The Mountain View County agricultural services board (ASB) has been given an update on a proposed tree-seeding program for 2020.
The move came during the board’s recent regularly scheduled meeting in council chambers.
West Fraser Sundre Forest Products has offered to provide Mountain View County with pine and spruce tree seedlings for county residents on an annual basis, administration said in a briefing note to the board.
“Clearwater County has been running a program for the last few years, charging $0.30 per seedling to cover the administration of the program. They intend to order 10,000 trees for 2019.”
Last year there was an excess of trees for the program, so Mountain View County was approached to help disperse the trees.
“Due to the short time frame the trees were offered to ALUS (alternative land use services) participants, Legacy Land Trust, and some were planted at county parks and campgrounds.”
Any future tree-seeding program in Mountain View County would have to consider a fair way of dispersal, ensuring trees would be planted and cared for, whether in a shelterbelt project or re-vegetation effort, members heard.
“A tree order would need to be placed in the fall of 2019 and the seedlings would be ready mid-June 2020.
“If the agricultural service board approves development of a program next year, pending service level enhancement approval, a proposed program could be brought forward to a future ASB meeting.”
The ASB is made up of county councillors and appointed members of the public. It advises the county and the province on agriculture-related issues and concerns.
Resolutions pitched
In other news, the 2019 provincial ASB conference takes place this week in Calgary, with members scheduled to vote on a number of resolutions.
One resolution calls on the provincial government to implement an enhanced predator compensation program that would “utilize the GPS location and date time features and photo capabilities of smartphone technology to provide photographic or video evidence to assist in the confirmation of livestock death and livestock injury by predators."
The move would reduce the number of physical site investigations needed to be made by Fish and Wildlife officers, the resolution states.
Another resolution calls on the province to compensate producers 50 per cent of the fees for deadstock pick up.
“On-farm disposal of dead livestock can be very challenging,” the resolution’s background note states. “Burial is difficult under frozen conditions and incineration is not often practical (and) Alberta’s predators are becoming habituated to dead livestock and predation is the next step.”
Another resolution calls on Alberta Agriculture to develop a process to allow farmers and landowners to access carbon credits for land used for permanent pasture or land that is left forested.
Another resolutions calls on the province to “immediately strike a multi-stakeholder committee to work at reducing the use of fresh water by the oil and gas industry in Alberta.”
The background note states, in part, that “agricultural producers rely on the province’s fresh water resources for crop and livestock production. Water is a critical resource to the agriculture industry. Fresh water flooding of oilfields results in the water being lost to the ecosystem forever.”
If passed, the resolutions would be used to lobby the provincial government.
The 2019 ASB conference takes place Jan. 21 – 24, under the theme Together, Towards, Tomorrow. Several Mountain View County ASB members are expected to attend the conference.
