Conference Program
Friday's Program Abstracts
Perceptions of the aspen parkland, 1690-1890: Relating story to science
Nancy Sather, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
Conservation biologists tend to use 19th century records of public land surveyors as the baseline for understanding natural ecosystems. In the Aspen Parkland, U.S. Public Land Survey and Canadian Dominion Land Survey notes post-date written landscape descriptions by many decades. Earlier historical narratives provide a springboard to enhance understanding of pre-survey environmental history in this transitional eco-region. Although such descriptions are snapshots in time and space, they complement each other and, for well-travelled areas, paint a picture of the changing landscape. Drawing on these first-hand accounts, I attempt to connect selected anecdotal historical narratives from fur traders, explorers, and travelers with the body of evolving scientific and archaeological evidence of the complex interactions between climate, grazers, fire, and human cultural influences.
Is Progress the Enemy of Conservation? John Deere and the Meadowlark
The human activities which endanger species at risk are impelled by three closely intertwined ideological forces; Liberal Democracy, Social Progress, and Economic Growth. Efforts to preserve or protect species at risk must occur within the context of these widely accepted and highly valued ideologies, and effective design and execution of such measures requires an understanding of the historical context of the ideas, their current manifestation, and the directions in which they seem likely to carry us.
The presentation will begin by noting that the advent of the modern world in Western Canada occurred almost exactly 200 years ago at the forks of the Red and Assiniboine, virtually the site of the present conference. The ideological notions which engendered Lord Selkirk’s initiative marked a departure from the era of fur trading and exploration. The seeds of the industrial revolution were planted in prairie soil. Before the end of that century they would set in motion the political, economic and technological changes which have affected the western landscape and ecosystem, and would produce the widely accepted and valued social, esthetic, and economic rewards which we enjoy today. These, largely positive, impacts on the human condition will be contrasted with their impact on indigenous species, and the dilemma which this contrast creates for those concerned with the politics of ecological integrity.
The presentation will conclude with some observations concerning the probable directions of social and economic change in the immediate future, and some notions and ideas which might be useful to future strategies.
Prairie Conservation Action Plan: Assessment and recommendations
Dr. Geoff Holroyd, Environment Canada
Two decades after the release of the original Prairie Conservation Action Plan, what progress have we made to conserve grasslands and endangered species while maintain economic stability and productivity of prairie grasslands in Canada? Soon after the World Conservation Strategy was released we produced our own conservation plan with the motto “Think Globally, Act Locally”. The stated purpose of the plan was “to influence policy and attitudes to as to conserve the biological diversity found in the Canadian prairies”. Geoff will reflect on the 9 conferences and the progress that we have made…or not.. on the conservation of native prairie and endangered species. During that time we have down-listed Peregrine Falcons, reintroduced Black-footed Ferrets and de-listed Baird’s Sparrow. But we have listed far more species that we have recovered. We have produced numerous recovery strategies, various plans, seen thousands of gas and oil wells drilled, installed many kilometers of pipelines and watched as 1000’s of acres of native prairie have been cultivated. Have we accomplished our goals? The PCAP stated that we needed a commitment by westerners, cooperative action, and ongoing monitoring of progress. We need a reality check on our state of prairie conservation, our economy, agricultural policy and most recently even our climate.
Recent declines in northern tall-grass prairies and effects of patch structure on community persistence (Dr. Nicola Koper, Darcy C. Henderson, and K. Mozel)
Dr. Nicola Koper, University of Manitoba
Tall-grass prairies are critically endangered, and Manitoba has lost more of its historical range of tall-grass prairie than any other state or province. In 2006, we resurveyed 65 prairies originally surveyed in 1987 or 1988 to evaluate the extent to which tall-grass prairies in Manitoba changed in quality, size and number over time. In 2007 and 2008, we conducted more detailed compositional sampling in 580 Daubenmire plots within 24 tall-grass prairies, to evaluate potential effects of prairie size, matrix composition, and distance to prairie edge on species composition and community persistence. Thirty seven percent of tall-grass prairies present in 1987 or 1988 had been actively or benignly converted to other habitat types by 2006. Prairies also declined significantly in quality over this time period. Small prairies were more likely to be converted to other habitat types, or to decline in quality, compared with larger prairies. Compositional sampling indicated that both native and non-native species were more likely to respond to distance to edge than to either prairie size or matrix type, demonstrating the influence of habitat fragmentation on northern tall-grass prairie communities. Higher cover of non-native plants was correlated with lower richness of native species, at both plot and prairie spatial scales, indicating that non-native plants are gradually displacing native species. Few tall-grass prairie remnants in Manitoba are likely to be self-sustaining. Northern tall-grass prairies must be actively managed to ensure their conservation.
