| In north-eastern Alberta, two counties have joined forces with Alberta Agriculture Conservation Coordinator Dale Chrapko to pilot a better way of doing business.
Both counties have projects funded through the Alberta Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture (AESA) Program. In 2002, this program will be encouraging municipalities and agricultural organizations to team up to jointly hire local manpower for conservation projects. This approach will allow them to increase manpower for conservation activities without increasing their costs.
We believe it's important to have one-on-one service when dealing with sensitive conservation issues," says Chrapko. "Current government and private resources for one-on-one service are already fairly stretched, making additional manpower resources focused specifically on sustainable agriculture activities critical."
To fine-tune this new approach, the County of Smoky Lake and County of St. Paul are doing a test run. "The two counties are a perfect fit for this concept, as they have the same environmental situations and issues and are closely connected through the two agricultural fieldmen in each county," says Chrapko.
The two counties have jointly hired a full-time Municipal Conservation Technologist to start on May 1. AESA is funding the technologist’s salary and extension activities; the two counties are sharing the office, travel and other related expenses. The technologist will be involved in all conservation-related projects, including manure plans, grazing plans, riparian area management, soil conservation and other activities for the two counties.
The pilot project will help work out some of the details, such as how the municipalities will work together and how the costs will be shared. This information will be valuable when promoting the concept to the rest of the region.
"The big benefit of this approach is the efficient use of resources, because it alleviates a lot of planning and implementation from municipal staff," says Chrapko. The counties will also gain a trained individual who is able to deal effectively with municipal ratepayers in all the conservation programming activities.
The fieldmen for the two counties are looking forward to this new staff addition. "We should be able to get a lot more done with a full-time employee strictly devoting their time to conservation efforts," says Jeff Warawa, Agricultural Fieldmen for the County of Smoky Lake. "As fieldmen, we are involved in so many other issues -- like weed and pest control -- throughout the summer that we have little time for the various [AESA] projects."
Larry Lamothe, Assistant Agricultural Fieldman for the County of St. Paul agrees. "This will also allow us to deal more closely with producers on issues such as riparian areas," he says. "With the amount of things going on between County of Smoky Lake and ourselves, we really don't have the time to focus on these areas as much as we would like."
Warawa also sees an opportunity for the technologist to access other funding sources for various projects on behalf of interested farmers. Chrapko agrees. As well, he expects the technologist to be very involved in developing a major three-year plan for the two counties when AESA moves to three-year funding plans in 2002.
"We think this concept will work really well, with the biggest benefit being reduced pressure on county staff at the same time as putting more resources towards conservation related activities." Chrapko is also working with County of Beaver and County of Lamont to implement a similar concept.
For more information, contact Dale Chrapko. |