When we think of protecting Alberta’s landscapes there are a variety of tools that are quite well understood and used: parks on public land, conservation easements on private land. The Alberta Land Stewardship Act (ALSA) greatly added to the conservation tool box by providing a variety...
Where will the province's regional plans be going with the new government? It’s anyone’s guess at this stage. Regardless, environmental information relevant to our region will continue to be collected by a variety of organizations (include government and non-government organizations). This information should inform our environmental...
South Saskatchewan Plan Avoids the Hard Choices In September 2014 the Government of Alberta released the first South Saskatchewan Regional Plan (SSRP) made under the Alberta Land Stewardship Act (ALSA). On January 17, 2015 I was honored to present some thoughts on the implications of the SSRP...
The Draft South Saskatchewan Regional Plan (Draft SSRP) is a work in progress that must do more if it is to advance the Alberta Land Use Framework (LUF). This is the acid test. The South Saskatchewan is the most economically, socially and environmentally diverse region in...
The federal Recovery Strategy for the Woodland Caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou), Boreal population, in Canada was posted recently and the outlook remains bleak for Alberta’s caribou herds. The focus of much of much of the Recovery Strategy is rightly on critical habitat and reducing habitat...
The Government of Alberta (GOA) has started down the road of managing cumulative effects. It won’t be easy, but the government is armed with regulatory tools. Specifically, the GOA has put in place “environmental management frameworks” (EMF) through its regional planning process, which allow it...
Published in LawNow, May/June 2012 By Adam Driedzic, Staff Counsel, Environmental Law Centre Set foot on Ruzicka Sunrise Farm and something feels different. Whether it is the diversity of birds, the native prairie, or dugouts that test cleaner than some municipal water sources,...
The Alberta Land Stewardship Act (ALSA), which provides the legal framework for the province’s new land use planning and management system, has been in effect for two years. During that time, a first regional plan has been released in draft form, with a second soon...
A Draft Lower Athabasca Regional Plan has barely been public for a week and already the criticisms sound familiar: Conservation areas are based more on low value energy resources than high value wildlife habitat. Even then existing energy leases can be renewed. Delaying a biodiversity...
A recent media release indicates that the Government of Alberta has created a Land Trust Grant program for the purchase and management of conservation easements. Conservation easements are used to protect the environmental values of land, typically in perpetuity, while allowing the owner of the...
[caption id="attachment_886" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Sprague's Pipit (Wildearth Guardians) "][/caption] The latest ecosystem status and trends report for Canada, released last fall, indicates rapid decline of native grasslands. Grasslands are among the most endangered ecologies in the world and in Canada. Many grassland species are endangered under the...
By Jason Unger, Staff Counsel What we do with our land is constrained in many ways, whether on our own volition as landowners, through common law rights of neighbours or through the valid regulation of land use for the public good. Recent discussions around repealing the...
