Grainswest - Spring 2023

Spring 2023 grainswest.com 23 We think that’s the right way to grow,” said Gilvesy. Farmers and communities are lined up to join the program, he added. Gilvesy has personal experience with the benefits ALUS provides farmers. He and his family run a Texas longhorn cow- calf operation in southern Ontario. In 2006, they were among the first farmers to partner with ALUS on a grassland restoration project. He joined the program for the same reason any Canadian farmer might. “It values me and my family’s work. It values our contributions. It helps me understand a world I didn’t know but am eager to participate in.” That same year, he became chair of his local ALUS partnership advisory committee (PAC). ALUS programs are governed by these committees in each jurisdiction the organization serves. Established on a pilot basis under the Delta Waterfowl Foundation in 2006, the local PAC was made permanent in 2008 and served as a template for the growth of ALUS across Canada. Nine years later, when ALUS became an independent national charitable organization, Gilvesy became CEO. SENSIBLE ECONOMICS Ryan Hering farms grain and oilseeds near Bruno in central Saskatchewan. In 2016, he contacted ALUS hoping to find a way to generate benefit from 100 non-productive acres. “I read about ALUS and thought that sounded attractive. I had some saline soils that weren’t producing where I was fighting with weeds and wasting inputs, which wasn’t good for me or the environment. ALUS had some funding, so I put in an application, got approved and we seeded the land to perennial grasses.” He was so pleased with the multiple environmental benefits of the project, he and ALUS launched a second 45-acre project on his land in 2019. “I was losing money on those acres before and now I’m making a little bit, so it’s a big benefit to me. It just economically makes sense. “There’s groundcover now, so it’s helping with the saline situation,” he added. “The salts aren’t evaporating to the soil surface as badly as they were. There’s less erosion because there’s no bare soil. It’s producing less weeds that spread around the countryside when the winds blow. And there are some wildlife benefits. I’m seeing more rabbits, waterfowl and deer.” Seventeen communities and 400 farmers are now active in the program in Alberta, which counts more than 21,000 acres of marginal land in the province protected or enhanced as grassland, wetland and woodland. In total, across Canada, 1,421 ranchers and farmers and 35 communities participate in ALUS projects that total almost 38,000 acres. Current Alberta projects include creek corridor restoration in the County of Barrhead, enhancement of water bodies, riparian areas and forest in the Sylvan Lake watershed as well as establishment of riparian pasture, alternative livestock watering systems and conservation and restoration of native plant and animal species in the Municipal District of Pincher Creek. ALUS operates according to the priorities and perspectives of farmers. “Our number 1 message is we are a farmer’s conservation plan. We protect farmers’ privacy and their data. We try to maximize farm gate receipts and minimize the amount of work farmers have to do to participate in our programs. And we offer a supportive community for farmers who enter this space. It’s as farmer friendly as you can get,” said Gilvesy. As such, the organization operates differently than other marketplaces for environmental goods and services. Contracts are written in five-year periods with a renewal option rather than in perpetuity. As well, farmers themselves administer the program locally. At least half the members of each ALUS PAC must be farmers. These committees determine payment rates, which are usually anywhere from $20 to $220 per acre, and program details based on local land values and environmental priorities and manage projects with support from ALUS staff. “If ALUS is a machine for creating change on the agricultural landscape, the PAC is sitting in the driver’s seat and the farmer participants are the fuel that makes it possible,” said Paige Englot, ALUS senior hub manager for the Prairies. “The PACs are absolutely core to delivering our projects,” said Gilvesy. “We follow the same principles and deliver the same programs in every area, but every agricultural setting is different. The PACs address all those differences and provide the right programming for each individual community.” Rather than an incentive- or subsidy-based model, ALUS uses fee-for-service. It pays farmers for the ecosystem services they produce just as if they had produced an agricultural commodity. Funding streams include startup cash for upgrades such as exclusion fences, off-site water, feed material for native planting, dirt work for wetland restoration and other infrastructure. While project costs are usually shared between ALUS and the landowner, the organization may entirely finance projects of particularly high ecological value. Land taken out of agricultural production typically captures a higher payment rate than marginal terrain, wetlands or riparian areas. “Our number one message is we are a farmer’s conservation plan.” — Bryan Gilvesy