

A new partnership is going to allow producers in Two Hills County to restore wetlands and wildlife habitat.

Sara Miller, Assistant Agricultural Fieldman and Environmental Program Technician, will be heading up the partnership between the County of Two Hills and ALUS Canada, an organization which specializes in environmental sustainability.

Miller said producers and county council were interested in getting involved with the program after hearing about it from neighbouring municipalities. The program, that launched in June, will be run in coordination with the municipality’s Agricultural Service Board, (ASB), and a Producer Advisory Committee, (PAC).

“The uptake of the program has been well received, and ratepayers have been talking about it. We are not certain as to what the projects will be as of yet, but hopefully, we will have a project by the end of 2020,” said Miller.

Agriculture is one of the major economic activities in the County of Two Hills and the program will be focused on the restoration of wetlands currently being farmed for commodity production, such as grain or cattle, and converting it back into duck and wildlife habitat.

Christine Campbell, Western HUB Manager for ALUS Canada, stated, “In the coming months, ALUS Canada will be working closely with the County of Two Hills to onboard them to the program, providing training to staff and the PAC, helping them set program priorities and details, and working together to spread the word about ALUS, and recruit potential projects.

ALUS Canada’s role is to support program delivery and help build the overarching policy and markets needed to support farmers in their production of ecosystem services.”

Sara Miller from Two Hills County will be heading up the local program that was officially launched last month.

(County of Two Hills/Submitted Photo)

Campbell went on to say, “Each PAC determines their own criteria, based on how they define the top environmental issues in their area. They will look at project proposals from farmers/ranchers as potential participants and select the projects that make the most sense for their local program. There is no cost to apply, in fact, the local ALUS Program Coordinator often helps people craft their project proposals.

The ALUS Two Hills PAC will be setting their program priorities and payment information over the coming months. In most ALUS communities, the producer and ALUS cost-share to establish the project, then the producer is paid annually to manage and maintain their project and the land’s ability to produce ecosystem goods and services as a result.

The core idea of ALUS is that the program helps and supports farmers and ranchers who participate in the ALUS program so that they can establish, manage and maintain environmental projects on their land that have tangible benefits for the community. These projects (usually improved wetlands, riparian zones, or wooded areas) actively produce ecosystem services such as cleaner air, cleaner water, more biodiversity/wildlife, and pollinator habitat, and more flood/drought mitigation to spare people living downstream from extreme flooding events.

Overall, farmers/ranchers who participate in ALUS do it because AUS makes it easy for them to make a positive difference for the environment and the community, both now and for future generations. They get help with establishment costs for the projects and annual payments per acre of land devoted to their ALUS projects. But most participants will tell you they don’t do it for the money, they do it to help build much more resilient communities for everybody going forward. Many participants also see great spin-off benefits from their projects such as improved soil health on their agricultural operations, reduced hoof rot, etc.”

According to ALUS Canada, their organization has disbursed nearly $10 million in funding. As a result, nearly 27,000 acres are enrolled in the program, a total of 109 square kilometers, the size of a small national park. As well, there are more than 900 participants in 27 ALUS communities, across six provinces.

This past year alone, ALUS Canada disbursed nearly $2 M in funding to these ALUS communities, where more than 240 farmers and ranchers joined ALUS as participants and enrolled more than 4,000 additional acres in the program, creating new ALUS wetland, woodland, grassland, and pollinator projects.