Vancouver Sun article stresses management aspect of pastures issue

The Vancouver Sun has picked up on the community pasture issue. Protected grassland faces uncertain future.

“Largely, it’s going to be very, very difficult under patron governance to replicate the environmental stewardship,” said Ian McCreary, chair of the Community Pasture Patrons Association of Saskatchewan, which represents the users of most of the province’s community pastures.

He said increased fees and management responsibility could cause some fields to fail altogether and that farmers in fields that survive may try to take on the manager’s role themselves to save money.

Both scenarios could be hugely detrimental to the grasslands, Herriot said. Fields left ungrazed become derelict and cattle farmers managing the fields themselves won’t be able to provide the land with the protection it needs.

Saskatoon Event: “Saskatchewan Grasslands – a Vanishing Landscape?

Illustrated talk “Saskatchewan Grasslands – a Vanishing Landscape?”

Friday, January 24, 2014 at 2 pm

Frances Morrison Public Library in Saskatoon, 311 – 23rd Street East

Temperate grasslands are one of the most altered and modified landscapes in the world. Recent economic and social changes in the Prairie Provinces are driving a rapid shift in the type of land use, with industrial agriculture and development negatively impacting the remaining prairie habitat. Join Saskatoon photographer Dr. Branimir Gjetvaj on a journey of discovery of our diminishing prairie landscapes.

For more information visit: http://branimirphoto.ca/public-presentations-and-shows

Stewart: Community pasture transition to provincial control on track

In the last post, concerns about pasture transitions were raised. Minister of Agriculture Lyle Stewart assures Western Producer readers that the transitions are on schedule in this article.

““The Dec. 1 date for signing is not set in stone,” he said in response to a news release from the Community Pasture Patrons Association of Saskatchewan (CPPAS), which said the deadline had come and gone without formal agreements.

Rather, he said it was a target to en-sure patrons were working toward developing their plans and that the first 10 were ready to go for 2014.
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…”However, there are a couple of outstanding issues.

One is the matter of non-reversionary land, which is land in some of the pastures, including several of the first 10, that does not automatically revert to the province. It represents five percent of the federal land and is owned by the agriculture, environment and defence departments.

Stewart said an agreement between Ottawa and Regina to swap land to accommodate the non-reversionary land fell through after other departments stepped in and said a formal process had to be followed.
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