Margaret Atwood on the Saskatchewan Community Pastures

This morning on CBC Radio Saskatchewan, Sheila Coles talked with Margaret Atwood (listen here) about the PFRA pastures she will be coming to visit next week along with other BirdLife International representatives on a fact-finding tour. By the end of the ten minute interview she is talking about how we all need to find manageable environmental causes to which we can lend our energies and time. Otherwise, we can feel quite helpless in the face of government failure and the many complex and compounding ecological problems besetting the world.

There are still a few tickets left for the banquet where Margaret, her partner Graeme and the other BirdLife guests will be honoured. Details here on the Facebook page for the event.

This young Loggerhead Shrike is one of many species who depend on the well-managed grasslands of our publicly-owned community pastures. We hope to see some on the tour June 24-27.

Western Producer piece on protecting the value of the federal pastures

The closest thing I could find to grassland in Tuscany--that is Karen in the pink hat. Skylarks were singing overhead!

[Back from a three week vacation--hence the gap in posts here on Grass Notes. My wife Karen and I celebrated our 25th anniversary (four years late) by travelling to Italy, Corsica, France and the Netherlands with a couple we have known for all of those years.]

So why is it that many of the PFRA pasture patrons are uncertain about the lease and ownership deals being offered to them by the Province of Saskatchewan? A big part of it is economics but many producers, particularly from the Southwest where the culture of stewardship is strong, are expressing concern that if there is not any funding support for proper ecosystem based management, the leasing patron groups will likely end up having to default to poorer management systems instead of the planned rest-rotation cycles that have kept most of the federal community pastures in top condition for both cattle and biodiversity.

Some of these concerns are expressed in an article published this week in the Western Producer. Written by Public Pastures--Public Interest members Josef Schmutz and Katherine Arbuthnott, it looks at some of the wider economic issues that are being carefully ignored in many quarters. Katherine is a professor and assistant dean at the University of Regina’s Campion College, with research in conservation psychology. Joe is an adjunct professor in the University of Saskatchewan’s School of Environment and Sustain-ability, with research in grassland ecology.

Atwood Dinner June 27--please help spread the word

Margaret Atwood

Graeme Gibson (image courtesy of Dennis Minty)

Friends,

You may have heard the exciting news that from June 24 to June 28, Margaret Atwood and Graeme Gibson, two of Canada’s most celebrated authors, will tour Saskatchewan’s southern grasslands in the company of other international conservation advocates. They will be hosted by Public Pastures - Public Interest and Nature Canada.

This is an educational tour. The group, all prominent figures in BirdLife International, a worldwide partnership of conservation organizations, is hoping to draw attention to the global significance of conservation programming and bird habitat at risk on federal PFRA community pastures now being transferred to Saskatchewan.

How you can help

I would like to ask that you help to promote the Prairie Passages fundraising dinner at the Radisson Plaza Hotel Saskatchewan in Regina on Thursday, June 27.

After dinner Atwood and Gibson will speak, reflecting on their visit to our grasslands and pastures, the birdlife and species at risk, and their own passion for conservation. There will be great images from the tour, music, and a chance to meet our international guests.

Here is how you can help:

1. Circulate the handbill for the dinner (click here to download the pdf) to your contacts, organization members, and friends. Print it off and share it.
2. Post the notice below in your newsletters and social media networks. Here is the link to the PPPI dinner announcement with details.
3. Encourage your friends and colleagues to buy tickets or sponsor a corporate table.
4. Call the Globe Theatre for a ticket for yourself and be a part of this event!
5. Watch for more updates on the tour.

Our other tour guests are prominent in their own right. They are: Glenn Olson, National Audubon Society; Rob Clay, BirdLife International; Dr. Alberto Yanosky, from Paraguay, Southern Cone initiative and BirdLife International; and, Ian Davidson, Executive Director of Nature Canada.

Pictures suitable for the internet are shown at the top of this post. Please include the photo credit for Dennis Minty for Graeme Gibson’s photo.

*************************

EVENT NOTICE:

Prairie Passages Dinner: An Evening with Margaret Atwood and Graeme Gibson

Radisson Plaza Hotel Saskatchewan in Regina, Regency Ballroom

Thursday, June 27, Cocktails at 6:30 P.M. Dinner at 7:30 P.M.

Join two of Canada’s most celebrated authors, conservationists, and prominent members of BirdLife International as they reflect on their passion for birds, wildlife, grasslands, and their recent travels in Saskatchewan. This is an educational event. The dinner is the highlight of the Prairie Passages tour with Atwood, Gibson, and other international guests from the conservation community. The purpose is draw attention to the global significance of conservation programming and bird habitat at risk on federal PFRA community pastures now being transferred to Saskatchewan.

Your MC will be Candace Savage, one of Saskatchewan’s most respected writers. Her most recent book, A Geography of Blood: Unearthing Memory from a Prairie Landscape, won the $60,000 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction and the 2013 Saskatchewan Book of the Year Award.