Prairie Canaries: Are the warning songs of grassland birds falling on deaf ears?
Dr. Stephen Davis, Canadian Wildlife Service
Read any article on grassland birds published in the past 10-15 years and you will encounter a sentence stating something to the effect, “Grassland birds show the most consistent, widespread, and steepest decline of any group of birds in North America”. Although this statement has become somewhat of a cliché, like most clichés, it succinctly and accurately summarizes the situation. From 1966 – 1979, 13 of the 21 species adequately monitored by the North American Breeding Bird Survey in Canada experienced population declines. Unfortunately the situation has not improved since the first Prairie Conservation and Endangered Species Conference. From 1980-2007, all 21 species are in decline and 6 are currently listed by COSEWIC; the status of several others are under review. Most alarming is the fact that the current conservation crisis facing grassland birds has largely gone unnoticed in Canada. The Canadian public is likely more aware of the loss of biodiversity in the Amazon than that on the Canadian prairies. Here I examine factors influencing grassland bird populations, identify current threats, and discuss opportunities and challenges for grassland bird and prairie conservation across Prairie Canada.
The future of threatened butterflies and orchids in Manitoba's Tall Grass Prairie
Dr. Richard Westwood, Department of Biology, University of Winnipeg
Critical habitat for unique prairie plants and animals continues to shrink in North America due to conversion of natural prairie ecosystems to agricultural crop and range land. Tall-grass prairie is considered the most biologically diverse and productive type of prairie grassland. Manitoba, tall-grass prairie once covered over 6,000 km2 in the south central portion of the province prior to western European settlement but now remaining tall-grass prairie remnants are confined to approximately 2000 ha. These few isolated tall grass prairie remnants require some level of management to maintain healthy populations of the native plant and animal species and prevent overgrowth by trees and shrubs and invasion of exotic plant species. While it is not always possible to closely mimic natural disturbance regimes, management techniques include controlled burning, use of domestic grazers and mowing and haying. Given the small size of remaining tall grass prairie habitats these activities can negatively impact populations of certain prairie plants and animals. This study examines the effects of management techniques on survival of three endangered/threatened species (two butterflies and an orchid); the Dakota skipper (Hesperia dacotae),the Poweshiek skipperling (Oarisma poweshiek) and the western prairie fringed orchid (Platanthera praeclara). Each species reacts differently to management techniques and activities that positively affect one species often negatively influence the population stability of the other species.
Amphibian and Reptile Conservation in Prairie Canada: Knowledge and Engagement
Andrew Didiuk, Canadian Wildlife Service
Knowledge of amphibian and reptile ecology and conservation needs in prairie Canada was fairly limited until the 1980's compared to knowledge of other taxa. Since that time there has been increasing activity in research programs albeit with a recent focus upon species considered to be at risk. There has been a concurrent increase in reporting of this knowledge, supplemented by status review reports and recovery strategies and action plans in recent years. Regulatory considerations have been quite general until the advent of species at risk legislation when additional protection for some species has been applied, including the federal Species at Risk Act. Engagement in conservation through stewardship programs, with a focus or at least partial focus upon amphibians and reptiles, has been very limited with some recent exceptions. Most conservation actions have been indirect through more general wetland and upland habitat conservation programs. Outreach programs have occasionally been a component of stewardship programs, and increasingly amphibians and reptiles have been included in conservation media products. A variety of monitoring programs have been initiated, with varying success. The trend of conservation status of amphibians and reptiles is presented, with linkages to past, present and possible future efforts in obtaining knowledge and engaging in stewardship.
Patterns of past climate on the prairies
Dave Sauchyn, University of Regina
Because some climate cycles are as long as or longer than weather station records, proxy data are required to capture multi-decadal cycles and the full range of climate extreme. Paleoclimate data for past millennium reveal the internal climatic variability that will underlie the trends imposed by global warming. A climate signal is preserved in biological and geological archives where the distribution of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and rates of biophysical processes are sensitive to changes in climate. The postglacial climate history of Canada has been reconstructed largely from the plant and animal remains preserved in lake sediments and from the source and age of surficial deposits like sand dunes. The only proxies with annual resolution are varved lake sediments and tree rings, which both are lacking from the Prairie Ecozone. At the University of Regina (PARC) Tree-Ring Lab, we have collected tree rings from more than 100 sites that surround the Prairie Ecozone. At these dry sites, annual tree growth is moisture limited and therefore is a signal of water availability. The tree-ring chronologies reveal provide a history of prairie hydroclimate, including quasi-periodic wet and dry cycles that vary in intensity and duration. The most prolonged and severe droughts occurred during the several centuries preceding the settlement of the prairies.
