Salinity Distribution within the County of Beaver

The County of Beaver has 868 saline seeps which occupy a total of 2 062 ha (5 093 ac), 0.6% of the County's total area. The visibly saline areas have such high salinity levels that annual crops cannot be grown and forage crops have significantly reduced yields. Often the lands surrounding the visibly saline areas are also weakly saline, resulting in reduced yields especially for salt-sensitive crops.

Salinity distribution by type in the County of Beaver

Salinity type	Number of seeps	Area (ha)	Percent of total saline area
Contact/slope change	476	518.92	25.2
Outcrop	9	11.99	0.6
Depression bottom	332	1 197.39	58.0
Slough ring	51	333.77	16.2
Total	868	2 062.07	100.0

Depression bottom salinity occupies the greatest area (58% of all saline land in the County), followed by contact/slope change salinity (25.2%), slough ring salinity (16.2%), and outcrop salinity (0.6%). There is no evidence that artesian, coulee bottom salinity, canal seepage, and natural/irrigation salinity occur in the County.

Number of saline seeps by type in the County of Beaver

Please refer to Salinity Classification, Mapping and Management in Alberta for more information

For more information about the content of this document, contact Karen Raven.
This document is maintained by Laura Thygesen.
This information published to the web on February 12, 2004.
Last Reviewed/Revised on December 4, 2017.