Local organization protecting species at risk while helping ranchers

Her last line is the crucial element that has made the program so popular, as MULTISAR makes a point of trying to ensure the ranchers see a benefit from their partnership. After conducting an assessment of a rancher’s land, they all sit down together to go over the potential options, ultimately going with what the landowner would like to do.

They will then help fund the projects, with the amount depending on the total cost of the enhancements and how great an impact it will have on at risk species. Taylor noted that in some cases they will purchase solar watering units — which can cost up to $10,000 — and give them to the landowner.

“We’ll help them dig wells, we’ll do off-stream portable watering units, we do wildlife-friendly fencing — which has a smooth bottom wire, so that animals like pronghorns can go under them, cause they don’t tend to jump fences — we will also do re-seeding back to native grasses, where and when we can,” Taylor said, listing off some of the common projects they’re involved in.

Taylor explained that the partnership was a natural fit, as cattle producers are already a big part of protecting grasslands in Alberta.

“They’re actually saving, protecting the land for the species at risk. The threat to our grasslands, in terms of anything from agricultural conversion to industrial use, is what’s making species at risk. So, the ranchers really have quite a large role to play in making sure that they remain on the landscape, and most of the ranchers that we have worked with, they’ve been on the land for decades and some a hundred years, so they’ve got a lot of interest in helping out.

“They also often know that a healthy rangeland is good for their cattle, as well as species at risk.”

The program started in the Milk River Watershed area, but has since expanded to include the Pakowki Lake Basin and St. Mary’s River Watershed, along with the South Saskatchewan River Basin.

Its partnerships have also grown to include the Alberta Conservation Association, Prairie Conservation Forum, Alberta Environment and Parks, the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, Alberta Beef Producers, Canadian Round Table for Sustainable Beef and Cows and Fish.

At the moment, 75 per cent of the species at risk in Alberta live on the grasslands, with only 36-per cent of our province’s native prairie left.

by Patrick Burles (@PatrickBurles on Twitter)

Local organization protecting species at risk while helping ranchers

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