The environmental benefits, costs and risks associated with agricultural best management practices
Dr. Don Flaten, Associate Professor, Department of Soil Science, University of Manitoba
A variety of agricultural beneficial management practices (BMPs) have been developed by scientists, encouraged by public and private agencies, then finally adopted by farmers to protect and improve the environmental health of Prairie ecosystems. However, we rarely evaluate the full environmental and economic benefits and costs of those practices within this region. Instead, many of our BMPs are promoted on the basis of research done elsewhere and/or they have been evaluated for only a relatively narrow range of criteria. In reality, BMPs not only have economic costs, they often have environmental costs or "side-effects" as well. For example, recent research in Southern Manitoba shows that even though conservation tillage reduces losses of sediment and nitrogen losses to surface water, this "BMP" increases losses of phosphorus. Therefore, we need to start evaluating agricultural BMPs for environmental health in a manner that is similar to evaluating remedies for human health issues ... i.e., on more of a case-by-case basis, with more knowledge and disclosure of the most important environmental risk for that area and all the benefits and costs of the practices that could be used to address that risk.
Adaptation as Resilience Building: A policy study of climate change vulnerability and adaptation on the Canadian Prairies
Dr. Henry (Hank) Venema, Director, Sustainable Natural Resources Management, International Institute for Sustainable Development
The Canadian Prairies are, however, frequently affected by climate-related stresses such as climate variability and particularly drought, which are projected to worsen with climate change. This project documents a seminal attempt to identify sources of farm, and community–level resilience to climate stress across the three Canadian Prairie provinces (Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta), with the explicit objective of aligning Canadian agricultural policy with urgent adaptation priorities. Methodologically, we serially link vulnerability and resilience concepts, developing firstly a vulnerability space map to select comparative case studies using indicators of adaptive capacity, and historic exposure to climate stress. We then use the resilience lens to investigate socio-ecological response dynamics to historic climate stress and shock using participatory rural appraisal techniques.
Key findings include the ubiquity of mal-adaptive drainage practices that have continued essentially unabated since initial European settlement – particularly natural wetland drainage which reduces landscape heterogeneity and hydrologic buffering capacity, and is driven by production-oriented incentives. In contrast, conservation, minimum and zero tillage practices are adaptation successes that have required decades of extension support from a large array of formal and informal institutions. The implications of this research - increased ecological goods and service programming and agro-ecological extension for building climate resilience - are essentially re-discoveries of traditional knowledge, but nonetheless major research inputs into the ongoing evolution of Canada’s next generation Agricultural Policy Framework.
Legacy of the Stinking River: Wetland loss and restoration on Manitoba’s southern prairies
Dr. Gordon Goldsborough, University of Manitoba
The earliest European settlers to the prairies of southern Manitoba experienced a profoundly different landscape than the one we see today. Vast areas of wetlands covered much of what is now productive farmland. The Land Drainage Act of 1895, enacted with the express purpose of increasing agricultural productivity, first in the Red River Valley, and later on the west side of Lake Manitoba, fostered active land drainage through much of the 20th century. In the Red River Valley, wetlands comprised some 11% of the land area in the 1870s compared to less than 0.1% today. Yet, growing awareness of the ecological goods and services provided by intact wetlands is underpinning new initiatives by the Manitoba government and nongovernmental agencies to promote wetland restoration. I will provide information on the spatial extent of wetlands that once existed on Manitoba’s southern prairies, discuss anthropogenic threats to the ecological function of remaining ones, and describe efforts to restore wetlands in Manitoba, using the Big Grass Marsh, Delta Marsh, Netley-Libau Marsh, and Oak Hammock Marsh as examples.
Prairie Farm Incomes, Productivity and the Impact of Farm Environment Policy
Jim Unterschultz, Associate Professor, Rural Economy, University of Alberta
A brief overview will highlight aggregate farm income and sources of income in the three Prairie provinces. For example farm income in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta showed an increased in 2008. However, long term growth in agricultural productivity, a key source for increasing overall farm income, has been declining in the past decade. In particular this productivity decline has been most pronounced in the crop and oilseed sector. Recent farm policy is likely reducing productivity growth in the livestock sector. Environmental policy initiatives to maintain or increase Ecological Goods and Services (e.g. maintain and improve wetlands, riparian areas or other wildlife habitat) will likely have two direct impacts on farm income. As conventionally measured, these policies will slow productivity growth and hence overall farm income. Second, implementing many environmental initiatives will be a net farm cost and this will also reduce overall farm income on the prairies. Farm examples related to the costs of retaining wetland in cropland, maintaining riparian zones and land clearing will be presented.
