Neither Mountain View County nor its agricultural service board has taken a position on the demise of the Prairie Shelterbelt Program, although several councillors weighed in on the issue last week.The federal government announced during the release of its 2012 budget that the more than a century-old program that provided free shelterbelt trees to farmers was being discontinued. It is seeking a third party to acquire distribution ownership.The Mountain View County ag service board is aware of the change, said Jeff Holmes, the county's director of legislative, community and agricultural services, when questioned during last week's council meeting.“There's been no formal discussion on what our action plan will be,” Holmes told council.Councillors offered several different perspectives on the value of the program, which this year provided 40,000 trees to residents of Mountain View County.“Forty thousand trees in the county of Mountain View in terms of an environmental perspective is huge,” said Reeve Bruce Beattie.Not only does the addition of trees help prevent soil erosion and provide habitat for birds and bugs needed in the canola growing process, they also add scenic value to the county as well, said Div. 6 Coun. Al Kemmere.“I think it's a valuable program and I would hate to see it cut without a little bit of pushback,” he said.Div. 1 Coun. Kevin Good disagreed that the trees were still being used to provide shelterbelts, which is what the program was initiated for over a century ago.With no-till practices being employed on many fields, there's more moisture staying in the soil, he said.“Personally I'm not really opposed to having that program discontinued because of the cost benefit of what it was designed for,” Good said.Kemmere said he would like to see the ag service board discuss the situation.Holmes mentioned there is still at least one other avenue available locally for a shelterbelt program, although residents would have to pay for it.A co-op arrangement is available with Alberta Nurseries to provide trees that are a little bigger than what is currently provided through the federal program, he said.
