“It is a common tool,” said Holz, whose company HAB Aquatic Solutions, has done 104 applications of the product, also called ‘alum,’ in the U.S.

Holz spoke at the 2019 Manitoba Conservation Districts Association conference alongside aquatic scientist Dorte Koster.

In Canada, however, aluminum sulphate has rarely — if ever — been applied to natural lakes to treat nutrient overloads, which lead to algal blooms, and experts say this may not be without good reason.

Why it matters: Prairie lakes are prone to blooms of toxic algae, which can kill animals and scare off swimmers? aluminum sulphate has been shown to starve off these blooms, but hasn’t seen widespread use in Canada.

What’s in a bloom?

Over the past few years, the stain of toxic blue-green algal blooms has become an unfortunate fixture of summer, and the living representation of campaigns to “save Lake Winnipeg.”

The algal blooms are caused by eutrophication, which is a condition caused by an overabundance of nutrients, like phosphorus, according to the Lake Winnipeg Foundation website.

While “it’s normal for a lake to have some algae,” the website says, some types of blue-green algae can be toxic to humans and animals, and can alter the chemical composition of lakes.

Lake Winnipeg might be the biggest, stinkiest example, but Koster told the conference audience that Prairie lakes tend to have a “perfect storm” of conditions for eutrophication.

Koster, a senior aquatic scientist with Associated Environmental Consultants, has been studying Stephenfield Lake in southwestern Manitoba. The lake, which Koster said is a reservoir built in the 1960s, is prone to algal blooms.

The lake’s watershed feeds it with phosphorus, said Koster. However, she found that while the greatest load of the nutrient entered the lake in April, the blooms occurred in late summer.

She suggested this may be due to internal loading — nutrients accumulated in the sediment on the lake bottom, and then reincorporated into the water.

Holz’s alum targets exactly this kind of phosphorus. Holz showed the audience how his company uses barges to spread alum in precise doses.

The alum turns into flaky “floc,” which sinks to coat the lake bottom, not unlike a couple of inches of snow. The floc binds phosphorus, deactivating it, and barring it from re-entering the water.

The alum doesn’t kill algae, but starves it by taking away the phosphorus. Holz said he’d seen lakes where 90 per cent of the phosphorus came from the lake bottom and efforts to clean up the watershed weren’t helpful for controlling blooms.

He showed before and after photos of lakes, first green, then clear after alum application. The effect can last for decades, he said (a report from the International Institute for Sustainable Development says an application typically doesn’t last more than 15 years).

Aluminum sulphate is already used in waste water and water purification processes, including in Canada, said Holz.

It was applied to lakes in the U.S. as early as the 1970s, according to a 1979 report to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The same report says the first lake-wide application of alum was in Sweden in 1968.

What’s the catch?

So why not dump alum in every green lake? As a reporter asked Holz, what’s the catch?

Koster and Holz said alum has never been applied to natural lakes in Canada, though, to their knowledge, it isn’t illegal.

Aluminum sulphate appears for sale on Home Depot’s website, for instance.

Koster and Holz said the lack of alum use is likely due to caution. In Canada, said Koster, there’s a regulatory vacuum and lack of precedent. As a result, it’s hard to get people in government to agree it’s a risk worth taking.

“They’re not allowing for widespread, unregulated use, and that’s good,” Holz said.

Holz added that there needs to be more Canadian studies, like Koster’s at Stephenfield Lake, to show where nutrients are entering the lake, and if alum will be helpful.

Scott Higgins told the Co-operator there’s also a lack of followup on lakes after alum is applied.

“They just do it once and then they walk away,” said Higgins, a research scientist at the International Institute for Sustainable Development, based in Winnipeg.

He said there’s not much short-term evidence of alum being toxic if properly applied. However, the “slow, chronic effects” of alum haven’t received much study.

Alum is also a bit of a band-aid fix.

“It’s not really treating the problem. It’s treating the symptoms,” said Higgins. “If there aren’t efforts to address phosphorus loads, you have to keep applying alum.”

