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Greater protection urged for eastern slopes

A new report says measures to protect Alberta’s eastern slopes need to be improved because they are vitally important to the Province’s ecosystem.

A new report says measures to protect Alberta’s eastern slopes need to be improved because they are vitally important to the Province’s ecosystem.

Protection of water and developing greater stewardship of the landscape are among the key recommendations of the report, Values and Voices, Stewardship Priorities for the Southern Alberta Foothills.

Foothills rancher Francis Gardner said they want to protect the eastern slope’s landscape and its ability to regenerate itself.

“These lands here are very ancient and they’re very well adapted, they’re self renewing and they look after themselves,” said Gardner, who lives near Chain Lakes and participated in the process of putting together the report.

It’s not so much about driving changes as it is about preserving what exists, said Gardner.

“The value is to try and have some input into the management from the province in land-use planning,” he said. “We’re trying to get the point to the government about what people actually think and what they care about in this country here.”

The report came out of the Southern Foothills Community Stewardship Initiative and looked at the eastern slopes area between Highway 22X and Highway 3. It was drawn up after a series of meetings held between November 2010 and June 2011 to gather input into the plan.

Copies have been provided to the MDs of Foothills and Ranchland and the provincial government.

According to the report, the province benefits in a variety of ways from the eastern slopes, including providing economic opportunities while contributing to clean water and air. As well, it is also the primary water source for many of the rivers – and communities – in southern Alberta.

The report states the area is facing pressures from development and just as economic activity provides benefits for the province, so does the area’s ecosystem, “Development pressures from multiple and sometimes conflicting land uses threaten to compromise the relatively pristine status of the landscape.”

Eight key values of the eastern slopes and six recommendations to protect them are identified in the report. The region’s key values were identified as water security, traditional lifestyle and culture, aesthetics, wildlife, opportunities for low-impact recreation, clean air, food production and a strong ethic of land stewardship among area residents.

Recommendations include integrating land and water planning; protecting the watershed; managing for connected landscapes; develop stewardship capacity; set thresholds to manage cumulative effects and develop economic incentives for stewardship. A key recommendation is the protection and maintenance of a healthy watershed should have priority over all other land uses.

Report co-author Jacqueline Nelson said they wanted to identify a number of important values to give people a reason why the area needs to be protected.

“We definitely need to have a strong reason why, so that’s why (we identified) the values, and from there you can let people say how you can do that… It is really important to get people to think why first,” she said.

According to Nelson, the report builds on the Southern Foothills Study, which was completed in 2008.

Nelson said it will take an integrated approach to implement the recommendations, with participation from the ground level as well as provincial and municipal governments. She said a number of pilot projects should be held to test the effectiveness of the recommendations.

The Southern Foothills Study looked at the cumulative impacts of human activities on the eastern slopes and certain “best practices” that can be used by all sectors – ranching, logging and oil and gas – to limit their impact. However, Nelson said the study found that best practices alone weren’t enough to protect the land and quality of water and it’s hoped the new study’s recommendations will produce better results.

“I think that’s what we are hoping is that it will move us beyond best practices,” she said.

Gardner said he also hopes the new study’s recommendations will produce better results.

“We hope so and we have to try and get it achieved, because fundamentally the government in Alberta is totally focused on the productive capacity of the oil industry and that’s where they’re putting their favour and we’re very concerned about what the impacts might be.”

Ultimately, he said he is concerned about greater industrialization in the eastern slopes and development need to be done in a more intelligent way.

“We will try to generate whatever ideas we can that are constructive that maybe are helpful to maintain both sides of the scale here without demolishing the function of the eastern slopes,” he said.

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