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Greetings!
PCAP is proud to present two new Guides to
Managing
for Optimal Habitat Attributes for two Species At Risk: Chestnut-collared Longspur and Baird's Sparrow. These guides were developed by Sue Michalsky, Brenda Dale and Heather Peat Hamm, with technical support of Stephen Davis and Nicola Koper, and the valuable input of eight reviewers. The Guides describe site and landscape-scale habitat features that are optimal for those species at risk at different life stages, as well as important non-habitat-related beneficial management practices. This project was financially supported by Environment and Climate Change Canada through a Habitat Stewardship Program grant to SK PCAP, and by other organizations and PCAP Partners. It is worth mentioning that these two new Guides add up to previous published PCAP Guides for Loggerhead Shrike, Piping Plover and Northern Leopard Frog. Please take a look at all the guides
here!
As for the May Edition of our Native Prairie Speaker Series, Dr. Craig Willis from the University of Winnipeg will discuss how to manage bat populations to better face a devastating fungal disease called white-nose syndrome (WNS). The fungus that causes WNS was introduced, likely by people, to hibernation sites of bats in New York State just over 10 years ago. Since then the disease has spread across North America killing millions of bats in what is thought to be the fastest decline of wild mammals in history. The webinar will take place on May 14th at noon, and you can register for free here.
I
f you missed our last week webinar, with
Julie Landry-Deboer from the Alberta Conservation Association presenting about predictive models for grassland songbirds, you can watch it now on our
YouTube channel!
We have planned other webinar presentations coming up in June, including
Dr. Chris Somers from the University of Regina presenting his most recent research findings on Saskatchewan's snake populations on June 11th, and James Pagé from the Canadian Wildlife Federation presenting about Bats Stewardship and Citizen Science on June 20th.
We are also organizing a number of activities to celebrate the 2019 Native Prairie Appreciation Week on June 16th - 22nd, including our traditional Photo and Poster Contests, booth displays at different Farmer Markets, a webinar presentation and a field tour. Please visit our website for details on all these events!
Finally, we would like to thank the generous support from our sponsors: Crescent Point Energy, SaskPower, SaskEnergy, SaskTel, SaskWater, TransCanada, CanNorth, Mosaic, Enbridge, EcoFriendly Sask, Wildlife Habitat Canada and Environment and Climate Change Canada, as well as the continuous support of all the PCAP's Partners.
Please feel free to contact us at any time; we are pleased to receive your questions, comments and new programing ideas.
Sincerely,
Diego Steinaker, SK PCAP Interim Manager
Caitlin Mroz,
SK PCAP Stewardship Coordinator
Julie-Anne Howe,
SK PCAP Education Coordinator
Ph. 306 352 0472
pcap@sasktel.net
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PCAP WEBINAR
by Craig Willis, University of Winnipeg
Tuesday May 14th, 12:00pm MST
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Poster Contest details
here!
Photo Contest details
here!
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Nature is in its worst shape in human history, UN report says
A recent UN's comprehensive report on biodiversity dated on May 6th, 2019, warns that species loss is accelerating to a rate tens to hundreds of times faster than in the past.
Conservation scientists from around the world convened in Paris to issue the report, which exceeded 1,000 pages. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) included more than 450 researchers who used 15,000 scientific and government reports. The report's summary had to be approved by representatives of all 109 nations.
The biological diversity of this planet has been really hammered, and this is really our last chance to address all of that" said George Mason University biologist Thomas Lovejoy. More than half a million species on land "have insufficient habitat for long-term survival" and are likely to go extinct, many within decades, unless their habitats are restored.
The report goes beyond species: "We are indeed threatening the potential food security, water security, human health and social fabric", said Robert Watson, a former top NASA and British scientist who headed the report. Of the 18 measured ways nature helps humans, it said 14 are declining, with food and energy production noticeable exceptions. The report found downward trends in nature's ability to provide clean air and water, good soil and other essentials.
Habitat loss is one of the biggest threats, and it's happening worldwide. Many of the worst effects can be prevented by changing the way we grow food, produce energy, deal with climate change and dispose of waste, the report said. That involves concerted action by governments, companies and people.