For instance, Lake Winnipeg has been shown to have high internal loads of phosphorus, said Higgins.

However, the lake’s watershed pumps phosphorus into it at a rate of 5,500 tonnes per year, according to the Lake Winnipeg Foundation. While alum might treat settled nutrients, those would quickly be replaced. Without turning off that tap, alum application wouldn’t be too effective.

Alum can also be toxic in lakes if the water pH drops too low or becomes too high, Higgins said.

Lake Winnipeg is also shallow. In shallow lakes, wave action can stir up sediment, dislodging the phosphorus-binding floc from the bottom and reincorporating phosphorus buried beneath.

And it’s big. Based on Higgins’ quick math, it would cost billions to apply alum to the entirety of Lake Winnipeg. Spot treatment would be an option, but would reduce effectiveness, Higgins said.

“It takes a long time to create the problem,” said Higgins. “It can take a long time to solve the problem.”

The post Alum a useful tool to combat toxic algae appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Conservation district members pressed Deputy Ag Minister Dori Gingera-Beauchemin and her staff for answers during a Q-and-A session at the recent Manitoba Conservation Districts Association conference in Winnipeg.

Half of the municipalities in the proposed watershed district of La Salle Redboine aren’t in the program, based on maps of the new districts.

“I believe for the district to survive it needs the extra dollars and needs them now, not 10 years down the road,” said Murray Seymour, who is currently a board member with Pembina Valley Conservation District.

The province funds the districts at a three-to-one ratio — for every $3 the province puts in, the municipalities must put in $1 minimum, a provincial spokesperson said in an emailed statement. The province contributed $5.3 million for 2019 to 2020.

“The provincial Watershed Districts Program is currently maxed out,” said MCDA general manager Sean Goertzen in an email. “Any new municipal members won’t get the three-to-one match, which means a district would have to thin out/spread around its existing core funding to do projects in the new municipality.

“This would likely upset a district’s existing members since they’d be getting less bang for their buck,” he said.

Goertzen added that the province recently introduced the Conservation Trust and GROW trust, which the districts can tap into for projects. However, he said, they’re not guaranteed funding and may not help convince municipalities to join the program.

The conservation districts program has been undergoing modernization, with changes expected to take effect in January. Among other changes, district boundaries will be realigned on watershed lines.

A provincial spokesperson told the Co-operator that program expansion has been on hold during modernization.

“The priority was to ensure that all 104 members continue their partnership in the modernized program,” the spokesperson said. “Now that we are at the end of the program modernization process and all 104 municipalities have remained in the program, we will be considering new municipalities that would like to join.”

The post Watershed districts waiting on funds to bring in new municipalities appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

“It’s a pleasure to watch these kids,” said Cliff Greenfield, manager of Pembina Valley Conservation District as he announced the first-place winners at a Manitoba Conservation Districts Association conference on Dec. 3.

The assignment asked Grade 8 to 12 students to develop a lesson plan and teach Grade 3 to 4 students about Manitoba’s watersheds, said Sean Goertzen, executive director of MCDA.

The aim was to “support Manitoba youth in becoming the next generation of stewards of our watersheds,” Goertzen said.

Colin Hildebrand, Riley Kimball, Donavan Kimball and Alex Qin of Pilot Mound Collegiate Institute took home top prize. The young men didn’t make the trip from Pilot Mound, but a video they submitted showed how they taught kids about the benefits of rain gardens (sometimes called bioretention facilities).

The students planted a rain garden of their own, and used it to plan a lesson that used relay races and games to show how native plants can soak in and hold water in flood scenarios.

Macy Broome and Stacey Makyeyeva from Swan Valley Regional Secondary School won second prize for the lesson they taught on the Swan Lake watershed.

The young women built a “journey through the watershed” board game where students moved through the watershed and picked up a “human impact” card on each turn. Each player had a cup, which represented the watershed, and collected beads representing pollution. The player with the least pollution won the game.

Lexie, Gavin, Liam and Quinn of Carman Collegiate won third place. The students came to the conference to present on their lesson plan on the Boyne River watershed.

