Since this was a ZOOM meeting for the entire club, Nancy Morris provided the bell that marked the end of the pre-meeting socialization at 5:45 PM. Then, thanks to President Doug, a video of Toronto Symphony Orchestra (accompanied by a sign language interpreter) provided the club’s “O Canada” opening to the meeting.

 

Promptly at 6:00 PM, Kreesta Doucette, Grants Associate with the Conservation Trust, joined the Zoom meeting to make her presentation. She has worked in food security for several years (12 years as executive director of Food Matters Manitoba) and was excited to read about the Charleswood Rotary Club’s activities in the area of food security – both in  providing emergency support for people without food and building a community garden at Westgrove School. Two years ago, she was approached by Tim Sopuck, CEO of Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation (a non-profit Crown corporation created in 1986 to work with Manitoba landowners to maintain and enhance fish and wildlife habitat) to help set up the Conservation Trust. This meant that she has been learning how food and agriculture are connected to conservation and this is what she will share with us.

 

The work team setting up the Conservation Trusts consists of Sam German (conservation scientist), Taylor Toffan (bird & wetlands specialist) and Keestra (grasslands & agriculture specialist). This is the first public presentation being made by a member of the team.

 

Environmental challenges in Manitoba include changing climate, water quality, flooding and drought, decreasing wildlife habitat and decreasing biodiversity. The presentation explored the link between beef, birds, and bees.

 

Water quality is an issue in Manitoba’s Great Lakes (blue-green algae) and every land use decision affects water quality. Apparently, the most endangered ecosystem in the world is the Great Plains and its native temperate grasslands. Since less than 1% of Manitoba’s tall grass prairies remain, this habitat decline results in more species being at risk (e.g. flowers like the small white lady slipper, birds like Sprague’s pipit, among others). Bird populations have decreased 57% since 1970 in Manitoba’s prairie grasslands – more than any other bird group in Canada. This decline in habitat is largely due to human activities – like agriculture. Recently, there has been an increasing partnership between farmers and conservationists.

 

Manitoba’s temperate grasslands allow water to infiltrate into the ground and apparently    are more effective at carbon storage than trees are. The grasslands also connect people and nature.

 

Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation (MHHC) was formed in 1986 and works to conserve fish and wildlife habitat in Manitoba through voluntary agreements with landowners to conserve, restore and enhance wildlife habitat on their property. Since then, Manitobans have converted 400,000 acres to conservation, half of which is permanent conversion to conservation. Two years ago, the Manitoba government placed $102 million into an endowment with the Winnipeg Foundation to form the Conservation Trust. Last year a further $52 million was added to specifically deal with watersheds (GROW Trust) – to keep the water on the land instead of flooding areas. Then early in March 2020 the province added another $50 million into the GROW Trust to specifically focus on wetlands, especially temporary wetlands (which exist for just a couple of weeks to a couple of months – “Class 1 and 2” wetlands), which are important for biodiversity, birds nesting or migrating, wild bees that pollinate the crops in the area. The interest from these investments (around $10 million annually), and that revenue is to go to Manitoba-based not-for-profits for a variety of activities – 90% to wetland and wildlife habitat, the remainder to activities like soil health, innovation & planning and connecting people to nature.

 

Kreesta summarized the objectives of the Conservation and GROW Trusts as follows: improving water quality, mitigating floods and droughts, carbon sequestration, conserving biodiversity, increasing soil health, decreasing soil erosion, increasing the production of harvestable wildlife, restoring or enhancing habitat and connecting people to nature. The Trust compensates farmers for agriculture losses. It’s a program that is the first of its kind in Canada.

 

An example of a GROW Trust water retention project ($15,000) was on the cattle farm of Walter Chubaty where a fence was used to keep cattle from walking into and polluting a temporary wetland but where a solar pump and a wind pump provided clean water from that temporary wetland to a cattle watering station. Other groups recently funded include Fort Whyte, the Seven Oaks Blue Thunderbird Land-based Teaching Center.

 

To end her presentation, Treesta gave several suggestions as to how individuals can help the program. The first was to eat beef or bison (since cattle start their lives in grasslands). The second was to buy products that support sustainability (like bird friendly coffee grown in shaded areas – among trees, preserving wildlife habitat - along our local birds’ migratory routes). The third way is to invest – in clean water and habitat conservation, and/or by contributing to The Trusts’ endowment funds (which are permanent).

 

In response to questions from the audience, we learned that

 

Nancy Morris thanked Treesta for sharing all her information about the work of the Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation.

 

CONCLUSION