More information here. Also please take a look at the
IPBES Global Assessment Summary for Policymakers here.
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PCAP's Webinar Presentations Online!
Prairie's Got the Goods Week (March 18-22, 2019) was
a week-long series of webinars about the ecological goods and services provided by Native Prairies. You can watch the presentations online now in the following links:
8. "The influence of grazing management on plant community diversity and production across Western Canada", by Jessica Grenke (U of Alberta).
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Multiple Species
Management
Workshop
On March 12th, SK PCAP and SODCAP Inc.organized a Workshop for landowners and land managers on Multiple Species Management Managers. Presenters included Katherine Taylor and Brad Downie form the Alberta Conservation Association, Maggi Sliwinski from
Grasslands National Park,
Krista Connick Todd from SODCAP Inc. and PCAP's Chair Orin Balas. The workshop also included a ranch planning activity, lead by Krista.
You can watch all the Workshop presentations in our
PCAP YouTube channel
!
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Upcoming Events!
PCAP Webinar
by Craig Willis (Univ. of Winnipeg)
May 14th, 12:00 pm MST
SRM - Prairie Parkland Chapter
May 28-29 - Val Marie, Sk
June 1st, 9:00 am to 2:00 pm
Chaplin Nature Centre (Swift Current/Regina), SK
June 9-11, 2019
Moose Jaw, SK
PCAP Webinar
by Christopher Somers (U of R)
June 11th, 12:00 pm MST
June 15th 9:00 am to 3:00 pm
Big Valley, Regina, SK
June 16-22, 2019
Sask Forage Council
June 19, 2019
Kisbey, SK
PCAP Webinar
by James Page (CWF)
June 20th, 12:00 pm MST
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Guides to Managing for Optimal Habitat Attributes for Species At Risk:
These guides describe local and landscape-scale habitat features that are optimal for species at risk at different life stages, as well as important non-habitat related beneficial management practices.
This guide was developed by Sue Michalsky, Brenda Dale and Heather Peat Hamm, with technical and editorial input from Stephen Davis and Nicola Koper.
The authors would also like to thank the assistance of Sarah Ludlow, Dorothy Hill, Barbara Bleho, Ryan Dudragne, Carolyn Gaudet, Orin Balas, Rebecca Magnus and Diego Steinaker in the review of the manuscript.
The project was financially supported by the Department of the Environment of the Government of Canada (Environment and Climate Change Canada), through the Habitat Stewardship Program (HSP) funding granted to the Saskatchewan Prairie Conservation Action Plan (PCAP).
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NatureCity Festival!
May 21 to May 27, 2019
Saskatoon, SK
The
seventh
annual NatureCity Festival is set to run from Tuesday, May 21 to Sunday, May 27, with a varied line-up of opportunities to get outside and enjoy the excitement of spring on the prairies -- right here in beautiful Saskatoon.
Among many events, on May 24 you can join the Underground Café in Saskatoon at 7 PM and hear from local conservation experts as we explore your role as a citizen scientist. You can resister here.
On May 25
th
, join Nature Conservancy of Canada staff and special guest Aaron Bell as we put our citizen science knowledge to practice on NCC's Dundurn property! We will demonstrate the use of different applications to record what we see and explain why documenting wildlife, plant, rare species and weed observations is important for conservation planning. You will leave equipped with the tools to begin or continue your own citizen scientist journey! You can register here.
For more information please visit this website.
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The Saskatchewan Co-operative Wildlife Management Survey
The Saskatchewan Co-operative Wildlife Management Survey, formerly the Co-operative Deer Management Survey, is a long-standing, volunteer-based survey that provides the ministry with valuable productivity and herd structure information. Participants have the opportunity to conveniently record observations using the new mobile SK CWMS application, that is compatible with both Apple and Android smart phones.
