Learning About Land Stewardship

Learning About Land Stewardship

What is Land Stewardship?

There are plenty of resources catalogued in the Resource Centre that speak eloquently of the philosophy, values, fundamentals and applied practices of land stewardship. Books by Aldo Leopold, Wendell Berry, H.D. Thoreau and Wes Jackson, to name only a few, will help. 

A basic working definition of land stewardship could be, the practice of carefully managing land usage to ensure natural systems are maintained or enhanced for future generations. However, this doesn't at all capture what underpins the action of "carefully managing land-usage". From too many sources to cite (ecology textbooks, websites, conference proceedings on sustainable agriculture, etc.), we have blended and compiled the following Four Guiding Principles of carefully managing land-usage: 
  1. Caring for the system as a whole - understanding the fundamental roles and values of natural systems, building up biological fertility in the soil, incorporating an understanding of the ecological cycles on the landscape (water, energy, nutrients) and how land-use practices can either benefit, be in harmony, or negatively impact these cycles and other land-users, flora and fauna. 
  2. Resource conservation - maximizing efficiency and striving to reduce the one-time consumption of renewable and non-renewable resources; aiming for long-term optimization versus short-term maximization of production. 
  3. Maintaining, building and enhancing stability in Nature - maintain and encourage natural biological diversity and complexity; maintaining natural areas and functions on the land (a.k.a. wildlife habitat conservation). 
  4. Cultural values and ethics - caring for the health of the land for future generations and long-term economic stability; the link between civilization, urbanization, and the land-base and ecosystems that are vital to survival; the intrinsic value and right to exist of all life on Earth.
It is this last principle, Cultural Values and Ethics, where the very essence of land stewardship exists. As Aldo Leopold wrote in A Sand County Almanac: "A land ethic, then, reflects the existence of an ecological conscience, and this in turn reflects a conviction of individual responsibility for the health of the land. Health is the capacity of the land for self-renewal. Conservation is our effort to understand and preserve this capacity..." 

Today, more urgently than ever before in human history, we need to rediscover a land ethic. Our constructed world, culture of over consumption, current economic system, and mostly urban living habits have disconnected us from being reminded daily what keeps us alive, and helps to make us human. Even to the point where the old joke among farmers of the teacher asking the child, "Where does milk come from?" and the child answering, "Safeway", is no longer a surprise.

Land stewardship is about re-connecting with our dependence on earth, air, water and sunshine - and the abundance of life it supports. 

Land stewardship is about re-discovering our long-forgotten natural 'instincts' of awe and respect for Nature: restoring some of our sense of wonder and magic from childhood, or when the gods controlled our destiny, and we were at their mercy. We can easily get lost in the seductive power of science and technology, leading us to believe without a doubt that humans can understand, control and fix everything.

Finally, land stewardship is about preserving "the capacity of the land for self-renewal". Even as hunter-gatherers on a sparsely populated planet, we were land users and manipulators. But with the development of agriculture, we were able to control, like never before, the land, water and wildlife for our own food supply. As a direct result, our population easily expanded, leading to increasing demands on land and water. In 8-10,000 years, we went from a population of a few hundred million to 6 billion. Thousands of diverse cultures and methods of survival have been funneled into one dominant modus operandi. Humans are everywhere, impacting every element of Nature. We will always be land users, but our "ecological conscience" requires us to make a concerted effort to back off a little, and allow Nature some room to take its own course, naturally.

- By Ken P. Gurr

Alberta's Landscapes and Land Stewardship Priorities



Alberta is blessed with six distinct landscape regions. Each has its own unique natural features and climate and each supports its own distinct species of animals and plants.

Over the past century, however, these landscapes have been intensely impacted by human development. Talk with any long-time resident and they will likely point out easily visible and dramatic changes to most of these natural landscapes. In the more populated central and southern portions of the province, 75 per cent of unbroken native grasslands, up to 95 per cent of aspen parkland, and 40 to 60 per cent of all wetlands have been eliminated. Seismic cut-lines and forestry cut-blocks have increased exponentially.

