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By Alice McFarlane

Agricultural Drainage

Agricultural drainage focus of conference

Nov 1, 2019 | 4:07 PM

The Saskatchewan Citizens Environmental Alliance is bringing together urban and rural community leaders to discuss their experiences at the Agriculture Drainage and Environment Conference in Regina.

Conference Chairperson Jeff Olson said the Alliance is interested in water management in the province and will highlight the economics and environmental effects of draining and restoring wetlands.

“We want to further co-operation to change and make the water better in the province. We initially noticed there was a lot of things going on but not necessarily the actions that are needed to make the changes that have been occurring over time,” Olson said.

When the Alliance was formed they decided to focus on farmland drainage.

“Right now and it’s major issue that’s been going on for decades, but seems to not have any solution in sight,” Olson told farmnewsNOW. “So we put forth the idea to have a conference to discuss the issue and make sure we have a good scientific view of it and the perspectives of different people including producers, First Nations and organizations that protect the environment.”

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The Alliance is comprised of farmers, academics, public servants, industry leaders, environment groups, research scientists and civil servants.

“We have all of the perspectives at the table. We’re talking about issues trying to make the world a better place. One of the biggest problems we’ve had is the lack of awareness on the issue itself,” Olson said. “One of the things, over time, in the environmental field is the cumulative effects and we really haven’t done a very good job at that. If you look over the fence and see your neighbour doing a little bit of drainage you say ‘that’s no big deal’ and ‘what does that mean?’ and the majority of people think or believe that they don’t know anything about it if they’re from the big city so they really don’t know.”

But Olson said there is a significant impact and creating awareness is the first step.

“The second is to engage people of all parts of society into the discussion on where do we get to a place as we as a society find acceptable,” Olson said. “There’s no interest in going back to the days of no drainage or starting over as pioneers. There’s an interest in addressing the environmental issues and how best that can be done.”

The conference is Nov. 6 at the South Travelodge in Regina.

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alice.mcfarlane@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @AliceMcF