PPPI – A Year in Review

People often ask how things are going with the effort to secure a good future for the PFRA pastures. We started on this journey on November 23 last year so it is time to look back on what has happened during those twelve months. With all that has happened, PPPI believes that the CPPAS approach of an overall provincial management plan for all the pastures will ensure the best outcomes for all stakeholders, including the public. Producers should not be expected to cover the costs associated with enhancing and protecting public goods. That said, we have much to celebrate!

1.       Virtually all of the land will remain publicly owned for the time being.

2.       The pastures will not be subdivided.

3.       If any is sold it will be to pasture patron groups and only with a conservation easement

4.       The penalties and enforcement system for Crown land sold with an easement has been markedly improved

5.       Access for hunting and naturalists/scientists will not be changed

6.       More Saskatchewan people and Canadians know what a PFRA pasture is and why they matter.

7.       Groups with an interest in the pastures from various angles are now sharing ideas about the future of the pastures. To date, 46 Saskatchewan, Canadian and international organizations have endorsed the PPPI principles.

8.       The Province has repeatedly given assurances that species at risk and biodiversity will be protected.

We intend to stick with this journey, because the investment Canadians have made in the PFRA pastures is too important to be lost. The work of PPPI in the coming months will focus on:

–          Continuing our discussions and communications with First Nations, cattle producers and others concerned about the pastures

–          Encouraging the Province to maintain the same stocking rates and public access to the pastures

–          Research on carbon sequestration

–          Looking at issues of controlling invasive species

–          Ensuring methods for monitoring species at risk

–          Monitoring the talks between the Province and the first five pasture committees to transition

 

Ecological Goods and Services – Learn more!

Two chances for Saskatoon area folks to learn how ecological goods and services apply to Saskatchewan rangelands!

1. Ecological Goods & Services – Native Prairie Speaker Series
Wednesday, November 27th, 2013
12:10 – 12:50pm
Room 1024, Education Building, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK

2. Ecological Goods and Services from Native Rangelands
This one-day workshop in Saskatoon will discuss topics such as the worth of prairie grasslands, carbon sequestration, and administering environmental stewardship initiatives.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
9:00am – 4:00pm
Rm 2E25, 2nd Floor of Agric. Building, 52 Campus Drive, Univ. of Sask.
No pre-registration required.

Good fiscal sense: sound pasture management

Keeping PFRA management actually isn’t costly. From this blog post by Trevor Herriot:

“$4.5 million is a bargain to manage 1.8 million acres of grazing land for the public good, and if we consider that the Province is also making untold hundreds of millions off this land each year from oil and gas revenues (Bigstick Community Pasture has brought as much as $80 M in oil and gas revenue in one year on its own), this grass is providing our Provincial Treasury with an awful lot of cash. The least we can do is spend a tiny portion of that revenue to ensure that our 75 year investment in the ecological integrity of the PFRA pastures will not be jeopardized.”

No federal plan for biodiversity, environment watchdog warns

Some sad news about the state of protection of biodiversity in Canada – with implications for the former PFRA pastures.

From the International Convention on Biological Diversity, to the state of Canada’s National Parks, to plans to save Canada’s 518 species at risk, Maxwell noted a “pattern of unfulfilled commitments and responsibilities” that appear to be the result of departments with too many demands and too few resources.

Full story here.