They created a video to teach kids watershed terminology, and used a “Jeopardy”-style game to quiz the students on facts like, “What is a tributary?” and, “What is the junction of two rivers called?”

The students said they enjoyed teaching the kids and building the lesson plan.

The post Manitoba students turn conservation teachers appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

That’s what prompted a move in 2013 from Bracebridge, Ontario, to Garland, Manitoba, after purchasing a 160-acre farm here. The couple, who has four children, Samantha, Mary, Robert and Hunter, then established Welland Farm, comprised of growing organic market garden produce, strawberries, wheat, and oats. They acquired and began to raise sheep and chickens, selling their farm product to local consumers.

The Wellands use only organic inputs and natural fertilizers, and a crop and pasture rotation to improve and conserve their soil’s health. They have planted trees and shelterbelts to protect their property and further reduce wind erosion.

Future plans include constructing a greenhouse, increasing the size of their sheep flock while expanding their strawberry and market garden fields to meet local demand. They are eyeing adding Christmas trees to their operation in future.

The Intermountain Conservation District recognized the Wellands’ work ethic and environmental stewardship practices during the Manitoba Conservation Districts Association (MCDA) banquet December 10 when it presented the family with its annual award.

The post Garland family recognized for environmental stewardship appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Manitoba is introducing the most significant changes to Water Rights Regulation since the 1980s. The proposals include a more streamlined drainage approval process.

Manitoba Sustainable Development’s consultations began November 29 when it posted documents online on the Manitoba Government website.

The government’s stated aim is to introduce a ‘no net loss of wetland benefits approach’ to protecting wetlands, while, at the same time, expediting approvals for lower-risk, lower-impact projects.

The proposed regulation is enabled by the Sustainable Watersheds Act which received royal assent on June 4, 2018.

What’s proposed is a system that would see the lesser impact projects go through a streamlined approval and registration in a 14-day process.

More substantial projects that don’t meet the registration requirements would get more detailed planning, a thorough review process, and wetland compensation measures.

Projects eligible for registration are defined in the consultation document, including activities such as minor surface drain construction and tile drain construction, water control works for new crossings, minor culvert changes, wetland enhancements or restorations and small dam construction.

‘Pay, perform, purchase’

Proposed projects would be subject to a licensing process if they lead to a loss or alteration of Class 3, 4 or 5 wetlands. The consultation document details the provisions and options the province proposes for offsetting those losses under a ‘pay, perform or purchase’ compensation system.

The province is also proposing a hike in application fees from the current $25 licensing fee to a $100 registration fee and a $500 licensing fee. There has been no fee increase since 1988.

A more flexible approach for getting sign-off from downstream neighbours is also proposed so that projects are not vetoed for ‘unmerited reasons.’

Andrea McLean with Manitoba Sustainable Development went over the regulations in detail during the Manitoba Conservation Districts Association meeting last month.

They want to hear from as many Manitobans as possible, and need feedback on what’s proposed, she said.

“The more comments we get, the better we can amend that piece of legislation to better reflect what Manitobans want,” she said.

These are the most significant changes to Manitoba’s Water Rights regulations since the late 1980s and they are expected to be finalized and implemented later this spring.

Additional materials for public review, including the proposed Water Rights Regulation, can be accessed at the Manitoba Regulatory Consultation Portal.

Further questions or comments can be provided by emailing drainage@gov.mb.ca or by mailing Drainage Consultation Box 16, 200 Saulteaux Crescent, Winnipeg, Man. R3J 3W3.

The post Consultations on streamlined drainage regulation end January 19 appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Manitoba Sustainable Development is proposing Water Rights Regulation that would support a new streamlined approach to drainage and water retention approvals, plus a ‘no net loss of wetland benefits’ approach. The changes would see certain types of routine works to be registered with the department through a simplified process, with protection seasonal, semi-permanent and permanent wetlands enhanced through new requirements that landowners pay compensation for wetland drainage.

