Sage Grouse: the View from the Saddle--Part II

all photos courtesy of Miles Anderson

Last month, I bumped into Fir Mountain rancher Miles Anderson at The Exchange in Regina, where his daughter Kacy was on stage performing with Clayton Linthicum. When you have a chance to visit with one of Saskatchewan’s most respected rancher/stewards of native grass--the fellow who has more Greater Sage-Grouse on his land than anyone else in Canada--you don’t pass it up.

Some of what I learned from Miles that night I wrote up in a previous post, The View from the Saddle, Part I, but before we parted ways he mentioned he was heading to a conference.

“I’m off to Salt Lake City next week to talk at a conference sponsored by the Sage Grouse Initiative.” He agreed to let me call him afterwards, to get his impressions of the conference, and talk a bit more about sage grouse and prairie conservation.

This week we finally caught up with one another on the phone and had a good long talk about ranching, stewardship, and the sorry state of sage grouse at the northern edge of their range.

“It might seem like we have a lot of sage grouse habitat here and in the park (Grasslands National Park),” Miles said, “but if you look at their whole range on the continent, we are just a postage stamp. One of the things that makes this land different is that it wasn’t glaciated. So it starts right in the soil, and its part of why we have so many rare species. It’s not something I am doing. It’s just the way this place is.”

Miles and his wife Sheri run cattle on 30,000 acres, including 22 sections of native grass right along the international boundary--all of it excellent habitat for Greater Sage-Grouse and many other species at risk. The sage grouse use a variety of landscapes on his range: wet places such as alkali flats, as well as uplands and lowlands. “In winter, they need places where they can feed on sage brush, which means it has to be high enough to poke out of the snow. If the snow’s too deep, they move south to find sage brush they can get at.

“My neighbour to the south in Montana was at the conference as well. His land runs from the border almost all the way down the Milk River. He was a guest speaker too and we both had some good air play.”

Miles said that most presenters and participants at the conference were from the science and conservation sectors, but there was some representation from industry (mining and oil and gas).

One of his favourite moments at the conference was when Noreen Walsh, Regional Director with U.S. Fish & Wildlife was speaking. “She said something that agrees with what I see on our land: ‘what’s good for the birds is good for the herds.’”

“Sure, it’s just anecdotal, but I saw some things this past summer that prove the point. It might sound funny but I know what I saw.”

The strangest thing he learned this summer was that sage grouse seem to like hanging around his cattle. The Anderson land adjoins part of the East Block of Grasslands National Park. That side of the park had not been grazed by any kind of bovine in 25 years. This summer, though, the Park welcomed Miles and his Angus cattle onto a portion of the East Block. 

The hard part was getting them to stay there once they opened the fence. 

“The grass is old and ugly, so we were always having to chase them back into the park.” That meant Miles was on horseback and moving cattle during a time of the summer when he does not usually ride among his herd.

“We saw sage grouse every day, but we always saw them with the cattle.” In his experience, the hens leave the sage brush bottom lands soon after the young hatch, but later in the summer they return with half-grown chicks. 

one of Miles' photos showing sage grouse near his cattle

“They might be showing them how to feed on sage--I don’t know--and maybe they like the cattle because it helps them find bugs.”

Though Miles was excited to see good numbers of sage grouse with young this summer and well into the fall, he knows the next trick is to get good survival into the next year.

Survival is influenced by many factors, but, like many who live in sage grouse country, he is concerned about predators. “We’ve got ravens like you wouldn’t believe. Then the coyotes, hawks, and swift foxes are probably taking their share. And that might be another reason the grouse like cattle around. I’ve watched them take refuge close to cattle when a harrier flies overhead. You have to ask yourself if there is something we’re doing that gives predators an advantage now. Coyotes especially--back in the days when people could control coyotes we used to see hundreds of sage grouse.”

But a rancher like Miles Anderson knows there are no simple answers. He thrives by respecting the complex interrelationships between weather, grass, the genetics of his herd, and his own management practices. “One of the speakers at the SGI conference said ‘there is no single cause of sage grouse decline. There isn’t going to be any single solution.’ That seemed right to me.”

Toward the end of our call, I asked Miles what he would do if he had a couple million dollars to help out the Greater Sage-Grouse in his corner of Canada’s grassland.

“That’s a tough one, but I guess I would spend it on connecting the science people with ranchers. I think the Sage Grouse Initiative has done some good things in the States. There are a dozen or more programs that a producer might qualify for down there, but they send out a rep and if you’re interested they’ll assess your operation and then figure out which programs might work for you. Might be something to do with fencing or infrastructure, might be about water development, deferred grazing, grass banking. All kinds of things. Then they do all the paper work for you. It’s all completely confidential so the ranchers feel safe and they don’t have to do all the applying and figuring. The resource person comes back with a program or two and gets it going. I think they get pretty good uptake that way.”

Miles added that, while ranchers are naturally cautious and some have had bad experiences in the past with conservation programs, he agrees that building trust and rapport between producers and the conservation and government sectors must be a priority.