All of this has resulted in stresses to numerous species of native plant and animal life, as well as to the soil, water and air. And considering how quickly these changes have taken place, it places vital importance and tremendous responsibility on farmers, acreage owners, governments, city residents, natural resource companies, land developers . . . all businesses and all citizens . . . to try and ensure land-use decisions will maintain and enhance these natural landscapes for future generations.

Overviews of each Landscape Region (select from the map), a list of Land Stewardship Priorities and Acknowledgements follow:

Rocky Mountains

The Rocky Mountains are perhaps the best known and most well visited of Alberta's six natural regions. The Rockies comprise eight percent of the province.

In the Rocky Mountains, the Montane sub-region exists only in the low-elevation mountain valleys of the Athabasca, North Saskatchewan, Red Deer and Bow rivers. Another small area of Montane exists in a narrow band of the foothills region in southwestern Alberta.

The Montane sub-region has mild winters, warm summers and diverse vegetation. Open areas are covered with grasses. Rocky or sheltered areas are covered with Douglas fir, aspen, white spruce or limber pine. In the valley bottoms, streams meander through rich wetlands of willow, sedge and spruce and are dammed by beavers producing important wetlands.

This sub-region supports large populations of wildlife that are not found in abundance in the province. Endangered and vulnerable species include the woodland caribou, grizzly bear, wolverine, Cooper's hawk, and the great gray owl.

For these reasons, the Montane sub-region is the most ecologically significant part of the Rocky Mountain Natural Region.

The threat to the Montane sub-region is obvious -- it's the focus of most of our intensive tourism development in the mountains -- townsites, lodges, roads and golf courses are all placed on the Montane, which is the smallest of the three sub-regions.

Foothills

Many Albertans, but few visitors, know the scenic Foothills Natural Region from family canoeing and camping trips and from fall hunting excursions up the forestry roads that head back into the hills west of Rocky Mountain House, Edson and Grande Prairie. It is a landscape of long ridges and rolling hills clothed with lodgepole pine, aspen and spruce, where small streams wind their way through valley-bottom meadows of dwarf birch, willow and grasses.

Elk, moose, deer, bears and other wildlife are widespread. But the foothills are being fragmented by resource development. As new roads and seismic lines change predator patterns by both wild and human hunters, natural balances are upset and species like the woodland caribou are in dramatic decline.

Boreal Forest

Mighty rivers drain north and east from the Rocky Mountains into the watershed of the Arctic Ocean. Look at any map of Alberta and you will see them: The Athabasca, Smoky, Peace, Chinchaga and Hay, tracing sinuous patterns across the vast northern half of the province, a lightly populated and little-known region of dark forests and muskegs. This is the Boreal Forest Region which comprises 48 percent of Alberta.

Vast continental glaciers scoured northern Alberta and then retreated, leaving a rolling landscape covered with glacial till, carved by huge rivers and occasionally interrupted with low hills. But this far north, there is more rain, less summer heat and longer winters, so the landscape is heavily forested and covered with vast bogs and muskeg.

Most southerners think of mosquitoes, moose and muskeg when they look at an map of Alberta north of Edmonton. In reality, there is a great diversity of vegetation and wildlife in the boreal forests, from the complex wetland meanders of the Hay River to the lush mixed forests of aspen, pine and spruce in the Lakeland area, to the complex vegetation mosaics of the Clearwater, Peace and Athabasca river valleys.

Northern species like the arctic grayling, river otter and black-throated green warbler rely on the boreal ecosystem. Endangered species such as the well-known whooping crane and the woodland caribou also depend on the boreal forests for their well-being.

Over the next 30 to 50 years, current and planned forestry operations, and oil & gas exploration and development are of such magnitude that the Boreal Forest will undergo huge changes, and will continue to be the subject of intensive scientific scrutiny and public debate.

Canadian Shield

The Group of Seven painters used strong colors to depict a landscape of wind-blown pine trees, rocky outcrops, rushing rivers and hidden lakes. This landscape exists in a remote northeastern corner of Alberta in the Kazan Upland and Athabasca Plain sub-regions of the Canadian Shield. The Shield region comprises three percent of Alberta's lands.