The move would enable provincial staff to focus more attention on reviewing high-risk, higher impact projects, with fees adjusted review project applications from a current $25 to $100 for a registration process and $500 for a licensing process. Other proposals include having all tile drainage installations done by licensed installers. There are also changes in requirements for notifying downstream landowners proposed.

The government wants as much feedback as possible on what’s being proposed, said provincial staff. The public consultations began November 29.

“The more comments we get, the better we can amend that piece of legislation to better reflect what Manitobans want,” said Andrea McLean, senior watershed planner with Manitoba Sustainable Development who went over the details during the Manitoba Conservation Districts Association (MCDA) convention in Brandon just before Christmas.

A plain language consultation document is posted online at the Manitoba government website. Additional materials including the proposed Water Rights Regulation can be accessed at the Manitoba Regulatory Consultation Portal.

The province says citizens’s thoughts and suggestions will help refine Manitoba’s proposed Water Rights Regulation.

Questions or comments can be provided by by emailing: drainage@gov.mb.ca or mailing Drainage Consultation Box 16, 200 Saulteaux Crescent Winnipeg, MB R3J 3W3

Read more from MCDA in an upcoming edition of the Manitoba Co-operator.

The post Province seeking public input on proposed Water Rights regulations appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The province signed its agreement December 11, putting in an initial $28-million contribution this month, towards making the $102-million trust it announced in last spring’s budget a reality.

Why it matters: The Conservation Trust is a unique, proactive and significant endowment to support conservation programming for generations to come.

The Conservation Trust is a permanent endowment supporting important conservation projects for generations to come. It was created to support the province’s Made-in-Manitoba Climate and Green Plan.

“When we launched the Conservation Trust, we envisioned a partnership that would support projects aimed at preserving nature and addressing climate change,” Sustainable Development Minister Rochelle Squires said on the signing of the agreement.

“One of the key pillars of our climate and green plan is a commitment to nature, and the Conservation Trust signals our continued efforts to protect the environment.”

The Conservation Trust will be managed by The Winnipeg Foundation, with projects administered, tracked and evaluated by the Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation (MHHC).

When fully capitalized, the fund is expected to generate about $5 million each year for conservation.

High numbers of applications are anticipated, and may even exceed the amount of funding available in 2019, which is expected to be at about $2.5 million in the startup year.

MHHC CEO Tim Sopuck, in Brandon at the Manitoba Conservation Districts Association (MCDA) convention last week to go over the details, called the agreement “a unique and enduring approach to funding conservation.”

“The trust is unique for a number of reasons,” he said. “The main one is governments generally don’t make proactive commitments to conservation like this, and they generally don’t put it into an account where they can never get it back, but that’s what the province of Manitoba has done.”

Not-for-profit organizations in all parts of Manitoba where there are working agricultural landscapes are now eligible to apply.

Eligibility requirements are fairly tight, so it will be important for groups applying to clearly understand the trust’s key priorities and what outcomes it is seeking, Sopuck said.

“This funding is intended to help us enhance and restore natural areas in working landscapes, particularly in the agricultural landscapes,” he said. “Because we see areas like wetlands, grasslands, woodlands, water retention areas all contributing important ecological goods and services that will help us adapt to climate change. We think it will have a significant impact across the agricultural landscape.”

Available funding for successful applications could be available to support incentive payments but things like land or equipment purchases, and research would not be covered.

“We’re wanting to focus trust money on activities on the land,” he said, adding projects must address evident needs that are also the priorities of the Conservation Trust.

“We want to have significant, measurable ecological goods and services outcomes arising from these projects,” he said.

Partnerships and strong evidence of them will be critically important, he added.

The five funding categories eligible for funding are:

• Watersheds;
• Habitat and wildlife;
• Connecting people to nature;
• Soil health; and
• Innovation and conservation planning.

That final category is intended for projects that address planning gaps or demonstrate innovative ways of engaging conservation partners.

The watersheds category has the largest pool of potentially available funding at $125,000 per project.

“We’re looking for projects that have water quality and quantity as the key outcome,” said Sopuck, adding that any project with that strong focus on water, but with added ecological goods and services benefits will be the best potential candidates.

