MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - The county's agricultural services board (ASB) has been updated on recent Alberta Conservation Association (ACA) and Cows and Fish Association riparian projects and activities in the district.
The updates came by way of delegations at the board’s recent regularly scheduled council meeting, held in person and by Zoom. Riparian projects are typically habitat conservation initiatives in wetlands along rivers or streams.
Erin VanderMarel is an intermediate biologist with ACA. She said the association has been working with stakeholders on various riparian projects in the region.
“We do go out and monitor these properties annually, check in with landowners and see how everything is going and if there is need for improvement or change,” she said.
“Then in the three to five years span we do redo the riparian health either inventory or assessment, depending on the extent of what is needed, and then we can compare and hopefully see that improvement within that riparian area.”
One area project was launched last summer, she said.
“This past year we signed an agreement up near the hamlet of Dogpound, which the county is also involved in,” she said.
That project involved fencing off of the most sensitive areas of the riparian area, including a steep eroding bank.
“To help get the cattle off that remaining unfenced area what we did was we provided an off-site water system . . . so the landowner can turn on a trough they would like to help focus the cows grazing in that specific area. We are hoping to see that dispersion of cattle really help repair that riparian area that is unfenced.”
The ACA is always looking for more landowners to participate in projects, she said.
Kelsey Spicer-Rawe is a riparian specialist with Cows and Fish, a non-profit environmental organization operating in Alberta since 1997. The organization fosters riparian stewardship and management of riparian areas.
One recent project along the Dogpound Creek involved the installation of 2,341 metres of fencing on an 86-acre parcel.
Riparian health inventories were recently conducted along the Dogpound Creek, she said.
“The whole purpose of this is so that the year that the project is put in place we are setting a benchmark or baseline for that project,” she said “The goals would be that, if we have funds, in four or five years would come back and we would repeat these inventories and demonstrate that the management changes that are being put in place are benefiting riparian health.”
During an inventory, staff look at up to 80 parameters on a stream system, she said.
“Those 80 parameters get rolled up into about 11 parameters and that’s how we come up with our health scores,” she said.
Staff look at such things as plant species diversity, physical alterations, soil alterations, and how well a system is accessing its flood plain, she said.
Extension and outreach projects have also recently been undertaken with Mountain View County, including volunteer training, she said.
Angie Quist, riparian specialist with Cows & Fish, also spoke with board members, outline the ongoing Eastern Slopes Project (2019-2023).
Made up of council members and appointed members of the public, the ASB accepted the delegation reports as information.
