Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food
Agricultural producers have being weighing the merits of developing environmental farm plans (EFP) lately as a way to bring about beneficial management practices in their farming operations.
Meanwhile, a consortium of producers in the southeastern part of the province has opted to pilot a group approach to environmental farm planning by focusing on their local watershed.
Ross Madsen is Co-Chair of the 4 Creeks Watershed Advisory Committee, which began looking at water issues in the Lower Souris watershed in 2004.
“With all the drainage and land leveling activities in our area, I and other producers had started to wonder if local economic activities around agriculture were starting to affect the quality of water in our watershed. I noticed the water table was dropping locally. In the fall of 1999, we received 27 inches of rain, and all of a sudden we found ourselves in a flooding situation. It was time to take stock of our agricultural practices.”
As a result, the 4 Creeks Watershed Advisory Committee was formed. Rural Municipalities around Stoney, Jackson, Graham and Gainsborough Creeks got together and were later joined by producers near Pipestone and Antler Creeks, so the whole Lower Souris River watershed was covered.
Karmen Kyle is the Beneficial Management Practices Technician working with the group planning project. She encourages individual producers to also go through the EFP process, because this enables them to assess their environmental practices on their farm operations.
“The intent of the group planning approach is to promote good land and water management practices with one issue in mind: the watershed. In the Lower Souris project, we are addressing surface water quality. Upon approval of the group plan, producer members of the group became eligible to apply for funding from the Canada-Saskatchewan Farm Stewardship Program. Funding was approved for riparian areas and wintering site management projects, with the cost of the project shared between the producer and the program. Forty-one projects were approved in the first intake of the group planning project.”
The main advantage of the group approach – or, to use its official name, the Saskatchewan Agri-Environmental Group Planning initiative – is that it provides a one-on-one contact between the technician and the producers to help them develop and complete their project.
The group plan led to 41 individual producer projects that included 29 watering projects in all: 24 fencing projects, one buffer strip initiative, and two planned portable windbreaks. More than 47,800 acres were affected. These included project sites and all pasture acres for each producer.
Kyle lists how funds can be applied to “remote watering pipelines, forage systems, cross-fencing, buffer establishment in the form of shelterbelts and seeded areas along sloughs or creeks, portable windbreaks or shelters, fencing modifications and improved stream crossings.”
In dollar terms, fencing project costs amounted to $77,620 for nearly 30 miles of fence; water systems amounted to $56,500, 50 per cent of which came from the program. The largest watering and fencing project is valued at $22,900. This is also the largest project overall.
“One of the first things we did was to identify the issues that needed to be dealt with,” says Kyle. “A Lower Souris Environmental Scan was developed. That document identified all environmental issues around air, soil, water and biodiversity. Each issue was given a priority assessment, drawing on available data for the area.
“This information was presented to all area producers at a meeting. All of them had a chance to discuss the information provided, after which they broke off into small groups to assess which issue was most important to them. From this process, it was established that surface water quality was the greatest concern in terms of run-off, wetlands, permanent and intermittent creeks.”
The way Kyle sees it, “this gives producers an opportunity to take ownership of the project, which then adopts a bottom-up approach, rather than top-down. The collective decision-making process ensures the success of the initiative. We are now starting to involve additional producer members in the group planning, who will submit an application in the spring.”
The three-year program is valued at $340,000.00 and runs until March 31, 2008. Given the success of this pilot project, the Governments of Canada and Saskatchewan are now looking for proposals from other watershed groups.
For more information, contact:
Karmen Kyle
Beneficial Management Practices Technician
4 Creeks Watershed Advisory Committee Inc.
(306) 452-3292
Agricultural producers have being weighing the merits of developing environmental farm plans (EFP) lately as a way to bring about beneficial management practices in their farming operations.
Meanwhile, a consortium of producers in the southeastern part of the province has opted to pilot a group approach to environmental farm planning by focusing on their local watershed.
Ross Madsen is Co-Chair of the 4 Creeks Watershed Advisory Committee, which began looking at water issues in the Lower Souris watershed in 2004.
“With all the drainage and land leveling activities in our area, I and other producers had started to wonder if local economic activities around agriculture were starting to affect the quality of water in our watershed. I noticed the water table was dropping locally. In the fall of 1999, we received 27 inches of rain, and all of a sudden we found ourselves in a flooding situation. It was time to take stock of our agricultural practices.”
As a result, the 4 Creeks Watershed Advisory Committee was formed. Rural Municipalities around Stoney, Jackson, Graham and Gainsborough Creeks got together and were later joined by producers near Pipestone and Antler Creeks, so the whole Lower Souris River watershed was covered.
Karmen Kyle is the Beneficial Management Practices Technician working with the group planning project. She encourages individual producers to also go through the EFP process, because this enables them to assess their environmental practices on their farm operations.
“The intent of the group planning approach is to promote good land and water management practices with one issue in mind: the watershed. In the Lower Souris project, we are addressing surface water quality. Upon approval of the group plan, producer members of the group became eligible to apply for funding from the Canada-Saskatchewan Farm Stewardship Program. Funding was approved for riparian areas and wintering site management projects, with the cost of the project shared between the producer and the program. Forty-one projects were approved in the first intake of the group planning project.”
The main advantage of the group approach – or, to use its official name, the Saskatchewan Agri-Environmental Group Planning initiative – is that it provides a one-on-one contact between the technician and the producers to help them develop and complete their project.
The group plan led to 41 individual producer projects that included 29 watering projects in all: 24 fencing projects, one buffer strip initiative, and two planned portable windbreaks. More than 47,800 acres were affected. These included project sites and all pasture acres for each producer.
Kyle lists how funds can be applied to “remote watering pipelines, forage systems, cross-fencing, buffer establishment in the form of shelterbelts and seeded areas along sloughs or creeks, portable windbreaks or shelters, fencing modifications and improved stream crossings.”
In dollar terms, fencing project costs amounted to $77,620 for nearly 30 miles of fence; water systems amounted to $56,500, 50 per cent of which came from the program. The largest watering and fencing project is valued at $22,900. This is also the largest project overall.
“One of the first things we did was to identify the issues that needed to be dealt with,” says Kyle. “A Lower Souris Environmental Scan was developed. That document identified all environmental issues around air, soil, water and biodiversity. Each issue was given a priority assessment, drawing on available data for the area.
“This information was presented to all area producers at a meeting. All of them had a chance to discuss the information provided, after which they broke off into small groups to assess which issue was most important to them. From this process, it was established that surface water quality was the greatest concern in terms of run-off, wetlands, permanent and intermittent creeks.”
The way Kyle sees it, “this gives producers an opportunity to take ownership of the project, which then adopts a bottom-up approach, rather than top-down. The collective decision-making process ensures the success of the initiative. We are now starting to involve additional producer members in the group planning, who will submit an application in the spring.”
The three-year program is valued at $340,000.00 and runs until March 31, 2008. Given the success of this pilot project, the Governments of Canada and Saskatchewan are now looking for proposals from other watershed groups.
For more information, contact:
Karmen Kyle
Beneficial Management Practices Technician
4 Creeks Watershed Advisory Committee Inc.
(306) 452-3292
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