“Projects that have a strong focus on water but demonstrate ability to deliver on other EGS should rate well,” he said.

Habitat and wildlife category is where activities that enhance both habitat quality and quantity will be considered and there will be funding to a maximum of $100,000 per project in that category.

There is $50,000 available in the soil health category and projects focused on perennial cover system are sought in that area.

The connecting people to nature category is for projects that enhance greenspace in or near population centres, or support education programs and has a very specific outcome, which is to raise awareness about conservation.

“In this age of increasing urbanization it’s important that we think about that,” he told the MCDA.

“It’s one thing to do what we do and we know all the good reasons why we do it, but if people don’t care about what’s going on out on the landscape it gets harder to sell these programs.”

The other smaller subset of categories will address planning gaps that may have limiting effects on conservation activity, or enable projects that have come up with innovative ways for getting buy-in from landowners for conservation programs.

Sopuck said 2019 will be “a learning year” to gauge the number of calls for proposals, and it’s also the first year with that smaller amount available from the trust.

“I expect over time with more funding available that really good projects will be funded to a higher level down the road.”

Conservation districts — to be renamed watershed districts in 2019 — are very eager to get their proposals submitted now, said MCDA chair Ray Frey.

There’s so much they can potentially accomplish with this funding, because a million dollars sent their way represents a 20 per cent increase in overall revenues available to conservation districts, he said.

“That’s a tremendous opportunity,” said Frey.

Mark Francis, Ducks Unlimited’s head of conservation programs in Manitoba said DU is very excited about this announcement and how it can support their work with retention and restoration of wetlands and grasslands, plus the potential it has to provide incentives to the landowners they work with.

“We applaud the provincial government and MHHC. This can definitely help us with our mission and furthering our conservation goals,” said Francis.

More information on the Conservation Trust and the proposal process is available on the MHHC website.

The post A watershed moment — province funds Conservation Trust appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Ray Frey, who’s also an executive member of the Little Saskatchewan Conservation District, says there are a number of new and proposed initiatives that are going to create a new paradigm in the province.

There’s the $102-million provincial conservation trust fund, new legislation to align CDs along watershed boundaries, the proposed ALUS-like GRowing Outcomes in Watersheds (GROW) program and the province’s “Made-in-Manitoba” green plan all waiting in the wings. All will affect how the province protects its environment.

“There’s so many things happening it’s hard to keep up to speed,” Frey said.

Conservation districts have recently wrapped up a series of meetings chaired by staff with the provincial Sustainable Development to talk over what all the changes will mean for them, Frey said.

The $5 million annually the conservation trust is expected to generate annually is very big news and a lot of cash on the table, he said.

“That’s equal to the total existing funding for all of Manitoba’s (18) conservation districts,” he said.

“We’re pretty happy that this money has gone to an endowment fund and will be administered by MHHC which takes it out of the government financial bureaucratic process,” Frey said.

CDs will have to wait like everyone else to see how the funds are actually allocated, but they are looking forward to seeing what comes and to working within the context of new GROW programming, he said.

“Being able to work these two things together, for us we think it’s huge.”

Other issues talked over at this spring’s meetings are the changes proposed to conservation district boundaries.

They’re “generally in support of the idea,” and it appears municipalities are too, Frey said. But there are questions arising about what the changes will mean and how they’ll be implemented.

“In our meetings we were just talking ‘what ifs’ but there’s nothing solid yet or confirmed,” he said. “There’s a lot of unknowns.”

Overall, it’s a very exciting time to be engaged in water management and conservation, he continued.

He well remembers when the RM of Blanshard was working with Keystone Agricultural Producers and Delta Waterfowl Foundation to pilot the first Alternative Land Use Services (ALUS) project in Canada back in 2006.

“We were pretty pumped that we could implement this because it made so much sense,” he said.

But governments of the day viewed such programs as an expense rather than cost savings and the Blanshard project did not continue after 2009.

It relaunched in 2014 as a partnership with the national ALUS Canada program and the Little Saskatchewan River Conservation District.

