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A brand new conservation settlement introduced Tuesday preserves over 300 hectares of southwestern Alberta land that includes endangered Prairie grasslands.
The Nature Conservancy of Canada mentioned Tuesday the settlement ensures the cow-calf operation will proceed to function on the land, situated south of Cardston, close to Police Outpost Provincial Park, and conserves the 323-hectare property’s “outstanding ecological integrity.”
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Canadian Prairie grasslands, which comprise virtually 80 per cent of the conserved land, retailer billions of tonnes of carbon of their root programs, the group mentioned in a information launch.
“The Prairie grasslands of Canada are one of the crucial endangered ecosystems on the planet,” mentioned Jeremy Hogan, the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s director of prairie grassland conservation. “Lower than 20 per cent stays in all of Canada.”
An Atmosphere Canada research launched in 2021 recommended defending native grasslands is the one simplest nature-based resolution accessible to Canada for mitigating the consequences of local weather change, mentioned Hogan.
Grasslands additionally keep water in place through the spring soften and early rains, inflicting much less soil erosion points, he mentioned.
By means of its Prairie Grasslands Motion Plan, the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s objective is to preserve greater than 500,000 hectares — an space six instances the dimensions of Calgary — by 2030.
“That solely symbolically offsets the speed at which we’re dropping grasslands at present,” mentioned Hogan.
In addition to its plentiful grasslands, the property additionally gives habitat to many various species of wildlife, together with a number of listed underneath Canada’s Species At Danger Act, together with ferruginous hawk, grizzly bear, horned grebe and American badger.
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The land options western blue iris, an at-risk wildflower species that grows in moist meadows and shorelines at lower than a dozen websites in southwestern Alberta. It’s listed as a particular concern underneath Canada’s Species At Danger Act.
“Our household would by no means wish to see this property subdivided and changed into acreages,” mentioned landowner Jeff Bectell, whose household has raised cattle on the property since 1917. “We’re happy to know our land will stay intact and proceed to be managed in the best way we’ve got finished for generations.”
This newest settlement expands on the NCC’s efforts to preserve land within the space, forming a block of just about 2,900 hectares of conserved lands that gives a big hall for wildlife.
The settlement was funded via non-public donors, the federal and Alberta governments, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Weston Household Basis.
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