“Take the pipit (Sprague’s pipit, another species at risk on his grasslands). You look across the fence and see, well this guy has a lot more pipits than his neighbour. Why not get to know him, spend some time there and learn what he is doing that makes the difference? Then you’ve got to find a way to encourage more of that, to make it worth other ranchers’ time to try something new.”

You don’t last in the ranching life as long as Miles has by jumping to conclusions or adopting every new management trend that comes along. Applying the same caution to sage grouse, he is not going to make any rash predictions about its future or claim to know exactly what needs to be done.

And yet, after listening to him discuss the prairie and its declining birds, you go away believing that there might be some hope left. With people like Miles Anderson on the land, and some resources and political will to work with ranchers and industry, is it possible that we could find the mix of private and public management, science-based and traditional stewardship to bring the Greater Sage-Grouse back into its long vacant breeding grounds on the Canadian Plains?

To even take a shot, though, Alberta and Saskatchewan are going to need some government (federal and provincial) commitment to create programming that is a lot closer to what the Sage Grouse Initiative has going south of the border. Take a look at the SGI web site--you will see right away that Canada has nothing to compare with this program.

If you look very closely, there is a grouse in the centre-right of this photo just taking flight

"The Last Cowboy," a mini-doc about the PFRA's Jim Commodore of Val Marie

I have written a couple of stories in this space about the cowboys who are the lifeblood of the PFRA community pastures. Men like Mert Taylor and Eric Weisbeck are among the last of the public servants who saddle up a horse to manage Canada's federal grasslands now being transferred back to Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

They are at the tail end of a lineage of PFRA cowboys running back three-quarters of a century. A couple of days ago a friend sent me a link to a new documentary that pays tribute to one cowboy whose life runs almost all the way back to the origins of the PF system.

Jim Commodore was born in 1941 at the Val Marie PFRA pasture, just west and a bit north of Grasslands National Park. The Val Marie pasture is the largest in the system at more than 90,000 acres and it is an ecological and cultural treasure that should remain in the public trust and be granted the kind of protection Canada's rarest landscapes all deserve.

Jim Commodore, retired PFRA cowboy at Val Marie

Megan Lacelle and Kaitlyn Van De Woestyne, two young women studying Journalism at the University of Regina, made the six minute documentary to fulfill a class assignment. They call it "The Last Cowboy" and it is for my dollar the best piece of work showing some of the human costs of abandoning the PFRA system. I hope it is seen far and wide and that its message, told entirely in the humility of an honest cowboy recalling his days on the land, will pluck a few heart strings and remind prairie people why we must retain and honour the legacy of the community pastures system.

Kaitlyn and Megan graciously agreed to allow me to post The Last Cowboy (see below), and sent me some of their reflections on the project. I am including Megan's comments below as an introduction to the film. As fate would have it, Megan and Kaitlyn shot the documentary on Remembrance Day weekend. Here's hoping that the professional media world will welcome the kind of sensitivity and light hand that Megan and Kaitlyn are already applying as students.

"I grew up in Cadillac, Sask. (about 30 minutes north of Val Marie). My mom grew up in Val Marie and my grandparents still ranch there. My mom worked on the PFRA when she was younger (before me) and as I was growing up I heard lots about them from my parents and grandparents. I started working for my dad at his gas station when I was 13 and that's when I started to meet the men and women who worked for the PFRA. Among them was Jim Commodore. I always found him so humble, interesting and well-spoken that I knew when I got into Journalism school that I would love to tell his story. When I heard about the decisions to shut the PFRA's in 2012 I knew I wanted to shine a spotlight on the people and culture surrounding them. This year we were able to do a mini-doc assignment on anything we chose - I asked Kaitlyn about doing it on this and she agreed!
So we phoned Jim up and asked if he'd be okay with it. Jim, always the gentleman, said he would do whatever it took to help us out. So we road tripped down to Val Marie on Remembrance Day weekend this year and we filmed him and our B-roll all in one day.
I love the area, the people and the culture in the southwest rural corner of the province - I got into journalism to shed a spotlight on incredible "everyday" people and this gave us a great opportunity to tell Jim's story as well as tie into a greater story about the loss of the PFRA's and what that means to the area, people and culture.

Oftentimes people get caught up in statistics and big figures and forget to talk to people who know the topic best - I knew Jim would be a great resource and a way to make a historical document. His father worked PF's before him and so he'd always known what they meant to the area. He's an amazing person. He, like my grandparents, I believe are the last of a breed of cowgirls and cowboys who understood the importance of people, community and the environment."

The Last Cowboy from Megan Lacelle on Vimeo.

Big Screen Premiere of "Grasslands" documentary--Nov. 26 at the Royal Sk Museum

This Wednesday, November 26 at 7:30 Public Pastures-Public Interest is joining with the Friends of the Museum to put on a public showing of Grasslands, Ian Toews latest documentary.

I wrote about this film here a few weeks ago when it first aired on television. Those who caught it on TV loved it, but now we have a chance to see it on a big screen, so we are calling it the big screen premiere of the film.

PPPI is charging $10 a seat as part of a fundraiser to support grassland conservation on publicly owned grasslands in the province.

