Southeastern Manitoba cattle producers Quinn and Stephan Schubert were the recipients of the 2018 Seine-Rat River Conservation District Award at the December 11 CD banquet in Brandon. Presenting the award was Ray Frey, MCDA chairman (left) and Jodi Goerzen, SRRCD manager (right) along with Lorraine Stevenson on behalf of the awards sponsor Manitoba Co-operator.

Sun Country Ranch honoured at MCDA 2018 convention

This is a farm exemplifying sustainable on-farm management, says Seine-Rat River Conservation District

The owners of a 1,440-acre ranch in southeastern Manitoba were the recipients of the Seine-Rat River Conservation District Award, one of nine presented during the 2018 Conservation District annual banquet in December. Quinn and Stephan Schubert established their cattle operation in 2010 where they today raise 300 head of Black Angus/Simmental crossbred cattle on land

This summer will be the first producers across Western Canada can access free seed for pollinator-friendly plants through Operation Pollinator.

Bringing back flowers to the field

Operation Pollinator is asking producers to set aside two acres for pollinator-attracting plants this summer

An initiative to increase biodiversity and pollinator habitat on golf courses is making its large-scale farm debut this summer. Operation Pollinator, spearheaded by Syngenta, was introduced in Canada in 2012 after first appearing in the United Kingdom over a decade ago. The program first approached golf courses, providing seed for out-of-play areas to be planted


Multiple flooding events in the Assiniboine River basin the past several years have seen crops losses increase in many jurisdictions.

MCDA updated on progress of Aquanty project

Conservation districts could one day use the program to run water-based scenarios in their jurisdictions

It’s no crystal ball, but when a new computer modelling program now under development is complete, a much clearer picture how various flood and drought scenarios could impact the rural landscape will emerge. Delegates at last month’s Manitoba Conservation District Association annual convention heard more about how a new HydroGeoSphere model under construction will work

Conservation districts need to step up their visibility with the public said Open Farm Day
co-ordinator Wendy Bulloch, a speaker at the 41st annual meeting of the MCDA last week.

Snowstorm keeps many — but not all — away from 41st MCDA AGM

Strategic plan, funding needs were discussed and ideas exchanged during smaller-than-planned MCDA meeting in Brandon Dec. 6 to 8

A massive snowstorm kept away nearly half the delegates — about 160 — trying to travel to Brandon for the Manitoba Conservation District Association’s annual meeting, which was held from Dec. 6-8. Numerous speakers also cancelled, but that resulted in some delegates successfully coaxed into taking their place, giving the event a new local tone. MCDA

Grassroots water monitoring pilot underway

Grassroots water monitoring pilot underway

The Lake Winnipeg Foundation has a pilot project to co-ordinate community-based water monitoring

It’s well understood high phosphorus levels cause harmful algae blooms in Lake Winnipeg. What’s not yet well understood is precisely where they come from. A new project from the not-for-profit Lake Winnipeg Foundation (LWF) aims to find out. Its Community Based Monitoring project, operating as a pilot program in 2016, aims to co-ordinate the water


Their new library sets a new standard for public libraries, says Ken Kurilyw, director of library services (l) at Gaynor Family Regional Library, 
alongside Eastern Interlake Conservation District manager Armand Belanger and library board chair Christie Magnusson.

Not-so-little library on the prairie

Gaynor Family Regional Library, serving Selkirk and residents of surrounding 
RMs was built to set an example of green construction on budget

Three high school students sit chatting over laptops and lattes near the fireplace, while a group of women spins and knits together nearby. Parents stream through the doors with kids in tow. Dishes rattle in the on-site coffee shop and bakery. Selkirk’s 18,000-sq.-ft. Gaynor Family Regional Library doesn’t sound like an ordinary library and that’s

Harry Stoddart, a sixth-generation Ontario producer presented at the Manitoba Conservation District Association’s 40th annual conference held in Brandon on December 8.

Farming with a focus on restoration

An experienced Ontario producer says implementing a holistic management plan would be a benefit

As many in the industry strive for sustainability, an experienced Ontario farmer wants to go one step further to build a farming system that does better than perpetuate itself. “The term ‘sustainability’ has really come to mean less damaging than the alternative, rather than truly improving or repairing,” said Harry Stoddart, during a presentation at

Thornhill farmer Theo Allan (left) chairs the non-profit, producer-driven Stanley Soil Management Association while Richard Warkentin is the group’s project manager.

Five hundred miles of trees — so far

The Stanley Soil Management Association has stood the test of time 
and continues the work it was set up in 1984 to do

When the soil began to blow south of Winkler this spring, Richard Warkentin knew his phone would ring. It did, almost on cue, as he drove the back roads eyeing dust storms swirling on a mid-April afternoon. “It was a guy wanting to plant trees,” says the long-serving technician and project manager with the Stanley


Assiniboine river map

Assiniboine River Basin Initiative progressing, but funding needed

Manitoba has pledged another $50,000 for the basin-wide initiative, but other jurisdictions more cautious

The Assiniboine River Basin Initiative (ARBI) becomes a legal, stand-alone entity as of July 1, but where the funding to support it will come from is still in question. Manitoba has pledged an additional $50,000 beyond an initial $50,000 announced last year to start ARBI, but Saskatchewan and North Dakota have not yet put dollars

Conservation Districts Touted As Helping To Cure Lake Winnipeg

Delegates attending the Manitoba Conservation District Association’s annual meeting here heard repeatedly that the solution to Lake Winnipeg’s pollution lies in their own fields and streams. Conservation districts are the first line of defence in cleaning up Lake Winnipeg because they manage the watersheds where the problem starts, Harold Foster, Manitoba Conservation Districts Association chair