Some of the oldest rock on earth is exposed here, great outcroppings of Precambrian granite scoured clean by the Ice Age glaciers that retreated 10,000 years ago. The underlying bedrock largely determines the vegetation diversity of this landscape by creating dry, soil-poor highlands interspersed with wet hollows and sparse open forests. Jackpine forests carpet much of the Kazan Uplands sub-region, along with the brilliant colors of lichens, dusty green sage and bearberry.

Along the shores of Lake Athabasca, vast sand dunes landscapes grade into pine forest and provide habitat for plant species found nowhere else in the province. The locals refer to this sweep of shoreline as Alberta's best-kept secret -- and for good reason. Granite headlands and bright sand beaches stretch from Fiddler Point to White Sand Point and beyond. The landscape has never been touched by direct industrial activity and the feel of trackless wilderness is nearly absolute.

This far northern region is one of Alberta's harshest and most spectacular landscapes where peregrine falcons and golden eagles nest on granite cliffs. In winter, Arctic animals like the barren ground caribou, Arctic fox and willow ptarmigan occasionally find their way south into this area of our province.

Parkland

The Parkland Natural Region is Alberta's most diverse agricultural region and comprises about 12 percent of Alberta. It is Nature's transition zone between the arid, mixed and short-grass prairie of southern Alberta and the vast, majestic boreal forest of the north. The result is a rich mosaic of small streams, lush wetlands, fescue grasslands and aspen and balsam poplar groves.

Over 60 species of songbirds, shorebirds and waterfowl and at least 30 mammals depend on the wetlands, grasslands and aspen woods of Alberta's parkland farms and ranches for a place to live and raise their young.

Once covering an area of 64,000 square kilometres, about five percent of the Parkland region remains in an undeveloped, natural (native) condition.

Grasslands

The grasslands of southern Alberta comprise 14 percent of the province, and offer some of our most scenic vistas. Yet many visitors and city dwellers tend to regard the grasslands as a boring landscape.

But the native prairie grasslands that remain intact host a surprising diversity of wildlife and plants; and nothing is more awesome and humbling than the southern Alberta sky during a summer thunderstorm.

The same long, hot summers that make this region too arid to produce forests give it a growing season ideally suited for a wide range of field crops. Most years, there is enough spring meltwater and summer rain to meet the needs of wheat, barley and other grain crops. Alfalfa, corn and a host of other more specialized crops also grow, where the rivers have been tapped for irrigation farming. As a result, more than 80 per cent of Alberta's native grasslands have been plowed under and turned into cropland. The remainder is managed as rangeland for cattle.

Largely because of the conversion of grassland to cropland, more than a third of the species on Canada's Endangered Species list are prairie species. These include the burrowing owl, swift fox, ferruginous hawk, and the peregrine falcon.

The Urban Landscape

In the span of a few decades, we've moved from a largely agrarian population to life in the cities and towns. Almost 75 per cent of Albertans now live in metro regions of Calgary and Edmonton, Lethbridge, Red Deer, Medicine Hat, Grande Prairie and Fort MacMurray.

Amid the concrete, asphalt, street signs, lights and cars, we tend to think of urban areas as separate landscapes, not connected to the natural regions in which they are located. But extensive parks systems are major components in most Alberta cities and towns, and increasingly, parks' planners are working to incorporate features and functions of the surrounding natural landscape in their park management plans.

Our urban landscapes have expanded relentlessly, annexing and obliterating wildlife habitat, farmland and wetlands to turn them into houses, fences, shopping malls and roads. Now that most people live in urban areas, the challenge for cities and their inhabitants will be to connect more harmoniously with the surrounding natural landscape, and to begin making the necessary shift away from designing homes and neighborhoods with the automobile as the dominant force in planning.

Ecological Debt

The past two centuries of economic growth and prosperity with little regard for the environment have carried an incredibly high cost in terms of water and air pollution, loss of natural areas and biodiversity. Is this a cost that will be expressed by future generations as an "ecological debt"? Can it be repaid as we strive to become more environmentally sustainable? 

Ecological Goods and Services

All life on earth depends upon ecological goods and services. These goods and services are the basis of all natural resources that we depend upon for healthy living, recreation and culture, and for sustaining our economies.

What are Ecological Goods and Services?
How do we depend on them?
What can we do to maintain and restore these valuable good and services??