Take a look at the website for the documentary or check out the trailer here.

image courtesy of Victoria Times-Colonist

Ian's Arri Alexa camera, now the standard for Hollywood features, seems to love the great expanses of grass speckled with distant bands of bison. There are some stunning scenes in this film and the sparing narration and interviews do justice to the complexities behind grassland conservation on the northern plains.

Two of the grassland conservation people featured in the film will be on hand at Wednesday's premiere--Wes Olson, the man who brought bison to Grasslands National Park, and myself.

As well, the filmmaker, Ian Toews, is flying in from Victoria to introduce the film and answer questions afterward. Ian's company, 291 Films, was formerly based in Saskatchewan but had to move after the film industry dried up thanks to Brad Wall cutting the film tax credit program.

Ian says Grasslands is the last film to be made under the old tax credit program.

To lead the evening off, we are also showing a twelve minute short called Soil Carbon Cowboys. Made by Peter Byck of Arizona, the filmmaker behind Carbon Nation, this documentary takes a brief look at one particular slice of cattle ranching that is gaining a lot of attention lately.

I talked with Peter on the phone last week and he offered to let us screen his film. He is working on a long-term project considering the ecological benefits of grassland management.

Soil Carbon Cowboys shows us three cattlemen who are applying some of Allan Savoury's holistic range management concepts. These men have seeded cultivated land to a mix of mostly non-native grasses and legumes. Then they cross-fenced with electric fencing so they could rotate their herd from one tiny half-acre or one acre paddock to another, resting any given patch long enough to recover. Using this "mob-grazing method" they say they can build up the health of the soil and increase soil carbon while maximizing weight gain on their animals.

This is a lovely little film and, with a great prairie sound track and some splendid slo-mo shots of bugs hopping and flying through the grass. It features Saskatchewan's most charming advocate of mob-grazing, the inimitable Neil Dennis, along with other producers from North Dakota and Mississippi who use similar systems.

screen capture from Soil Carbon Cowboys

While we may not want to see a lot of mob grazing used on native rangeland, it has its place as a way to improve cultivated lands while raising cattle. I like what the Prairie Ecologist, Chris Helzer, says on this topic.

Though this kind of extreme rotation is not a cure-all, there is a net gain for biodiversity if you take land that was seeded entirely to wheat, canola, or crested wheat grass and plant a good mix of non-natives with legumes.

The insect life will be richer, some birds may survive the mobbing, and the soil may recover from the years of mono-cropping and pesticide use.

Soil Carbon Cowboys will make a perfect warm-up for the main event paying homage to the original carbon sequestration model of native grass and bison.

Please come on out and help us spread the word so we can fill the Museum Auditorium and celebrate our precious grasslands together.

"One Hundred Miles of Hawks"

Sub-adult Swainson's flying over Panama. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama

The Swainson's hawks were late leaving the northern Plains this fall but a few weeks ago the last ones departed, eventually to be replaced by small numbers of rough-legged hawks arriving from the arctic.

The Swainson's is I think my favourite buteo, perhaps because it is still common enough that most days out in open country I can find one circling in the sky. But I am particularly in awe of its long migration, one of the lengthiest of any hawk. Each year the Swainson's hawks that nest here on the mixed-grass and moist mixed grass prairie travel 11,000 kms twice as they migrate between northern nesting grounds and the Pampas of Argentina.

What route do they take to get from northern to southern pastures? The people of Panama can tell you. In early November the narrowest parts of the isthmus of Central America witnesses one of the world's greatest avian spectacles. In the skies above Panama City, when clear migrating weather returns after several poor days, a river of hawks will pass by. Turkey Vultures, Broad-winged and Swainson's hawks numbering in the hundreds of thousands boil overhead in great kettles swirling their way southward.

On November 2nd this year, Panama City set a new record for counting hawks: two million hawks in a single day, which more than doubled the highest  previous count at Panama. From a press release put out by the Smithsonian:

"The official count from Sunday's massive raptor migration is 2,105,060 birds, most of them turkey vultures and Swainson's hawks," said George Angehr, a Smithsonian ornithologist.

And here is a news report from Panama. 

What caused the high count this year though? No doubt weather played a role, but the previous high of 900,000 was from 2013. Are the overall numbers of these species increasing? Certainly turkey vultures are increasing. And I have heard birders, naturalists and ranchers say that they are seeing more Swainson's hawks than they were a decade ago.

That could be good news and makes sense considering that their numbers were down to a record low after the mass die-off in the mid-90s caused by Argentinian farmers using Monochrotrophos and Dimethoate to kill grasshoppers. Six thousand Swainson's were killed directly by the poisons; many more were severely weakened. Monochrotrophos has been banned for almost twenty years, but Dimethoate is still in use in South America. However, it does seem that Swainson's hawks may have regained some of their numbers, at least here in Saskatchewan.

Birdlife International estimates that the total population of Swainson's hawks is around 580,000 and Canada may have a little more than 100,000 of those coming to spend each summer. Having departed from prairie farms and rangelands mere weeks ago to ride the river of hawks across the bottleneck of Panama, the northernmost Swainson's hawks on the planet are now gliding and soaring their way to the grasslands of Argentina where they will pass the winter eating crickets, grasshoppers, mice and voles.

