August 26, 2025

Conservation organizations, Municipal District of Taber Grazing Lessees and the Vauxhall Stock Grazing Association are concerned about current investigations by the MD into the feasibility of converting 6 sections (about 15 sq. km) of municipal public native grasslands into irrigated cropland.

These public native grasslands must be kept in municipal ownership

The Alberta Chapter of the Wildlife Society, Alberta Wilderness Association, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (Southern Alberta Chapter), Nature Alberta, and Southern Alberta Group for the Environment support local efforts to protect these native grasslands and keep them in municipal public ownership. The future of ranching and sustainable livelihoods that protect our native grasslands in the region are at stake.

The conservation groups believe that the interest in converting these grasslands is, at least in part, a result of Alberta’s push to expand irrigated acreage in the south. Conservation organizations wrote Alberta ministers in 2024 expressing concerns that irrigation expansion would impact native grassland.

If allowed to proceed, the MD of Taber would be setting a bad precedent by reversing course on grassland protection and a promise not to allow conversion of these lands.

Given the biodiversity crisis that the world finds itself in, the value of these grasslands for several species at risk, and the MD’s own recognition of these areas as “environmentally significant”, the conservation organizations are urging the MD of Taber:

1. to shelve plans for converting these lands to irrigation and
2. to live up to the original intent to conserve native grasslands by putting caveats against title that would prevent breaking of these lands.

The Background

After managing these grasslands from the 1930s to the 2000s, the Alberta government transferred tens of thousands of acres of tax recovery land back to the municipalities. One of the largest tax recovery land transfers was to the MD of Taber.

Assurances were given by the MD of Taber that native grasslands in these lands would not be broken. This was codified in the grazing lease agreement prohibiting such conversion by leaseholders.

A February 2014 article in the Taber Times indicated: “The Municipal District of Taber is hoping a new bylaw currently being drafted will help manage and conserve local grasslands as it looks to absorb a massive land injection from the province.”

MD of Taber Bylaw 1845 is the “Prairie Conservation Bylaw.” Its purpose is to ensure the “conservation of municipally owned grasslands” “for the benefit of all citizens of the MD.” It recognizes that “prairie grasslands owned by the Municipal District of Taber provides both economic and environmental benefits to the residents of the Municipal District of Taber.” The bylaw “applies to all Grasslands which are owned, controlled or managed by the MD and which are subject to a Grazing Lease Agreement.”

Now it seems that the MD of Taber is ignoring its own guidance.

Grazing lessees have been supportive of keeping these lands as native grassland. The conservation organizations remain supportive of the continued stewardship of these municipal public grasslands by these ranching families, some who have been on these lands for generations.

Why do native grasslands need to be protected?

Temperate grasslands are one of the most endangered ecosystems on earth. The Northern Great Plains is one of World Wildlife Fund’s Global 200 ecoregions deserving priority for conservation. They are home to many of Canada’s prairie plant and animal species at risk and provide many ecosystem services including carbon sequestration. The lands in question have been identified as environmentally significant (Vauxhall-Hays ESA) in a study done for the MD of Taber in cooperation with the Government of Alberta.

Native grasslands are valued by Albertans as habitat for a broad diversity of wildlife, including over two dozen species at risk. Southern Albertans benefit greatly from the ecological goods and services native grasslands provide such as water storage, carbon storage, erosion control, pollination and pest control. Native grasslands support ranchers in sustainable livestock production.

Conversion of native grassland for expansion of irrigated cropland would compromise these invaluable and irretrievable assets. Recent proposals for over 100,000 hectares of irrigation agriculture expansion within the South Saskatchewan River basin have raised concerns about potential loss of native grasslands.

Intact grassland habitat must be sustained, and species at risk must be recovered.

In acknowledging the significant value of native grasslands, the approved South Saskatchewan Regional Plan 2014-2024 (Amended 2018) establishes a regional outcome that “Biodiversity and ecosystem function are sustained through shared stewardship”. Regional objectives specify that “Intact grassland habitat is sustained” and “Species at risk are recovered and no new species at risk are designated.”

Proponents of irrigation expansion assert that, in keeping with the direction established in the SSRP, expansion of irrigated cropland will occur on already cultivated parcels and not lead to conversion of native grasslands. However, legislation and policy governing decisions about expanding irrigation acres fail to support shared stewardship for sustaining native grasslands.

The conservation groups have called for an integrated approach to government policy and legislation at all levels to avoid land-use pressure on native grasslands from irrigation agriculture expansion.

For more information:

Cliff Wallis, Alberta Wilderness Association (403) 607-1970

Cheryl Bradley, Southern Alberta Group for the Environment (403) 328-1245