Although the SK CWMS application will allow participants to record observations at any time of year, there are key periods where it is particularly important to record your observations for each species:
- White-tailed deer and mule deer: Sept 1 to Nov 30
- Moose: Sept 1 to Dec31
- Elk: Sept 1 to Feb 28
- Sharp-tailed Grouse: March 1-July 15
- Wild Turkey: Dec 1 to March 1
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by Cameron Carlyle (Univ. of Alberta)
Cattle and beef production have gained a negative opinion by some segments of the general public. However, past research done within the Canadian Prairie and in other regions have demonstrated that with appropriate management, cattle on native grasslands can increase some of the EG&S that we value. The cattle industry through the maintenance of large areas of native grasslands, rather than crop production, support wildlife habitat and avoid the loss of carbon that occurs with cultivation. Many studies highlight that moderate levels of grazing maintain biodiversity and soil carbon at levels above what these systems provide when grazing is removed, and especially above the level provided by other land uses, such as cultivation. Currently though, with few exceptions, the primary revenue from grasslands is by beef production. Conservation of these lands through policy that provides incentives to landowners to continue grazing these lands at moderate rates, rather than alternate land-uses, is key to the long term maintenance of EG&S and human well-being.
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Assuming a steady state between carbon (C) gains and losses,
greenhouse gases (GHG) inventories that follow a widely used simplified procedure (IPCC Tier 1) tend to underestimate the capacity of soils in
grazing-land
to sequester C. In this study we compared the C balance reported by (i) national inventories that followed the simplified method (Tier 1) of IPCC (1996/2006), with (ii) an alternative estimation derived from the
meta-analysis
of science-based, peer-reviewed data. We used the global databases (i) EDGAR 4.2 to get data on GHG emissions due to land conversion and livestock/crop production, and (ii) HYDE 3.1 to obtain historical series on land-use/land cover (LULC). In terms of sequestration, our study was focused on C storage as soil organic carbon (SOC) in rural lands of four countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) within the so-called MERCOSUR region. We applied a two-way procedures: i) a theoretical one based on the annual conversion of belowground biomass into SOC; and ii) an empirical one supported by peer-reviewed data on SOC sequestration. Our results show that grazing lands generate C surpluses that could not only offset rural emissions, but could also partially or totally offset the emissions of non-rural sectors. The potential of grazing lands to sequester and store soil C should be reconsidered in order to improve assessments in future GHG inventory reports.
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Conferences and webinar presentations online:
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Diego Steinaker, Editor, Saskatchewan Prairie Conservation Action Plan Newsletter
306-352-0472 |
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SK PCAP gratefully acknowledges financial support in 2018-2019 from:
Ducks Unlimited Canada, Canada North Environmental Services, EcoFriendlySask.ca, Information Services Canada, Parks Canada - Grasslands National Park of Canada, Rancher's Stewardship Alliance Inc., Saskatchewan Cattlemen's Association,
Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment - Fish and Wildlife Development Fund,
SaskEnergy,
SaskPower, SaskTel, University of Saskatchewan - College of Agriculture and Bioresources, Water Security Agency.
SK PCAP gratefully acknowledges in-kind support for 2018-19 from:
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada - Science and Technology Branch, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Association, Canadian Western Agribition, Environment Canada - Canadian Wildlife Service, Friends of Wascana Marsh, Meewasin Valley Authority, Native Plant Society of Saskatchewan, Nature Conservancy Canada, Nature Saskatchewan, Parks Canada - Grasslands National Park, Prairie Wind & Silver Sage, Ranchers Stewardship Alliance Inc., Redberry Lake Biosphere Reserve, Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, Saskatchewan Association of Watersheds, Saskatchewan Cattlemen's Association, Saskatchewan Environmental Society, Saskatchewan Forage Council, Saskatchewan Forage Industry Network, Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment, Saskatchewan Ministry of Economy, Saskatchewan Ministry of Education, Saskatchewan Ministry of Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport - Royal Saskatchewan Museum and Friends of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, Saskatchewan Research Council, Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association, Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation, Saskatoon Nature Society, SaskEnergy, SaskOutdoors, SaskPower, Society for Range Management - Prairie Parkland Chapter, South of the Divide Conservation Action Program Inc., University of Regina - Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative, University of Saskatchewan - College of Agriculture and Bioresources, Wild About Saskatoon-Nature City Festival.
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