Those of us who admire these elegant-winged hawks and want to keep seeing them in our summer skies need to do what we can to protect the wellbeing of their habitat at both ends of their yearly journeys. If the winter brings them plenty of prey free of pesticides, most of them will come back again in fine shape next April.

Swainson's Hawk, just north of Grasslands National Park

Sage grouse: the view from the saddle, Part 1

(from Cowboyway.com)

Last night my wife Karen and I went to hear the Sadies play at the Exchange, but we really were just as excited about the lead act, Kacy and Clayton, a folk duo from Saskatchewan's Wood Mountain ranch country.

Kacy & Clayton (and friends), image from http://kacyandclayton.bandcamp.com/

Kacy Anderson and Clayton Linthicum are cousins who, in the words of one bio I found online, "grew up immersed in ranching in the Wood Mountain Uplands of Southern Saskatchewan, and were educated by Kacy’s Grandpa/Clayton’s Great Uncle Carl in the ways of rural music. Ranching and music are family traditions that can be traced back 5 generations."

At least two of those generations were well represented in the room last night. I sat down next to two proud fathers who had come to town to catch the show.

Both family names run deep in the ranching culture of this province, but I have long wanted to meet Miles Anderson, Kacy's dad, and even better known as one of our most respected grassland stewards.

A few years ago, he was given the prestigious Prairie Conservation Award for Saskatchewan, from the Prairie Conservation and Endangered Species Conference. From what I have heard, no rancher deserves it more.

Right up against one flank of the East Block of Grasslands National Park, the grass and sagebrush the Anderson family looks after is an island of biodiversity and abundance that would make anyone question the need for prairie conservation.

Waiting for the show to begin, Miles told me stories about the great numbers of Long-Billed Curlews and Sage Grouse he has seen from the saddle of his horse this year.

"People don't realize it, but where there are sage hens you often see them right in with the cattle. I think they feel safer there. I never see the northern harriers fly over a herd."

Then he told me a story about a sheep rancher he knows near Glasgow, Montana, who says they come right into the corral with his sheep at night.

Later I found this video Miles shot and posted on the Sage Grouse Initiative Facebook page. It shows what he sees all the time from the back of his saddle horse--Sage Grouse in close proximity to cattle.

Before we settled in to listen to Kacy and Clayton play, Miles tells me he is heading to Salt Lake City Utah next week to speak at the International Sage-Grouse Forum.

"They want me to speak on a panel about working on sage grouse conservation as a private rancher."

I asked if he'd mind me calling him after he is back home to see what the forum was like and maybe get some more of his thoughts on Sage Grouse conservation. He agreed, and so with luck I will have more on Miles Anderson and Sage Grouse in a post in the near future.

Kacy and Clayton were a delight as always--Clayton's sharp and snappy guitar playing the perfect accompaniment to Kacy's soulful voice on some fine old ballads. Do check them out if you get the chance.

Video: why prairie dogs matter

Here's a new video from Montana's American Prairie Reserve, explaining how Black-tailed Prairie Dogs benefit other prairie species from birds to bison.

"A good way to see the country"--Renee and Solomon Carriere of the South Sask. Delta

Saskatchewan River Delta from the air (image from Boreal Songbird Initiative website)

I've been dreaming lately about water, thinking especially about people who have found ways to live well by the ebb and flow of rivers, lakes, and sloughs.

Solomon Carriere is a paddler, hunter, outfitter, and dog-sledder who lives on the Saskatchewan River Delta straddling the Saskatchewan-Manitoba border--10,000 square kilometres of wet wilderness. The largest inland delta in North America and one of Canada's great ecological treasures, the Delta has little protection, other than people like Solomon and his wife Renee who live there and keep an eye on things. For them, the river is everything--food, transportation, livelihood, and sustenance for the soul.

Unfortunately, SaskPower's hydroelectric dams upstream are wreaking havoc with the natural flow of the river, causing siltation and harming aquatic plant and animal populations.

In last December's issue of Canadian Geographic, Allan Casey published an excellent article on the Delta. In it he speaks to Solomon and Renee about their lives and how the river has changed. (Here is a taste: "Twice [Renee] has led school students on 32-day paddling trips from the river’s glacier source in the Rockies to Cumberland House. The kids, none of whom had ever spent a night outdoors, started out fearful, some overweight. By the time they reached home, their bodies had hardened up, their fears of the wild softened.")

But I first heard about the Carriere family in a documentary on the delta created by Ian Toews a few years back: Saskatchewan River Delta.

This week, out of the blue, I received an email from Solomon, which surprised me because I know he lives along the river in a pretty remote spot far from internet access. The message was about an egret he had seen twice this past summer on one of the channels of the delta.

I told him that Great Egrets are pretty uncommon anywhere in the province but are increasing year by year, breeding farther north all the time. He sent along some photos and this video, showing the egret flying ahead of him as he travels along the Stone River toward Cumberland House.

As a competitive long-distance paddler, Solomon is regularly in his canoe up and down the streams that make up the Delta, keeping his paddling muscles in shape. He sent along a photo of the boat he and his adult son, Riel, rowed and paddled from their home on the Delta downstream to Lake Manitoba, which they then crossed (!). I think this is Riel in the rowing position.

