| | From AESA Council's Chair
By John Kolk
Poultry Industry Council
As a kid growing up on the farm, some of my fondest early memories are finding a duck’s nest by the irrigation ditch, a coyote den in the willows behind the pond, pheasants and partridge in the tall grass in the fall, and owls in an abandoned house. Today, my wife and I enjoy kayaking in a local wetland to relax and get that thrill of discovery when we find a group of young ducks paddling for safety as their mother franticly tries to draw our attention.
As a youngster, I just accepted that these creatures were part of living in the country and expected they would always be there. Over the last 20 years, I’ve started to notice that we didn’t see as many random sightings of local wildlife. A bit of contemplation resulted in the discovery that the willows were no longer behind the pond, the irrigation ditch had been filled in, the tall grass was grazed or cut, and the abandoned house and trees had been levelled.
Looking around the Alberta landscape we all love, we can see a lot of changes. Roads, houses, oilfield activity, forestry, recreational pursuits, foreign plants and animals, and farming practices all impact the space that our native plants and animals need. A multitude of decisions, of low or moderate impact individually, when added up result in significant changes. Most Albertans accept that economic development and other human activities have a legitimate role in our society and, to a point, tolerate the tradeoffs of those activities. But we also recognize the need to protect our abundant natural capital for future Albertans and for its own intrinsic value.
Our natural capital is made up of land, water, air, and plant and animal life. We have taken important steps in assessing and protecting the health of our soil, water and air resources. But assessing and protecting biodiversity is still in its infancy. That is partly because of the complexity of biological life and partly because the links between biodiversity and human needs are not always immediately obvious. Land use involves property rights, water quality and quantity can have immediate health or economic impacts, and air quality has short- and long-term health impacts. Biodiversity impacts are usually felt and seen in the longer term and are difficult to measure.
In many ways, assessing and protecting native plants and animals and their habitat is an integration of getting it right on land, air and water. That’s a tall order, but an order that farmers and ranchers have a vital role in.
This issue of Green Matters covers some interesting developments. The Northern Leopard Frog Program involves on-the-ground efforts for the recovery of this threatened species in Alberta. The strategies to increase our northern pintail population are also putting ideals into action. The biodiversity monitoring activities are an important step to understanding where we are at and if our efforts are producing results. Monitoring will also be critical to the development of a successful Alberta Biodiversity Strategy. It is to agriculture’s credit that we are active in these efforts, but there is a long way for all of us to go. |
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