There has been a huge shift in the way we think about conservation and creating policy to do this work, Frey said.

“It’s a huge change,” he said. “That’s pretty refreshing from a conservation district’s perspective.”

The post New era beginning for conservation work, says MCDA chairman appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Planning for both is essential to help ward off the financial hits these weather extremes bring, speakers at last month’s Manitoba Conservation Districts Association convention said.

In the Seine-Rat River Conservation District (SRRCD) they’re looking at ways to be ready for whatever climate change brings, and to convince ratepayers of the financial necessity of doing so, said its manager.

“We’re trying to see if we can’t come up with a flood and drought adaptation plan… and the economics behind it,” Jodi Goertzen, the SRRCD’s district manager told the 42nd annual convention of the Manitoba Conservation Districts Association.

“We’re working with the RM of Hanover because they have ideal locations that keep washing out that they would like to retain water on,” she said.

“We’re trying to figure out what’s the cost to them to do it so they can then show their ratepayers a cost analysis of doing nothing as opposed to the cost of retention.”

• Read more: Province tables Sustainable Watersheds Act
• Read more: Wetland restoration in Pembina Valley ‘a rarity,’ said CD officials

What they know already is that water control projects cost upwards of $200,000 but fixing and repairing roads and washed-out basements will run up bills in the millions, she said.

Ultimately, SRRCD wants to be able to make an economic argument for the merits for water holdbacks across all municipalities the SRRCD covers, she added.

Getting in front of all types of climate change risk was the key message by other presenters at last month’s convention, focused on a theme of ‘the economy of the environment.’

A preview

If you want an idea of what climate change looks like think of 2011, Hank Venema, the director of the International Institutes for Sustainable Development’s Sustainable Natural Resources Management program told the Brandon conference.

Within a matter of weeks that year an intense period of precipitation and flooding flipped over to very dry conditions.

“I’m told that some sections of land were under flood insurance and drought insurance claims in the same year,” he said.

Such a year — and the prospect of more ahead — shows the need to find ways to stretch the water budget across a longer period of time, he said.

Flood protection remains very important, but it’s also important to realize raising dikes and discharging more water “doesn’t buy a litre of drought protection,” Venema said.

“We need a different style of infrastructure to deal with these kinds of risks.”

Venema is also director of planning with the Prairie Climate Centre which last year released a series of online maps projecting how Western Canada would be affected by heat and precipitation under various climate change scenarios.

Texas North

Under worst-case scenarios by about 2065 this area will experience as many as 45 to 50 days of +30 C summer temperatures, making this a climate similar to that of the present-day Texas panhandle. If projections on future precipitation prove correct that dry season will also follow intensely wet springs.

That’s a climate scenario that makes developing distributive water management systems that provide flood and drought protection as well as other ecosystems services essential, he said.

“What we can reasonably project is we’re going to have a slug of water in the early part of the growing season, and we’re going to have to stretch that hydrological budget across a longer, hotter, drier growing season,” he said.

Moreover, projects that keep water on the land will also produce a host of spinoff benefits beyond flood mitigation, to nutrient recycling, and renewable energy production, and GHG reductions, he said.

In action

The Pelly’s Lake Watershed Management Project, on a site near Holland, Man. in the La Salle Redboine Conservation District is a very good example of a surface water management system built to produce these multiple benefits, he said.

The 640-acre site includes two water-retention structures that hold back spring run-off equivalent to one-third of the Stephenfield Lake Reservoir, releasing it gradually beginning in June which serves as a late-season recharge for the reservoir. The low-lying site produces abundant cattails which are now harvested and burned as biofuel. The removal of the biomass is also preventing phosphorus from washing downstream to Lake Winnipeg.

“You’re harvesting water, probably one of the most ancient technologies in the world,” Venema said.

Manitoba’s Climate and Green Plan has this approach in mind in its proposed surface watershed approach, with Manitoba’s 18 conservation districts, to be renamed watershed districts, playing a key role.