Solomon has a Youtube channel, kingsolvidio, which shows some of the things he does in travelling all seasons in the Delta (I think he sneaks into Cumberland House, fifty-one Kms away to go online now and then).

Here is a video about their Lake Manitoba adventure:



When I asked if they actually paddled and rowed the whole way, he replied, "Yeah we paddle. It's a good way to see the country."

Carriere's ancestors lived along the river, as many Metis did from along the waterways of Canada's NorthWest from the 1700s into the Twentieth Century.

As long as there are still people like Renee and Solomon along the waters there is someone keeping an eye on the birds, the moose, the muskrat and the fish; someone who just by watching and speaking on behalf of the more-than-human world around them, show the rest of us what it is to lead a rich and gracious life, congruent with the river and its life.

October passing

 

While I fill my hours at other tasks

beneath the flicker of stolen days,

a thought strays to a light-footed bird,

tweed brown and grey . . .

It chances the open for a seed,
until a bolder one floats in
with its colour to chase clouds away . . .

Then a finch who will leave soon,
and a titmouse who will stay . . .

And over them on strands of cumulus
a tumult of white wings . . .

Theirs is the sound of October passing.
It rings within the round hills and
meets the lake . . .

where small fishing birds pause to listen . . .

And eagles, weary of the wind and its promises,
settle into their night roost
among the naked poplars.

Grazing the wild

Waldron Ranch property, now under NCC conservation easement (image courtesy of NCC)

Last week the Nature Conservancy of Canada announced that they had secured a huge conservation easement on 12,000 hectares of fescue grassland in Alberta's foothills, where a co-op of 72 ranchers have been stewarding the land for decades. Pressure to develop the land is immense in southern Alberta so this initiative should prevent it from being subdivided, developed or cultivated into perpetuity. Grazing will continue on the land, as it must. Fescue prairie, like all grassland, needs the disturbance that grazing provides. Bison provided that from the retreat of the glaciers until the 1880s but cattle now provide something of an ecological substitution.

I still run into well-meaning folks who do not believe cattle belong on our native grasslands. Here is one of North America's great defenders of wilderness, Wallace Stegner, outlining his thoughts on why cattle grazing has a role to play in some "wilderness" areas. This passage comes from his famous "Wilderness Letter" which he wrote in 1960 and which ultimately led to the passing of the Wilderness Act fifty years ago in September:

I am not moved by the argument that those wilderness areas which have already been exposed to grazing or mining are already deflowered, and so might as well be "harvested". For mining I cannot say much good except that its operations are generally short-lived. The extractable wealth is taken and the shafts, the tailings, and the ruins left, and in a dry country such as the American West the wounds men make in the earth do not quickly heal. Still, they are only wounds; they aren't absolutely mortal. Better a wounded wilderness than none at all. And as for grazing, if it is strictly controlled so that it does not destroy the ground cover, damage the ecology, or compete with the wildlife it is in itself nothing that need conflict with the wilderness feeling or the validity of the wilderness experience. I have known enough range cattle to recognize them as wild animals; and the people who herd them have, in the wilderness context, the dignity of rareness; they belong on the frontier, moreover, and have a look of rightness. The invasion they make on the virgin country is a sort of invasion that is as old as Neolithic man, and they can, in moderation, even emphasize a man's feeling of belonging to the natural world. Under surveillance, they can belong; under control, they need not deface or mar. I do not believe that in wilderness areas where grazing has never been permitted, it should be permitted; but I do not believe either that an otherwise untouched wilderness should be eliminated from the preservation plan because of limited existing uses such as grazing which are in consonance with the frontier condition and image.

Here are two more grand images of the Waldron property--courtesy of NCC and, as anyone can see, a cause for celebration:

Dr. David Henry to receive CPAWS J.B. Harkin Medal



Dr. David Henry addresses Prince Albert City Council on behalf of the Saskatchewan Environmental Society (image courtesy of Prince Albert Daily Herald)

What makes someone dedicate their life to conservation? What motivates a John Livingston, a Roderick Haig-Brown, a Betty Krawczyk, or a Kevin Van Tighem? What fires and inspires our local conservation heroes who work on the unending task of protecting Canada's last wild and natural places?

This weekend, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society will honour the achievements of a scientist and advocate who has done much to protect our boreal forest and native prairie places. When he steps to the podium to receive the J.B. Harkin Medal at Nature Saskatchewan’s Fall Meet Banquet, Dr. David Henry will no doubt be humble in receiving the award. He may, however, say something about why he chose to dedicate his energies to a career, a vocation, and years of volunteer service devoted to the cause of parks and protected areas. I hope he does.

No conservationist offers up their hours of labour for awards. Misinformation campaigns to the contrary, few defenders of wild places are in it for the wealth and adulation.

I do not know David very well, but I can imagine he might say he chose this path in life because he likes being in wild places himself. He wants to pass on a world that still has room for caribou and sage grouse. It is often as simple as that. His wonderful books, Red Fox: the Catlike Canine, and Canada’s Boreal Forest (both published by the Smithsonian) show a deep love and respect for other living creatures and for the land itself.