Defining Ecology: Ecology is the study of the interactions among organisms and their natural environments. The word "ecology" comes from the Greek word oikos, which means "house", thus ecology focuses on the organism and its surroundings. Some of these ‘interactions’ are expressed as food chains and food webs overlain by energy flow (sunlight) as well as water and nutrient cycling.

Ecology is a multidisciplinary study with a systems approach - focusing on the individual and all the interdependent parts that make up an ecosystem. This systems approach is necessary to understanding how one part of the environment may have significant effects on other parts. The practical value of ecological studies is to be able to determine the impact of human use on the landscape before detrimental changes in the environment, such as changes to energy flow, water and chemical balances, are detected. This is especially significant with respect to resource development that is dependent on modifying the ecosystem, in a major way.

What are Ecological Goods?

Ecological ‘goods’ are the products of the processes and interactions (described above) of natural systems.  For example, plants, capturing energy from the sun, combined with water and nutrients from the soil and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, are able to manufacture food for use by all other organisms. The food is considered a ‘good’. 

The process of the decomposition of plant material (an ecological service), results in soil production (an ecological ‘good’).  This ecological good allows us to grow food agriculturally, that is, "human assisted food production".  The processes of seed dispersal and pollination of plants by birds and insects, which are ecological services, in turn produce plants -an ecological good.  The nutrients we derive from plants we consume, which we depend upon for our health, are ecological goods resulting from many ecological services.

Ecological goods are valuable and essential to our survival.  Our cultural, social and economic lives are dependent upon these goods that come from the processes of ecological systems and their services, some of which include:
  • Clean Atmospheric Air
  • Fresh water
  • Food (and the nutrients (vitamins and minerals) derived from plants and animals)
  • Fiber
  • Timber
  • Other raw building materials
  • Genetic resources
  • Medicines

What are Ecological Services?

The processes and conditions of the natural world and all its creatures provide us with essential services that we require for life support.  These services are called, "ecological services".

Based on the “ecological” definition stated above, ecological services are the result of interactions among organisms and their natural environments, including the cycling of water and basic nutrients, that humans are able to use and capitalize on.  These services are essential to life on earth. An obvious example would be as follows:

An apple seed finds itself in soil that contains the required moisture and nutrients and the right conditions to germinate and grow.  The leaves capture energy from the sun and with moisture and nutrients in the soil and carbon dioxide from the air, are able to produce wood and fruit that we can utilize to sustain our lives.

Services that may not be so obvious are ones that we may not readily see, for example:

Over half a million rural Albertans are dependent on groundwater for their domestic and livestock use.  We drill wells and pump the water to the surface for our use; what we do not see or fully understand is the complex way in which the groundwater is replenished.  Temporary wetlands on the surface allow minute portions of their water volume to slowly infiltrate into the deep aquifer from which we draw our water. Another important ‘service’ may be the removal of harmful chemicals from the watershed by vegetation along streams and wetlands (called the riparian area).

Ecological services that humans often take for granted, include:
  • purification of air and water
  • mitigation of floods and droughts
  • detoxification and decomposition of wastes
  • generation and renewal of soil and natural vegetation
  • pollination of crops and natural vegetation
  • control of the vast majority of potential agricultural pests
  • dispersal of seeds and translocation of nutrients
  • maintenance of biodiversity, from which humanity has derived key elements of its agricultural, medicinal, and industrial enterprise
  • protection from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays
  • partial stabilization of climate
  • moderation of temperature extremes and the force of winds and waves
  • support of diverse human culture
  • providing aesthetic beauty and intellectual stimulation that lift the human spirit.
(The above list of ecological services taken from "Natures Services-Habitat as Infratructure" a review of Nature’s Services: Societal Dependence on Natural Ecosystems, edited by Gretchen Daily. Island Press, 1997.)

ECOLOGICAL GOODS AND SERVICES ARE THE PRODUCTS OF THE
“ECOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS” OF ECOSYSTEMS.

We depend on Ecological Good and Services!

