Ducks get $20 million

[Blaithin]

ALUS is a Weston family initiative ...for whatever reason I can't get on board with those shysters either.

That’s why it seems shocking. Just waiting for the punchline to pop up.

[chuckChuck]

Ranchers seem more on side with conservation than many crop farmers who want to push all the bush and drain all the wetlands because they don't want to drive around a slough with an oversized air drill.

So the problem with DU is with DU and it's not with the need for conserving habitat and protecting ecosystems? I am not sure that is the case, because many farmers seem critical of any attempts to protect the environment or to have some rules that might infringe on what they can do with their land. Many are indeed opposed to any rules at all.

DU may not be good at riparian management, but alot of farmers and ranchers are really bad at it. I still see lots of cattle walking into water supplies and mucking up and shitting in rivers, streams and water supplies across the prairies.

Bucket if you are going to oppose DU, SWF and the NCC and other conservation groups for aggregating marginal land for conservation why do you think it is okay to allow Andjellic a non resident corporate entity to out compete young farmers with an investors profit goals? Wouldn't that land be better owned by younger owner operators and Saskatchewan farm families so that they can build some equity and have some control?

[bucket]

Ranchers seem more on side with conservation than many crop farmers who want to push all the bush and drain all the wetlands because they don't want to drive around a slough with an oversized air drill.

So the problem with DU is with DU and it's not with the need for conserving habitat and protecting ecosystems? I am not sure that is the case, because many farmers seem critical of any attempts to protect the environment or to have some rules that might infringe on what they can do with their land. Many are indeed opposed to any rules at all.

DU may not be good at riparian management, but alot of farmers and ranchers are really bad at it. I still see lots of cattle walking into water supplies and mucking up and shitting in rivers, streams and water supplies across the prairies.

Bucket if you are going to oppose DU, SWF and the NCC and other conservation groups for aggregating marginal land for conservation why do you think it is okay to allow Andjellic a non resident corporate entity to out compete young farmers with an investors profit goals? Wouldn't that land be better owned by younger owner operators and Saskatchewan farm families so that they can build some equity and have some control?

Investors will eventually leave...no different than when credit foncier finally left...

DU and NCC never leave...they are a scourge.

But yes some farmers have to have every single acre and spend to get that slough into production.

I still go around them or seed the quarter to grass...it's easier...

But DU gets government money to entice people to do the same thing with conditions ...then they get offset donations to do these environmental conservation projects.

I have used my own money, no government money, but I don't like easements on my land or having someone tell me what I can and can't do.

And it's probably goes without saying I might be a little better at conservation than NCC or DU and have pastures to prove it. Within 2 miles of each other.

I have grass set aside for the prairies chicken which never seem to show up in the local NCC pastures. Go figure.

[Oliver88]

Naive landowners dealing with DU or NCC for their hobby farmer style “regenerative projects” are just creating a headache for whoever buys their land in the future due to permanent easements.

[chuckChuck]

Its not impossible to have both land for conservation and bio-diversity and healthy family farms.

In fact many farmers and ranchers do both, knowing that we need to protect our natural resources and build resilience into our farming systems.

DU has often been criticized as a hunters club for for saving game birds. I think they do more than that.

If you want to be objective about conservation and agriculture coexisting then you need to look at the impact of both and look at how many acres are going into conservation versus how many marginal acres are now going into farming. I don't have the numbers, but I think you will find that farming is winning by a large margin.

Farmers are clearing more land and breaking up more marginal land for crops. There are more and more fence line to fence line fields with almost no wildlife habitat on them. Former tree rows are being cleared. Potholes drained. None of this will lead to more wildlife and conservation. It has the opposite effect.

[Blaithin]

Do you think easements are the answer to those issues Chuck?

[bucket]

Its not impossible to have both land for conservation and bio-diversity and healthy family farms.

In fact many farmers and ranchers do both, knowing that we need to protect our natural resources and build resilience into our farming systems.

DU has often been criticized as a hunters club for for saving game birds. I think they do more than that.

If you want to be objective about conservation and agriculture coexisting then you need to look at the impact of both and look at how many acres are going into conservation versus how many marginal acres are now going into farming. I don't have the numbers, but I think you will find that farming is winning by a large margin.

Farmers are clearing more land and breaking up more marginal land for crops. There are more and more fence line to fence line fields with almost no wildlife habitat on them. Former tree rows are being cleared. Potholes drained. None of this will lead to more wildlife and conservation. It has the opposite effect.

When the wet years come back and all the approved drainage works...there will be much bigger problems to deal with...WSA doesn't think to far ahead and the employees will be retired or moved on if those problems arise...or they always have the fall back that " we never could predict that" or a generational change or a new owner...may not even know. Alot of drainage gets done with out approval...

The WSA should know where every tile or drainage is....they don't and they say they can't stay on top of it.

The process is flawed...and farmers that do it know it and the companies installing tile are not responsible for having a permit in hand when they start. Imagine buying a lot in the city and building a house without a permit???? There is a reason for it...

[chuckChuck]

Do you think easements are the answer to those issues Chuck?

In some cases yes. But from what I have seen the compensation is too low to be much of an incentive.

Easements or not, access to land will be at a premium in the future so there will always be a market for farm land with or without conservation areas, easments and rules attached.