If not for love and respect, why would a scientist like David have stepped far beyond the confines of academia to bring his voice into the public sphere where it could help influence public policy? Why would he have worked so hard in the face of intense opposition from many quarters to ensure that Canada would finally have a Grasslands National Park? Why would he have served on the boards of CPAWS and the Saskatchewan Environmental Society and acted as science advisor for these and other groups?

And why would he today as a volunteer, continue to present papers and speak in public on the need for clean drinking water, and the environmental implications of our hastily-drafted trade agreements?

Perhaps most noteworthy among David’s many accomplishments was his role in a public campaign to introduce the concept of ecological integrity into a revision of the National Parks Act of Canada. By getting ecological integrity written into the act in 1987-88, CPAWS and other conservation groups ensured that Canadians would have legal protection for ecosystems in our National Parks—protection that cannot be trumped by other values.

Despite the legacy of David Henry and many others, though, people are worried that Parks Canada may be veering away from its ecological mandate (see the issues around new trails at Grasslands National Park) and allowing budget cuts and the development agenda of the Harper government to shape park policy. Though Parks Canada has lost many of its scientists and senior employees through recent austerity measures, the agency still has people with the passion and dedication of a David Henry on staff. Grasslands National Park in particular will need someone with David’s sensitivity and commitment to ecological integrity to ensure that efforts at increasing visitation never take precedence over the need to protect species and their habitat.

If you see David at the Nature Saskatchewan meet this weekend, take a moment to thank him for the work he has done to conserve Canada’s parks and protected areas. It is up to all of us who share his concern and love for wild places north of the 49th to ensure that no government will degrade or compromise the many achievements of Parks Canada in recent decades.

June Grass, Needle and Thread, and Western Wheatgrass at Matador Community Pasture

Fracking and Species at Risk: A letter to the Hon. Scott Moe, Sask Minister of Environment

Regions of Fracking in Sask and Manitoba, map by Shea Coughlin, BS Student, University of Toronto

Last week University of Toronto Political Science Professor Andrea Olive sent me a memo that one of her B.A. students had drafted to submit to the Honourable Scott Moe, Saskatchewan's Minister of Environment. The student, Danielle Coore, has been working with another student, Shea Coughlin, on the issue of fracking in Western Canada. I was impressed with their summary of how fracking puts our water, livestock, and wildlife at risk. The recommendations at the end of the memo are particularly helpful and deserve serious consideration.

Andrea tells me we may soon see a letter in the Regina Leader-Post on this topic, featuring some highlights from the memo. The memo itself, however, deserves to be read in its entirety, so here it is below.  After you read it, you may want to use the information it contains to draft your own letter to Minister Moe, who can be reached at the following coordinates:

Hon. Scott Moe
Minister of Environment and Minister Responsible for the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency
34 Main Street

Shellbrook, SK, S0J2E0

 

E-mail: smoe@mla.legassembly.sk.ca

 

Here is the original memo:

 

To: Honourable Scott Moe, Minister of Environment and Minister Responsible for the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency

From: Danielle Coore, BA student, University of Toronto 

Date: August 21, 2014

Subject: Fracking, Species at Risk and Water

Overview

Hydraulic Fracturing (fracking) poses serious risks to endangered species, wildlife and farm animals as well as water supply and quality in the province of Saskatchewan. Fracking is occurring in Southern Saskatchewan, as indicated on the attached map. There are ten federally listed and protected endangered species that have range in that area of the province.[i] There is also very little surface water in Southern Saskatchewan suggesting that the fracking industry is drawing from ground water and posing possible threats to both water supply and water quality. As Minister of the Environment and the Minister Responsible for the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency fracking should be a serious concern and a top priority.  This policy memo will outline the risks to endangered species and animals, water supply, and water quality. Ultimately, I recommend that Saskatchewan implement best practices, increase research, and engage in public disclosure to address these issues.  

Risks to Endangered Species, Wildlife and Farm animals

Fracking poses a danger to flora and fauna in Saskatchewan in 4 primary number ways. First, fracking results in habitat fragmentation and destruction byway of altering the prairie landscape. For example, the soil compaction and displacement that can occur at the sit of a wellpad can reduce biomass productivity and heighten soil erosion. The result is sediment and nutrient loss or nutrient transport to streams and wetlands, which can then modify stream flow and damage aquatic habitat. It can also reduce habitat and vegetation for wildlife as well as alter migration habitats.[ii] Moreover, certain species such as songbirds experience population declines as they avoid roads, trails, pipelines and related human activities in areas of fracking.^[iii]

Second, noise and light pollution at wellpad sites may adversely impact species. Cumulative effects are not presently known, but studies have found that noise/light pollution adversely impacts breeding, foraging, and predator/prey responses.[iv] Specifically, oil and gas production has already had adverse impacts on the species like the Greater Sage Grouse in Southern Saskatchewan. Breeding Sage Grouse avoid areas in which oil and gas developments have occurred, and these birds also have shown to have higher mortality in these regions.[v] Populations have dwindled by 45-80% on a wide scale level.[vi] In Canada, these species only inhabit southeast Alberta and southwest Saskatchewan.[vii] Only 6% of the original historical extent of the habitat remains[viii].