Growing demand

The Green Plan also includes a new Growing Outcomes for Watersheds (GROW) program for Manitoba, designed after the Alternative Land Use Services program, to be delivered in partnerships with landowners, non-governmental organizations, CDs and governments.

Goertzen spoke of how key those partnerships are, citing various successes SRRCD has had constructing water control projects.

Key to the future will always involve winning over landowners, she said. In SRRCD some were completely opposed initially to water retention programs, but ultimately changed their tune once they saw the good that came from them. Nowadays the SRRCD is regularly pressed to do more water control programs, Goertzen said.

“We need more. There’s huge demand for it.”

The post CDs cite need for multi-benefit water control projects appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

But Karen and Allan Sabados don’t have a big payroll at all. Sabados Greenhouse is a family business and the couple employs only their daughter.

The rest of their help is invisible — but there sure is a lot of it. Zillions of beneficial insects of a half a dozen different types, such as tiny ladybugs and rove beetles, are hard at work inside this 16,000-sq.-foot operation south of Lundar, controlling less beneficial pests.

It’s always a matter of adapting for current needs, but this use of biologicals has worked out very well, says the couple.

“These efficient little helpers go wherever they are needed to keep the plants clean and sparkling. They work endlessly to inspect every petal and leaf all day long,” Allan Sabados says.

The couple began their business in the early 1990s and has worked steadily to adopt best management practices to optimize not just their own greenhouse interior, but also the surrounding environment.

“At one time greenhouses were anything but green,” said Allan, noting the intense use of chemical controls to control pests in the leaf cover, high use of plastics and heating from non-renewable fuels. “But there’s better ways to do it, and now it’s changing,” he said.

Sabados Greenhouse has taken a lead in making those changes come about.

“We started with ladybugs back in 2001,” said Karen, adding it has been a process of discovery to figure out how different types of insect predators and parasitizers work together non-competitively. Their beneficial insects program has been constantly evolving.

“There’s a learning curve of which parasitic wasp to use, so they don’t interact and eat each other.”

There’s a lot going on underground too — they use biological methods below the soil line to increase plant vigour and root health too.

Concerned over the increasing amounts of plastics found in watersheds and oceans, they now use as many biodegradable containers as they can find, including a specially designed plant pot made in the Netherlands entirely from vegetable-based plastics derived from wheat straw, corn and potatoes.

“You can just throw it into your compost pile,” Karen said, adding it’s usually composted by summer’s end. They recycle the trays and other pots that aren’t biodegradable.

They’ve also been steadily adopting renewable energy sources to heat and operate the greenhouses too, installing solar hot water panels to provide some of the space heating and solar photovoltaic panels for part of its electrical needs. They’ve also replaced most of their oil-burning furnaces with those that burn wood pellets.

They’re working at switching their lighting systems over from incandescent to LED which will lessen their electrical usage by as much as 75 per cent.

They use a fertilizer that’s a byproduct of producing soybean oil and have been very pleased with the results. It’s produced in a sustainable manner without any salt wastes that could leach into the watershed, Allan said. This fertilizer also introduces carbon into the soil to feed their beneficial soil microbes.

Their soil mix is a blend of peat and coir, chosen to replace copolymer gels found in other products that don’t break down easily and can get into watersheds.

They carefully monitor their watering systems too, using an integrated system of drippers and misters to water directly into their soil.

It’s simply a personal commitment to operate with as light an environmental footprint as possible, says the couple.

“The practices we use are just out of concern for our health and the health of people around us and the health of our planet,” adds Allan. “Greenhouses should be green.”

Customers think so too. They’ve become a popular agri-tourism destination, putting up picnic tables and installing gardens around the greenhouses for visitors to enjoy.

Those biodegradable pots, for instance, were something customers were asking for, Karen said.

“They felt we should do this, and once you have this on the shelf customers are very supportive,” she said.

Sabados Greenhouse received the West Interlake Watershed Conservation District’s 2016 award of excellence for exemplifying good environmental stewardship practices that relate to the vision of the Manitoba Conservation Districts Association (MCDA).

The post Interlake greenhouse operators aim for lightest possible environmental footprint appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.