Producer Champions Community Involvement in Watershed Management

"When I was first approached by the organization to join about 10 years ago, I was totally negative," says Sawyer. "I didn’t understand that I was part of the problem, and how easy it was to be part of the solution." Sawyer was afraid that he would be forced to spend several thousand dollars to change his operation, which turned out not to be the case.

The Pine Lake Restoration Society began as a community based initiative to address phosphorus problems in Pine Lake. "We worked with local agriculture producers, home and cottage owners, campgrounds and local youth camps to develop projects to address the phosphorus problem," explains Sawyer. Projects to contain phosphorus in the watershed and prevent it from entering the lake, and a water treatment project to remove phosphorus already in the lake have been their primary focus. "Although the scope of our project is significant, it’s not as large as some other organizations that cover a huge watershed," says Sawyer. The Society’s Board of Directors is able to manage the activities of the community group.

Over the years, Sawyer has seen a real shift, particularly in the attitude of agriculture producers, since the early days of the Pine Lake Restoration Society. "In the last 10 years, efforts by organizations such as AESA (Alberta Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture) and the previous CAESA, along with media coverage has done a lot of good work in educating the agriculture community and getting them on board," says Sawyer. "Generally throughout Alberta many of these environmental issues are a lot more clear now, there is a lot more information available and a lot more educated decisions are being made."

Sawyer spends a lot of time going around the province and talking to groups and individuals to help them see the benefits of community involvement and the importance of watershed management. "As a farmer, I can go and talk to other farmers," says Sawyer. By relating our story, I can show them how this thing works, and how it’s really not big and huge and scary. "I talk to everybody, but my specialty is in an area where there is some resistance in an agriculture community to getting involved." Using the Society as an example, Sawyer can show them that success is really about basic common sense stuff that people deal with everyday.

"As a community, they can take common sense approaches and put them into action rather simply," says Sawyer. "Once they get together as a group, there are no problems in making it work." In most cases, Sawyer finds the non-agriculture community are usually the first ones at the table. "Many of them live on the lake or water and see the problem first hand and probably far more clearly than most of us in the watershed do. It’s pretty easy for us to pass our problems on, they flow down the creek and we don’t see them again."Sometimes it’s more difficult to get the agriculture producers to the table.

"Once we can get accurate information to farmers, they are onside," says Sawyer. "The problem always has been getting accurate information to them." One excellent tool to help get information out is the new Alberta Watersheds website Other resources include staff and information from the AESA program and organizations such as Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada - PFRA (Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration), Alberta Environment, Alberta Conservation Association, Ducks Unlimited Canada and others.

Sawyer believes that community watershed initiatives work and have a role to play in watershed management. "As I travel to different groups and talk to agriculture people, the whole concept of community watershed groups is far more acceptable. I think they understand that they are part of the problem and that it is easy to be part of the solution."

For more information, contact:
Doug Sawyer

Alberta Conservation Connection - Issue 18, Fall 2002