Third, fracking water and chemicals have also resulted in adverse impacts or death in animals, including farm animals. A recent study monitored 96 cows: 60 cows located near a creek with fracking wastewater purposely added and 36 cows situated far from the creek. The cows near the creek were impacted: 21 died and 16 did not reproduce new calves the subsequent spring. The cows far from the creek exhibited no health issues.[ix]Thus, there is good reason to believe that wastewater from fracking impacts a range of farm animals (and wildlife) and creates breeding issues, higher rates of stillborns, birth abnormalities, and acute liver or kidney failure.[x] Saskatchewan has an obvious interest in farm animals and other wildlife that provide ecosystems services throughout the province.

Fourth, invasive species are able to spread with roads and pipelines. Where there is soil and landscape disturbance at roads, wellpads, compressor stations and pipelines there is space for invasive species.[xi] Such species compete with native species for habitat and food. This sometimes pushes native species out of their natural range and can threaten them with extinction.

Risks to water supply

Fracking poses two primary threats to water supply in Saskatchewan.

First, fracking uses sizeable quantities of water. Typically 2-4 million gallons of water are used for deep unconventional shale deposits.[xii] Water can originate from surface water, groundwater supplies, municipal water sources, and recycled wastewater.[xiii] A single well can be fracked around 20 times and consume 40, 0000 gallons of chemicals.[xiv]The hydrology of Saskatchewan is characterized by low precipitation, and droughts in the south, rendering surface water supplies as undependable.[xv] The oil and gas industry uses surface water and also draws heavily from groundwater supplies.[xvi] This will present hydrological concerns for the province in coming years.

Secondly, hydrological changes can occur due to heightened surface and ground water withdrawal. This can have unforeseen effects on streams, floodplains, wetlands, springs, shallow groundwater, and seep patterns in the province. In Saskatchewan groundwater tables and flows can be affected by withdrawal and disposal of water because huge withdrawals of the magnitude necessary for fracking alters groundwater inputs to streams and wetlands. And when that input is polluted by fracking waste there is long standing impacts on biodiversity resulting in diminished water quality and species diversity.[xvii]

Risks to Water Quality

Fracking poses two main threats to water quality in Saskatchewan.

First, groundwater and surface water can be polluted by accidental leaks from the surface of shale pads, from chemical storage or during transportation routes.[xviii] Such spills will then seep into soil and groundwater and/or runoff into streams and other bodies of water. Related, shallow ground and surface water can be affected when wastewater is accidently discharged from its storage site or at the well site. Drinkable groundwater is then threatened by natural gas and saline water movement from well leakage.[xix]This is a threat to wildlife and public health. 

Second, methane can contaminate wells.[xx]In a fracking region in Pennsylvania, methane rates were 17 times greater in wells in a 1 km span from drilling regions than those situated further away.[xxi] Other pollutants include included benzene, xylenes, purgeable hydrocarbons, and gasoline and diesel by-products. These are all chemicals associated with neurotocity, reproductive health issues, and cancer.[xxii]

How to Minimize Risks to Endangered Species

There are at three ways the Ministry of Environment can minimize risks to endangered species in Saskatchewan.

First, implement distance boundary requirements for habitat of at risk species.

Saskatchewan has requirements that do not permit for drilling in 100 m of water bodies, occupied dwellings, public institutions, or urban regions.[xxiii] These boundary requirements should be extended to include habitat for at risk species in order to minimize threats.

 

Second, map species habitat and this information publically available. Presently, the location of species’ habitat is unknown in the province. There are no publically available maps or GIS information. This makes it difficult for landowners (including industry) to make informed decisions about land management.

                     

Third, require companies to drill numerous wells from one wellpad so as to minimize the amount of land disrupted.[xxiv] Habitat fragmentation and distribution is a major threat to wildlife and endangered species in Saskatchewan.

How to minimize risks to water supply

To minimize risks to water supply, Saskatchewan should establish best practices for water withdrawal and screening procedures. This should in the very least include permits based on the seasonality of withdrawals and for withdrawals over certain sizes (as already required by New Brunswick and New York jurisdictions).[xxv] Saskatchewan should ensure that water quantity monitoring is implemented before, during and after fracking has occurred, and account for effects on fish and wildlife as well as aquifer depletion. [xxvi] When using groundwater, non-potable sources should be used as this reduces competition with other water sources.[xxvii]In addition, the province should facilitate the use of municipal/industrial wastewater for fracking instead of allowing industry to overuse groundwater.[xxviii]

How to minimize risks to water quality

There are 4 primary ways Saskatchewan can reduce risk to water quality.

