A piece of one of the most beautiful landscapes in Canada will be preserved by an agreement between the Nature Conservancy of Canada and a co-operative of 72 ranchers in the western prairie lands of the province of Alberta.
On the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, the 12,357-hectare Waldron Ranch is made up of prairie grassland and is home to grizzly and black bears, elk, moose, cougar, deer, eagles, hawks and a variety of grassland birds. It is also a working ranch where herds of cattle graze.
“Rolling grasslands…beautiful”
“(It’s) mostly large rolling grasslands with big ridges,” says Larry Simpson of the Nature Conservancy of Canada. “From time to time a small creek flows through the middle of it…
“Highway 22…southwest of Calgary is one of the most beautiful drives in the country and for about 30 kilometers it travels through the Waldron Ranch.”
The land is only .5 per cent of the massive Great Plains that once stretched 1,300 kilometers from the Rocky Mountains to Winnipeg in the province of Manitoba that teemed with wildlife. Wherever the land was flat and there was water, the government encouraged homesteading and agriculture. Much of the prairie is now checkered with large farms growing wheat, soybeans, canola and other grains.
The land at Waldron Ranch was not suitable for farming so it was used for ranching and so, remained mostly intact.
Land prices, development skyrocket
In the 1990s, prices for land in Alberta began to skyrocket. There was an increased demand for properties to develop as small ranches along that scenic road called the Cowboy Trail.
Although their land could fetch good prices, the ranchers agreed with the Nature Conservancy that they would prefer the area remain undeveloped and unfarmed.
Under their agreement the ranchers will retain ownership and use of the land for ranching. Nature Conservancy will pay $37.5 million for what’s called a conservation easement. This would enable it to prevent development, subdivision, and agriculture and it would prevent the building of roads and houses. Nature Conservancy is still in the process of raising the money for the project.
“It doesn’t get better than this”
“This’ll be the largest property conserved with a property easement in the history of Canada,” says Simpson. “…It doesn’t get better than this from a conservation perspective.
“I think it’s also interesting that we’re working productively with a ranching community. We found a place where our values are aligned and we’re hopeful that if we can be successful at this that there’s many other important ranches that will be similarly conserved and protected from being fragmented in the future.”
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