| | Soil salinity was a very major issue in Alberta in the 1980s and 1990s. Through the efforts of Alberta Agriculture anf Food and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada staff, various municipalities and farmers, we made some major progress in adoption of practices to slow down the spread of this serious soil degradation problem. We need to maintain that momentum,” explains Rob Dunn, Conservation Cropping Specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Food (AF). Now Dunn and others at AF are providing training and technical support so rural extension staff are better able to take on this important extension effort.
Rural extension staff (RES) are funded by AESA to work for municipalities, producer groups and others on local stewardship issues. The municipalities of Forty Mile, Cypress, Warner, Vulcan and Lethbridge have all identified soil salinity as a priority issue in their jurisdictions, and their RES are working with local farmers to deal with this issue.
Soil salinity is the accumulation of salt in the root zone, which is generally caused by high water tables. The area of salt accumulation is called a saline seep. Soil salinity is usually a slow, insidious problem that, if left unchecked, gradually reduces crop yields until the land no longer supports crop production.
“Although saline soils can be caused in a number of ways, salinity extension activities focus on those salinity types that are affected by crop management or land use choices. In many situations, the key to reducing soil salinity is to grow crops that are able to lower the water table in the affected areas. Depending on the situation, that could mean using less summerfallow and more continuous cropping and/or the strategic use of deep-rooted perennial forages, like alfalfa, to lower the water table in the area that is feeding groundwater into the saline seep. And in the seep itself, a good option in many cases is to grow a mixture of salt-tolerant forages, like Altai wildrye and tall wheatgrass.
Since soil salinity is aggravated by wet weather, some southern Alberta producers have recently had to renew their battles with this problem. Dunn explains, “In the last 24 months we’ve seen a dramatic increase in salinity in southern Alberta, especially due to the very heavy rains in 2005. Although we think that some of that increase will come back into balance when we return to a more normal weather pattern, it has been an additional motivation for us to tackle this problem.”
Dunn and his co-workers are providing technical assistance on salinity to the RES in several ways. He says, “One of the first things we did was to provide the RES with a summary of all of the past salinity investigative work that Alberta Agriculture did within their municipalities.” Detailed salinity investigations were done to determine the extent to which salinity was causing the crop-related problems, to identify the probable cause, and to recommend practices to control the salinity. In the 1980s and 1990s, Alberta Agriculture, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Alberta Environment did over 400 site-specific salinity investigations.
With the information on those investigations and the practices recommended at that time, the RES have a database to help them in dealing with current salinity problems.
“Then we followed up with some salinity training sessions,” says Dunn. “The latest event was in September 2006. It was a half-day workshop followed by a half-day in the field with a farmer who is dealing with a soil salinity problem.” The participants learned about conducting a salinity investigation and some of the practical salinity control options to use when consulting with farmers in their own areas.
“We are planning to hold annual salinity training and update sessions for southern Alberta RES,” says Dunn. He adds, “There are also areas of central Alberta with serious salinity problems, so we are considering whether we need to do some training for RES in those areas who would benefit from having some knowledge about dealing with saline soil issues.”
Dunn notes, “We are still losing some ground to salinity in some areas, particularly in southern Alberta, but I think we’re probably close to turning the corner on that. If we look into the future, I’m hopeful we can turn that corner with the efforts of the RES at a municipal level and the effort that we are doing provincially.” |
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