First, increase testing related to hydraulic fracturing. Saskatchewan does not require baseline testing for groundwater. This is a problem and the province should follow the lead of New Brunswick where there is mandatory baseline testing required at potable water wells within 500 km  of oil/gas  extraction.[xxix] Similarly, monitoring is not compulsory after hydraulic fracturing processes in Saskatchewan whereas New Brunswick requires sampling before and after fracking wells (within 30-60 days post fracking).[xxx]

Second, the least ecologically harmful chemicals should be required where possible to offset risks associated with leakage, contamination, and storage.[xxxi]

Third, increase public disclosure and involvement. Companies are not required to publically reveal what chemicals are used in fracking.[xxxii]Saskatchewan should require its fracking industry to provide this information on fracfocus.ca (as already done in British Columbia and Alberta).

Fourth, to reduce groundwater threats, Saskatchewan should have fracking located at certain and legally specified distances away from municipal, public or private water sources. And even in these cases proper impoundment liners should be mandatory so as to inhibit movement to water sources.[xxxiii]

Conclusion

Fracking poses many risks to endangered species, farm animals and wildlife as well as water quality and supply in Saskatchewan. Greater knowledge and attention to this effort is needed. Initiatives to address the many issues and concerns associated with fracking should include the public, government, First Nations and industry as well as other interested stakeholders.  The Ministry of Environment should take the lead in examining the relationship fracking has with various ecological processes – especially species at risk and hydrology. This is the only way the necessary effective guidelines and regulations can be established and implemented.

---

[i] These species include the Greater Sage Grouse, Yellow Rail Coturnicops, Spragues’s Pipit, Burrowing Owl, Northern Leopard Frog Western Boral, Piping Plover, Ferruginous Hawk, Long-Billed Curlew, Great Plain’s Toad and the Longerhead Shrike Prairie subspecies.

[ii] Council of Canadian Academies. "Environmental Impacts of Shale Extraction in Canada Ottawa (ON): The Expert Panel on Harnessing Science and Technology to Understand the Environmental Impacts of Shale Gas Extraction." Scienceadvice.ca. 2014. http://www.scienceadvice.ca/uploads/eng/assessments%20and%20publications%20and%20news%20releases/shale%20gas/shalegas_fullreporten.pdf (accessed May 22, 2014).

[iii] Kiviat, Erik,"Risks to biodiversity from hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in the Marcellus and Utica shales," Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2013: 1-14.

[iv] Bearer, Scott, Emily Nicholas, Tamara Gagnolet, Michele DePhilip, Tara Moberg, and Nels Johnson, "Environmental Reviews and Case Studies: Evaluating the Scientific Support of Conservation Best Management Practices for Shale Gas Extraction in the Appalachian Basin," Environmental Practice, 2012: 308-319.

[v] Aldridge, C. L., and M. S. Boyce, “Linking occurrence and fitness to persistence: a habitat-based approach for endangered greater sage-grouse," Ecological Applications , 2007: 508-526.

[vi] Aldridge, C. L., and R. M. Brigham", Distribution, abundance, and status of the greater sage-grouse, Centrocercus urophasianus, in Canada," Canadian Field-Naturalist, 2003: 25-34.

[vii] (Eco Justice N.D.)

[viii] (Eco Justice N.D.)

[ix] Bamberger, Michelle, and Robert E. Oswald, "Impacts of Gas Drilling on Human and Animal Health," New Solutions, 2012: 51-77.

[x] (Bamberger and Oswald 2012)

[xi] (Kiviat 2013)

[xii] American Petroleum Institute, "Water Management Associated with," The Natural Gas Subcommittee of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board. June 2010. http://www.shalegas.energy.gov/resources/HF2_e1.pdf (accessed July 27, 2014).

[xiii] (American Petroleum Institute 2010)

[xiv] (Council of Canadian Academies 2014)

[xv] SaskAdapt:Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative, Water & Drought, N.D., http://www.parc.ca/saskadapt/adaptation-options/theme-assessments/water-drought (accessed August 14, 2014).

[xvi] Precht, Paul, and Don Dempster, “Jurisdictional Review of Hydraulic Fracturing Regulation," Nova Scotia government. March 27, 2012. https://www.novascotia.ca/nse/pollutionprevention/docs/Consultation.Hydraulic.Fracturing-Jurisdictional.Review.pdf (accessed July 24, 2014).

[xvii] (Kiviat 2013)

[xviii] (Council of Canadian Academies 2014)

[xix] Council of Canadian Academies, 2014

[xx]McDermott-Levy, Ruth, Nina Kaktins and Barbara Sattler, “Fracking, the Environment, and Healt,” AJN, American Journal of Nursing, 2013: 45–51.

[xxi](McDermott-Levy, Kaktins and Sattler 2013)

[xxii] (McDermott-Levy, Kaktins and Sattler 2013)

[xxiii] (Precht and Dempster 2012, 47)

[xxiv] Smith, Trevor, "Environmental Considerations of Shale Gas Development," Chemical Engineering Progres, 2012: 53-59.

[xxv] (Precht and Dempster 2012, 49)

[xxvi] (American Petroleum Institute 2010)

[xxvii] (American Petroleum Institute 2010)

[xxviii] (American Petroleum Institute 2010)

[xxix] (Precht and Dempster 2012, 43)

[xxx] (Precht and Dempster 2012, 44)

[xxxi] (American Petroleum Institute 2010)

[xxxii] (Precht and Dempster 2012, 46)

[xxxiii] (American Petroleum Institute 2010)