Friday, May 24, 2013

Ranchers divided on federal divestment from community pasturelands

Prairie community pastures and grasslands amounting to one and a half times the size of Prince Edward Island may soon be privatized, and ranchers’ reactions are mixed. In April 2012, Minister of Agriculture Gerry Ritz quietly announced that the federal government was divesting its interest in the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA). The PFRA was established in 1935, at the height of the “Dust Bowl,” to help combat erosion of pasture and farm land by managing the number of cattle grazing the land. Eighty-seven community pastures were established on land deemed unsuitable for cultivation; 62 in Saskatchewan, 26 in Manitoba, and one in Alberta. Since then, the PFRA has successfully preserved 2.3 million acres of pastureland, much of which is endangered tall grass prairie, while providing ranchers with well-managed land for grazing at reasonable rates. By 2018, the 87 PFRA-operated community pastures in Western Canada will be transferred to the provincial governments, beginning with 10 pastures this year in Saskatchewan. Not only will the provinces be saddled with this new responsibility, they are free to manage PFRA land as they see fit...more   

Transferring lands from the feds to the provinces - Looks like the Canada is beating us to the punch.

 

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