This event is hosted by Public Pastures-Public Interest and Nature Canada. Visit the dinner webpage:

Tickets: $100, available at the Globe Theatre Box Office:

Phone: 306.525.6400/Out of town: 1.866.954.5623
Fax: 306.352.4194. Email: boxoffice@globetheatrelive.com

Long awaited spring at Cherry Lake: a photo album

Hard winter for the mule deer. This one looked shaky on its legs as it moved over the hill

Yesterday, Karen and I made our first trip of the spring (the latest ever!) to see how the honeybees and wild creatures made it through the longest winter in decades.

no garter snakes above ground at the den but here is a shot of a shed from last fall

this spring's prescribed burn on our native grass hillsides

a big patch of juniper lends some colour to the scorched hillside

Our honeybees were gathering pollen from Pasque Flower (prairie crocus) blooms a quarter mile from their hives

In the creek, water near the beaver lodges open first

Birds for the day included Eastern Phoebes, a Broad-winged Hawk, Purple Finches and a pair of courting Northern Harriers. The male in this image was resting three fence posts from the female.

The snow is going--time to dance: some video of sharptails on their lek

Male Sharp-tailed Grouse resting between sets

A week ago Saturday I was with some Public Pastures--Public Interest supporters watching Sharp-tailed Grouse dance on their dancing grounds or "lek." It is one of the last active dancing grounds anywhere near the city of Regina--primarily because more than 99% of the native grasslands that once covered the Regina Plains eco-district is now gone.

This bird, so much a part of prairie lore all over the Great Plains, is our provincial bird and deserves to have its remaining courtship habitat protected.

Our provincial and federal community pastures (the PFRA ones the Federal government is handing back to the Province) contain much of the best sharptail lands in Canada.  Hunters and birders alike love to see this bird in good numbers, and its very presence on these pastures testifies to the public interest in ensuring that the land is managed well.

Here is a first video clip showing a couple of males squaring off. If you crank up the volume, you can hear their "oom" sounds.



This clip shows two males in a bit of a flap as they fight for the best corners of the stage, hoping that will get them a chance to breed with one of the females hiding in the grass beyond the edges of the lek. Towards the end of the 25 second clip you can hear the song of a Western Meadowlark in the background. Is there any better way to greet the dawn in this part of the world?



Here is a brochure on the species put out by the US Dept of Agriculture, which has a Natural Resources Conservation Service, unlike Canada, which under Stephen Harper saw fit to dismantle the Agriculture Environmental Services Branch and its staff who once published similar documents.

The Alberta Advantage: a pasture management model from our neighbours

some of the folks involved with making the management of Antelope Creek Ranch work for the wider public interest

Here is a story that shows how a group of stakeholders and government agencies aiming to conserve grassland ecology can work with a large piece of grassland to maximize livestock gains while at the same time minimizing the damage from oil and gas development and ensuring that wildlife habitat is protected.

Antelope Creek Ranch, near Brooks, Alberta, is a model that Saskatchewan's PFRA grazing patrons and conservation community might want to take a close look at. The 5000 plus acres of pasture land are managed cooperatively in partnership with the Alberta Fish and Game Association (AFGA), Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC), Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development and Wildlife Habitat Canada (WHC). Here is a quote from the history section of their website, but the whole site is worth a good look.

The ACR celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2006, testament to a success story that it is possible for ranching, oil and gas operations and wildlife to co-exist on the same property. The ranch is managed for livestock and wildlife amid long-standing EnCana Corporation (formerly Pan Canadian Energy Corporation), and relatively recent Pengrowth Energy Trust (formerly Murphy Oil) oil and gas operations – a work in progress to promote the wise use of native mixed grass prairie in southern Alberta, and elsewhere in western Canada.

One of the nice features of the Antelope Creek Ranch is that they encourage day hikers and wildlife viewers. In fact the website (see below for a screen capture) suggests birdwatchers and hunters alike contact the ranch managers for favourable locations for their chosen activity.

Wouldn't you like to see some of Saskatchewan's PFRA pastures managed this way? There is no reason why we couldn't adapt the model and make it work for our grazing patrons and the ecosystems contained in the first ten pastures to be transferred first to provincial jurisdiction.

History and Drama of a Prairie Commons--great pastures article in CCPA newsletter

Public Pastures-Public Interest board members, Dr. Josef Schmutz, a conservation biologist at the University of Saskatchewan and Dr. Katherine Arbuthnot, a conservation psychologist at the University of Regina, teamed up to write an authoritative review of the history of the PFRA, looking at the multiple benefits of the community pastures, and presenting an alternate strategy to management that is emerging among concerned Saskatchewan citizens. It was published online this week on the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives website.

Here is a brief excerpt:

"The crux of the issue is that the PFRA pastures do 

more  for  us  than  produce  cattle.  The  current 

professional  management  program  coordinates 

multiple  functions  and  benefits.  Pasture 

managers  enable  sustainable  grazing  on 

endangered  ecosystems,  while  tending  the 

sometimes  conflicting  habitat  requirements  of 

many  species  at  risk.  The  pay‐off  for  such 

management  includes  soil  conservation,  water 

conservation,  and  carbon  sequestration,  in 

addition to the economic value of the cattle. The 

wise option would be to retain this expertise that 

has been developed over nearly 80 years, but it is 

unlikely that pasture patrons could afford to pay 

for this on their own. Nor should they."

Do read the entire article. Meanwhile, if you are in Regina and want to help out the cause, come to our Ken Hamm house concert this Friday, April 19. Only $20. Ken is giving all of the proceeds to PPPI in our efforts to ensure the pastures receive the protection and conservation management they deserve. There are a handful of tickets left so if you want one email kherriot@sasktel.net.

Master blues guitarist Ken Hamm will be playing at a PPPI benefit house concert this Friday in Regina