We depend on ecological goods and services everyday for health, social, cultural, and economic needs.  Ecological functions are the base resources that sustain our lives.  They occur in the air, on the land, in the water, in our communities and they  produce the ‘natural resources’ which we depend upon for food production, clean water supplies, medicine, recreation and for our livelihoods.  Agricultural landscapes that are functioning ecologically will recharge ground water, maintain fertile soil and ensure a diversity of healthy plants and organisms, which in turn allows local producers to continue producing safe, healthy, high quality food for the long term.  Urban landscapes and their communties can help to maintain  ecological functions through "smart growth" or alternative development strategies such as the integration of natural areas, farmland (ie:community gardening and market gardens) natural beauty, wildlife habitat and sensitive environmental areas into its landscapes, combined with higher density housing and the use of alternative transportation (such as bike paths and increased public transit), renewable energy, natural resource conservation and pollution (water, land and air) reduction strategies.  The sustainability of communites and economies depends upon our ability to maintain or restore the ecological functions of both urban and rural landscapes.

Threats to Availability of Ecological Goods and Services

  • Land-use change and irreversible conversion of landscapes and their ecological functions.
  • Disruption of biogeochemical cycles such as the cycles of Nitrogen, Carbon and Phosphorus.
  • Disruption of the water cycle and ground water recharge
  • Invasion/introduction of exotic (non-native) organisms
  • Toxins, pollutants and human wastes
  • Changes in chemical composition of the atmosphere and ozone depletion
  • Climate change
The products and processes of Ecological Goods and Services are complex and occur over long periods of time - periods that are much too long for any person in their lifetime to see and truly understand. The perceptual world of the individual human is largely restricted to short time frames and local areas where they live, work or travel. Therefore, the effects of individual decisions and behaviors can rarely be fully understood within a lifetime. With this in mind it in very important to reduce, wherever possible, the threat of irreversible damage to our ecological systems and the goods and services they provide.

(Above "threats" description was modified from Threats of Availability of Ecosystem Goods and Services)

What can individuals do to maintain or restore Ecological Goods and Services?

Consumer choices have one of the greatest impacts on the quality of food, water and the natural environment.

Here are some ways we can become part of the solution to maintaining or restoring the ecological functions that produce the goods and services we depend upon:
  1. Find out how and where products are made. Choose products produced with methods that conserve resources, minimize waste and reduce or eliminate environmental damage.
  2. Buy products produced locally, where ever possible. This can help to:

    *Reduce the amount of energy (natural resources) used in the transport and storage of goods, thereby conserving ecological goods

    *Reduce the amount of pollutants going into the environment resulting in the reduction of damage to ecological systems.

    *Support local communities and economy

  3. Choose products made with methods that reduce or eliminate the use of pesticides and artificial fertilizers:

    Examples of methods that work with and protect ecological processes:

    Integrated Pest Management (IPM)- a sustainable agricultural approach to managing pests that combines biological, cultural, physical and chemical tactics in a way that minimizes economic, health and environmental risks.

    Crop Rotation – the use of legumes and forage crops to reduce the use of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, to add organic matter (nutrients) to the soil, to help retain moisture and to assist in reducing the establishment of pest by changing their habitats.

    Intercropping Methods – increases efficiency in nutrient use; the use of companion crops can assist in repelling pests; and adds diversity to the field.

    Using Native Plants – using plants which are well adapted to the local area often reduces or eliminates the need for fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation. In addition, they attract and provide habitat for birds, butterflies and beneficial insects.
  4. Become a volunteer steward (contact us for more information)
  5. Reduce personal consumption and waste production - conserve water and use gray water (recycled water), reduce energy consumption and support renewable energy alternatives where ever possible; compost, recycle, and reduce the use of disposable goods.
  6. Use public transit, cycle or walk to conserve natural resources, reduce pollution and enjoy the health benefits
  7. Support "smart growth" and join or start a community garden.
  8. Reduce the use of pesticides and herbicides, use native plants in your garden and lawn and provide habitat for wildlife.
  9. Become a part of the solution to maintaining healthy people, landscapes and economy through consumer choices that help to pay producers and processors for extras costs associated with using methods that maintian or restore ecological functions that produce the goods and services we depend upon.

EFFECTIVE STEWARDSHIP MAINTAINS AND RESTORES THE ECOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS WHICH PRODUCE THE GOODS AND SERVICES WE, AND FUTURE GENERATIONS, DEPEND UPON.