In the Spirit of Things

[cakadu]

Many quite likely saw the judging controversy in the gymnastics competition at the Olympics. According to the rules, Paul Hamm is quite right - he did nothing wrong, but did he do what was right and keep with the true spirit and intent of the Olympic Games? Or was the endorsement prize package worth far too much to do the honorable thing? Is the endorsement package only a Western pheonomenon? Thing of the other athletes who won gold at the Olympics - Hicham El Gerrouj comes to mind - 2 gold medals, won admirably. Will he be endorsing the Morrocan equivalent of Wheaties over there? There are many athletes whose faces will never be gracing cereal boxes or tennis shoes.

Recently I was reading about a piece of land that has been designated as parkland on the northwest corner of Red Deer. The land is being considered for a firefighting training centre because there really isn't much of a parkland there anyway. Is this the best thing to do with the land and is it in keeping with the spirit of the original designation?

What if some effort were being put into making it a viable and all important wetland/parkland? We soon quickly forget with a little rain, just how devastating the last 3 years of drought have been. We are talking pipelines so that water can be pumped from the Red Deer River to outlying areas that are desperately short of water. Wouldn't having another wetland help in that regard? Shouldn't we be looking at initiating and maintaining these vital pieces of biodiversity for the future?

Don't get me wrong, I think that a firefighting training facility is a good thing. Isn't there other land designated industrial or commerical a better choice?

What sorts of things are happening in other areas? We keep hearing about environmental sustainability - shouldn't that be happening at the local level?

[cakadu]

I agree with you, that inititiatives should commence at the local level and many area, for instance Watershed Groups in many areas of the Province are dealing with environmental issues on a local level. Many municipalities have environmental technicians working in their Agricultural departments, and in fact, some southern municipalities have taken a leading role in sharing the services of the environmental techs. and are working on collaborative measures to address environmental sustainiblity at the local level.

[cakadu]

The groups that you mention do a great job at extending information to all land owners - acreage and farms alike.

The AESA (Alberta Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture) Rural Extension Staff and conservation technicians, as well as the various watershed groups do a tremendous job at explaining the issues and offering solutions to address the issues.

The first step is to get an understanding of things that are happening on your farm through an environment farm plan. You can't address what you don't know. The farm plan helps you to understand what could use some improvement as well as what you are already doing right from an environmental perspective.

There is nothing as precious as water and we should be doing all that we can to protect this resource. We can go without food, but we cannot go without water.

[cakadu]

Watershed Groups encourage all stakeholders to participate, and take ownership of the watersheds. Some of them are very active, including the Medicine River Watershed Group and others in that area of the province. I liked the CASA model a bit better than the AESA one, because on farm demos were part of the funding of CASA. In our area several on farm water quality demos provided the initiative for several producers to take steps to change their livestock watering practices.

[cakadu]

What improvements would you like to see to the AESA program? What would make it more effective for you and others around you?

[cowman]

I actually had the girl from the "watershed" thing come out and tell me how everything I was doing was totally wrong! Also my graeatgrandfather, grandfather, father etc.! She told me I would need to change my evil ways! Which I am in the process of doing...It's called quitting!
Somehow I have a big problem with this whole thing? The poor old farmer must clean up his act and get with the modern world, while the urban community continues to pollute and destroy the river systems? Check out how clean the river is below Red Deer?

[cakadu]

I understand where you are coming from cowman and sometimes wonder myself what difference it will make. The only person and things we can control are what we as individuals do. When making environmentally sustainable choices for myself and for our operation I know that I am doing all that I can do and that is enough. If we get enough people doing it, then it does start to have a significant positive impact.

I cannot force my neighbor to adopt environmentally friendly practices, but maybe if the neighbor sees that there is some advantage or benefit to doing it and tries to adopt is on his/her operation, then it becomes another step in the right direction. We often learn better when we see it in practice versus just being told about it.

There are times when we don't realize that what we are doing could have potentially serious consequences i.e. an uncapped or abandoned well. If an abandoned well isn't properly decommissioned, then the potential is there to contaminate the acquifer - possibly forever. We sometimes have done things the same way for so long we don't recognize that there are potential dangers. It's not to say that what you or I are doing is wrong, just that there might be a better way that we don't yet know about.

Maya Angelou has a saying "I did what I did until I knew better; then when I knew better, I did better."

Can I ask - was it the message itself that disturbed you or the manner in which it was delivered?

[cakadu]

Under CASA the cost of on farm demo sites was shared between the producer and the Ag Service Board usually under CASA funding,my understanding is that AESA doesn't fund projects, just people.Don't get me wrong, AESA is an excellent program but I always felt that the dollars invested in those demos with a good co-operator did volumes to raise awareness. Driving by a windmill pump watering system vs attending a meeting to learn about it. The demo site got to far more producers.
It is more desireable to show someone an alternative vs telling them they are doing everything wrong.

[cakadu]

The majority of the AESA funding (up to 70%) goes toward having the extension person - the rest can go into projects. There are still a number of demonstrations given throughout the year, often in partnership with others groups.

You're right emrald, a number of the Rural Extension Staff as they are called work through the ag service boards in a number of counties. Sometimes the person is shared between a couple of counties - Lacombe and Ponoka for example have the same person doing the extension work.

Demonstrations go a long way in helping to get a concept across. As the old saying goes, seeing is believing.

[cakadu]

Ag Service Boards certainly play a huge part in extension, particularly since the demise of the District Agriculturalists etc. Some ASB's are extremely active in demo projects, and hold numerous information seminars etc. Yellowhead County comes to mind, they have organized events such as : an Environmental Law Seminar; Manure Management Seminar to name a couple.
How effective an Ag Service Board is, depends largely on how interested and forward thinking the ASB members are. One more reason to evaluate carefully the choices on the municipal ballot in October.