Grasslands Education Program

Inside Education

I am attending this PD for 1 reason:  What and how we can return the native grassland biome to its native state, while continuing to provide sustainable food, given 70% of this biome has been lost?



Grasslands 101
Carol Engstrom
Scotch Bonnet Consulting: Sagebrush Tours
Grasslands are the most productive, diverse and threatened, 14% of Canada., only 5.5% have been protected.  Alberta is 65% of irrigated land in Canada, 40 diff crops, ranching often preserves native grassland

Soil
Chernozems, thick dark coloured surface horizon (A), some of the highest levels of carbon are sequestered in Chernozems.  Regosoils are sand dunes

Solonetzic are hard, dry and sticky when wet, where sodium salts close to surface.  Nutrient poor soils are Gleysols.  Soils are like icebergs underground, unlike forests that are the opposite. Ah-humic layer, Bm mezic (middle with nutrients leeched) Cca shinny with lots of calcium

Solonetzic soils are not good for crop farms,

Threats to Grasslands

1. soil: wind, water erosion, contamination N & P fertilizers, oil and gas industry hydrocarbon and salinity impacts Hericides and pesticides
2. Veg: invasive, habitat and landuse changes

Hinterland Endangered Species
Swift Fox
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzyf9RrqeTY
Bison
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKyW3Lw55lo

Water

Threats
Drought & Floods

Airsheds
monitor and measure air quality regions.


David McAllister and Ryan WID
13 Irrigation districts in AB
1.42 millions acres of land
20% of the agricultural GDP coming from 4% of the landbase
every $1 invested $3 in prov. economy
http://www.wid.net/

1903 irrigation approved to CPR till 1944.

WID 25km from Bow River diversion at 17th ave SE, with storm water directly entering from the industrial landuse all via gravity into Ralph Klein (Shepard) into Chestermere with a 4" operational .  Storm water has huge inputs loads and Shepard balances that.  Chestermere has a weed harvester and compost it.  FITFIR, first in time, first in
Drip systems that grow more food with less water.
Match Incentive program going from High Pressure pivots to low pressure.
Veritable rate application
Water License
1 acre/foot of water unit rate /acre $18 . 1.5 acre feet




UofA  Mathesis Ranch Tour
Edward Koch
Lisa Raatz

49,000 hectares (~25 sections), wheat grass, needle & thread, western wheat,

Ephemeral wetlands, students always want black & white, 30 people can be housed.  Found new centrosaur on property, sand dunes that have bison kill site, thorny buffalo berry is a N fixer around wetlands invasion due to ducks unlimited wetlands, wolf willow is also N fixing but not as invasive,

Ted Talks Allan Savory
https://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_world_s_deserts_and_reverse_climate_change
https://www.savory.global/
http://nftinwt.com/

Root structures in Mixed grassland about 160cm.   Plots of matts found that the max time on ground was 12weeks, photo was 24 weeks.  

Sedge, western wheat and June grass photos.  Drummounds thistle, Mob crop , there is more carbon in the soil then anywhere else in the form of complex carbohydrates and most of the co2 is sequester back to atmosophere CH4 is also absorbed by microbes ion the soil.  95% of nitrogen is fixed by plants not animal feces.   Electrical  lines had 54 bird mortalities predict that 3700 birds die a year, still less than house cats, and transportation.

Prairie Conservation Forum

Brian is from Landwise & Ryan in the county of Taber office & Brian Anderson

http://landwise.ca/

http://www.albertapcf.org/

http://www.mdtaber.ab.ca/

1^st location, a few km south of Vauxhall east of Hwy. 36, section 14, Native unbroken. Crested Wheat grass is an invasive from Mongolia, started using it in the 1950’s along roadsides, it’s a bright green clump that is a good early forage, but to prevent it from Spreading requires an early mowing and then a 2^nd mowing in July to reduce seeding and then pick seeds by hand to eliminate. 
Calf mother pairs, Animal Unit AUM, in SE AB 30 AUM’s per1/4 section would be high, .  Costs 0.70cents /acres to lease, and the cost for buying native prairie is about $2000/acre.  This location had some Oldman formation outcrops and irrigated water in the coulee.  The County of Taber received land from the Gov after people who could no longer pay their taxes because they were unable to make a living on the land that had no water, especially in the 30’s.. Taber County then created a conservation

South Saskatchewan Conservation Strategy that leases the land for grazing but prevents it from being broken .. Rough Fescue “prairie wool” because of the dead biomass can be winter grazed because of the nutrient value still in the biomass.. Brian planted RF on his property near Red Deer cause it likes dark well drained soil, he is in his 2^nd year planted them in circles 70% survival rate. 

https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/460ac866-4416-4d77-a25a-a02fab85a6ec/resource/8261ce03-aa0f-4621-8e2d-c610a72ac37c/download/South-Saskatchewan-Regional-Plan-2014-2024-February-2017.pdf

2^nd site near purple Springs met Brian Anderson” You're a real cowboy if you can rope a badger but if it gets in its hole you'll never get it out.  330-5397, Lauren is a rider to call and ask for permission 223-8546.  Shawn Bubel Archaeologist from UofL 2200 year old bison processing site,  ride with cactus guard on back of horse cause hooves kick up spines and then it “gets western”  Leafy Spurg yellow flower spreads in response to floods as rhizomes get carried in flood water due to climate change, downy brome another invasive species as it seeds early picture at badger hole.  “Sour Doc” red flower in dunes, Sand Doc – dunes form horse shoe shape due to wind, still moving.  At this site they fenced the land to improve grazing practice such that the cattle graze evenly, and it made a difference, they built 7 miles of fence with 4 lines of barb wire, bottom smooth for antelope and the top at 44”

 http://people.uleth.ca/~bubest/

Clayton robins Manitoba rebuilding organic matter in the soil Nuffield Canada

https://www.linkedin.com/in/clayton-robins-a7636a51/

10% of the irrigated land in Taber is used for cattle feed, 30% in WID, 75% in Picture Butte, and 50% in EID. 

Helen Schuler Nature Centre

Sarah Downey, Alberta Parks

Virtual Grasslands conservation Program called Deep Roots

David Hill, Board of Inside Education, Uof L belives Alberta has a chance to be a leader in food production and business as the world demographics are quickly changing.

Kainai School

Peter, Elder

Shane, School leader

Al Blackwater, AG teacher

Shane learned that you must listen to the students to find out who they are and where they are to know where to start with them.

Peter told a series of stories that helped us understand how students learn and how elders teach, but as a person you must fullfill 3 traits,

1. Emotion
2. Intellect
3. Spirit

As leaders, teachers, elders you must have 3 things

1. Unconditional love
2. Never judge
3. Forgiveness

He was left in the house alone without any power, plumbing for 3 weeks after a storm in April, when his parents went to town.  He was 11.  He felt that he survived because he did the forth option 

1. Give up
2. Panic
3. Go insane
4. Stop, be patient and think

"Don't do it for me, do it for yourself . Teach through stories and allow the students to find their place in the story, next time they hear the story they may be in a different place.