More than 50 community members turned out for the first of four public forums to provide feedback on potential future of land use in the Southern Alberta Foothills.
At the Flare ‘n’ Derrick Community Hall in Turner Valley on Jan. 24, a diverse range of issues and concerns were debated among the residents who sat in groups around several roundtables.
“I think it’s important as a member of the community to have some say on the land where we live,” said Gervais Goodman, owner of a local management consultant business, who attended the two-hour event.
Goodman said he felt it was important to protect the region’s landscape for future generations.
“This is an opportunity to really examine the land and maintain its ecological integrity,” Goodman said. “There aren’t many opportunities like that left in the world, so this is huge.”
The Turner Valley forum, the first of four consecutive events held in the area, was part of the Southern Foothills Community Stewardship Initiative, a partnership between the Pekisko Group and the Chinook Institute for Community Stewardship.
The rest of the community forums were held in High River, Nanton and Cowley throughout the week from Jan. 25 to Jan. 27.
The Southern Foothills Community Steward Initiative’s goal is to gather information from the perspective and knowledge of local landowners with the intent of developing a land use framework to protect the Southern Foothills’ landscape, said project leader Carole Starke.
The area discussed at the forums covers the land from Highway 22X near Calgary south to Highway 3 near Pincher Creek and west of Highway 2.
The initiative is largely based on a 2007 study conducted by the Southern Alberta Land Trust Society. The study, called the Changing Landscape of the Southern Alberta Foothills, found continuing with business as usual with land use planning in the region would only lead to slow but certain environmental degradation.
At the forums, maps and notepads were scattered across each table, encouraging participants in dynamic dialogue. The conversations were guided by two open questions posed to the crowd by the initiative’s leaders.
Starke, who said she was pleased with the turnout at each of the community forums, believes the events were successful in encouraging an “open conversation” amongst participants.
“There was a really diverse crowd that came out to each forum,” she said. “There was a strong showing of landowners which was really great.”
Across each of the forums, Starke said she was surprised to see a common thread in opinions emerge amongst participants in each town’s forum.
“The bigger picture messages were water, keeping the land whole rather than fragmenting it, and incentives for helping people stay on the land,” she explained. “Those kind of opinions were strong throughout, and it was interesting for us to hear that those key messages resonated so strongly up and down the region.”
The core working group behind the initiative will be analyzing the data gathered from the forums to synthesize into one package, Starke said. The findings will be made available to the public on the Pekisko Group’s website, at www.pekisco.ca
Locals will have a second opportunity to discuss the results of the first round of community forums during the next community events scheduled to take place in early March. More details will be available closer to the time at www.pekisko.ca