Prairie land use in transition
Ray Armbruster, Manitoba Cattle Producers Association
As frontline conservationists for generations, cattle producers in Canada have had an appreciation for the many ecological benefits that arise from responsible stewardship of the land. As one of the largest groups of landholders in Manitoba, cattle producers have historically ensured that vast tracts of the Canadian landscape remain under perennial cover and that this landscape continues to provide so many of the ecological benefits we depend on as a society.
Producers are under pressure to transition their land away from ecologically valuable perennial cover. The process of land use transition causes soil erosion and degradation, increases nitrous oxide emissions, reduces nutrient filtration and cycling, and reduces biodiversity from an increase in monocultures. Each time the transition from ‘drainage-exhaustive cultivation-restoration’ occurs, a portion of the ecological benefits (ie. decreasing Greenhouse Gas Emissions released in the atmosphere) of wetlands and perennial cover is lost. I will be discussing how on-farm decision-making can impact land transition, and how these decisions will affect the environment and the species within it.
Impacts of environmental farm plans
In 2002 the Federal Agricultural Minister announced a new farm program – “The Agricultural Policy Framework”. This new program, which became know as the APF, was comprised of five primary pillars, one of which related to the environment. One of the items under this pillar was the goal to have an Environmental Farm Plan Program voluntary available to each and every farmer across Canada.
The EFP presentation will focus on the development and delivery of the program in Manitoba under the APF along with its impacts and success rate over the course of the APF program.
Water policy: the impact on wildlife habitat
Cynthia Kallio Edwards, Ducks Unlimited
The strategies used to conserve wildlife habitat have evolved over the last several decades to include more emphasis on how policy can be utilized to achieve habitat objectives. Because wildlife habitat also provides multiple benefits to society such as flood and erosion control, carbon sequestration, and air and water purification, society has a vested interest in conserving these areas. One of the goals of non-government organizations is to increase the awareness of these benefits in order to build the public will that is needed to change policy.
Water policy in Prairie Canada is primarily implemented at a Provincial level, so changes to those policies are driven by different circumstances across the three provinces. This presentation will provide an overview of the status of water policy in each of the three Prairie Provinces, in addition to discussing the implications these policies have for wildlife habitat. Because a lack of effective water policy, particularly as it relates to wetland habitat, has facilitated the ongoing loss of these areas, this presentation will focus on the impacts of wetland habitat loss on waterfowl. Results from recent research on the implications of wetland loss on other goods and services such as water quality and carbon sequestration will also be highlighted.
Wetland and water policy is vital to meet the needs of wildlife across Prairie Canada, and increasing societal pressure is imperative to changing government policy. This presentation will make some suggestions for improvements to water policy that can effectively conserve natural areas, not only for wildlife habitat but also for the other societal benefits they provide. It will also illustrate how effective water policy can help government meet its other obligations such as biodiversity conservation and the North American Waterfowl Management Plan.
The demand of biofuels and landscape impacts
Matthew McCandless, International Institute for Sustainable Development
Demand for biofuels is rapidly changing the profile of agriculture on the Canadian Prairies and throughout the world. Presently biofuel production is supported in large part by government subsidies, but the industry’s emergence signals a growing recognition of agriculture’s multifunctionality. Increasingly farmland is seen as a provider of multiple ecosystem goods and services. Prairie landowners have the opportunity to sell carbon credits, and programs exist to compensate landowners for improvements in water quality and wildlife habitat. Policies and markets are continually evolving to allow farmers to be compensated for some of the positive environmental externalities of their activities in an effort to enhance agriculture’s public benefit. The development of a biofuel industry can be a complement or a detriment to these efforts, depending on how policies are formulated.
IISD is embarking on a multi-year project to examine how to develop and implement sustainable biofuel policy for the Canadian Prairies. This presentation will explore some recent IISD research on biofuels subsidies in Canada and internationally, and the effect that these policies have had. This will serve as a basis for a discussion of the work currently underway on the development of a sustainable policy for biofuels that carefully balances ecosystem goods and services in an effort to maximize the public and private benefits from healthy agricultural landscapes.
Balancing the increasing energy demand with wildlife habitat
Peggy Strankman, Canadian Cattlemen’s Association
Canadians are proud of our landscapes, or natural environment, our wildlife and our heritage. We are also very comfortable with our enviable standard of living.
The need for reliable and affordable energy has supported the Canadian lifestyle. The need for food helped support that lifestyle and directed the development of the prairies. Food and energy security are important to Canadians now and more so in the future. However these needs are delivered on the same lands that are important to Canadians for wildlife, its habitat and other ecological services.
Most and perhaps all of the current environmental issues are wicked problems. They defy solution. The silver bullet solution evades us much to our dismay. Even trying to define these issues presents insurmountable challenges. This presentation will use examples and case studies to illustrate the challenges.
