
Tag Archives Environment

TESA 25: Bothner Ranch receives SSGA 2021 Environmental Stewardship Award
The Environmental Stewardship Award (TESA) celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Since 1996, TESA has been recognizing beef producers from across the country who go above and beyond standard conservation practices to care for their land and environment. Each year, producers are recognized at the regional level. A national TESA winner is then chosen from […] Read more

EU countries approve deal to overhaul farming subsidies
Subsidies to focus on sustainability, 'eco-schemes'
Brussels | Reuters — European Union countries on Monday gave the green light to reforms of the bloc’s huge farming subsidy program, after a three-year battle over rules to make it greener and support smaller farms. Negotiators representing the EU’s 27 countries and European Parliament struck the deal on Friday to reform the Common Agricultural […] Read more

CCA reports: Being part of the climate change solution
From the June 2021 issue of Canadian Cattlemen
As we look to the future, we know that our industry has an important role to play in being part of the solution for climate change. That’s why, building on the five-year goals that were outlined in the 2020-24 National Beef Strategy, the Canadian beef industry has now identified a suite of ambitious 10-year goals […] Read more

CCA Reports: Leading the conversation on environment
From the April 2021 issue of Canadian Cattlemen
When I walk around the hilly countryside of our family ranch southwest of Calgary and watch the spring thaw melting away winter’s grip, I always think of this time of year as a new beginning. The time has never been more right to start anew and tell our good-news story of modern cattle production. There […] Read more

Selenium from open-pit coal mining may pose downstream risk to ag
Potential of selenium pollution in Alberta’s major watersheds a threat to agriculture and others downstream, say livestock nutritionist and conservationist
The effects of selenium pollution in rivers near open-pit coal mines can be felt hundreds of kilometres downstream, says a conservation organization. In studying the impacts of open-pit coal mining in B.C.’s Elk Valley, Lars Sander-Green has seen how selenium leaching from four metallurgical coal mines contaminated the local drinking water supply and devastated fish […] Read more

Comment: The problem or the solution?
March saw a flurry of press releases and articles related to climate change, the environment and agriculture. Notably, the Weston Family Foundation allocated $25 million to preserving grasslands over the next five years (see News Roundup). A pilot project for a carbon offset protocol that encourages grassland retention is also underway. This carbon offset protocol […] Read more

Building biodiversity on agricultural lands
From the Ground Up with Steve Kenyon
Nature works in whole systems. There are millions of symbiotic relationships that coexist in a single ecosystem. Yet every ecosystem also interacts and relies on the other ecosystems around it. The aquatic ecosystem has a dynamic interaction with the riparian area ecosystem which interacts with the uplands ecosystem which relates to the woodland ecosystem. We […] Read more

CCA welcomes continued Environment and Climate Change Canada funding for species at risk
Previous project covered over 189,000 acres in Alberta
The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) is pleased to announce the contribution of $1.27 million from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) in additional funding to continue species at risk stewardship activities through the Species At Risk Partnership on Agricultural Lands (SARPAL) initiative. The contribution allows the CCA to carry on conservation activities with beef producers […] Read more

EU farmers could get cash to curb emissions from belching livestock
Brussels | Reuters — Farmers should get European Union funding to reduce methane emissions from livestock or increase organic farmland, the European Commission said on Thursday, under plans to make agriculture greener. The EU is nearing the end of a two-year battle to overhaul its massive farming subsidies scheme, to attempt to align the agriculture […] Read more

B.C. ranchers honoured for protecting watersheds
The Seelhof family works hard to protect the river and tributaries that run through their ranch, as well as manage invasive species and rotate grazing and feeding grounds
In a truly strange set of circumstances, when Chad Seelhof heard about the BSE announcement, he was in a cattle liner about to relocate from Paradise Hill, Sask., with his parents Louis and Ellie, to the Cariboo region of British Columbia. Chad recalls hearing the report on a radio broadcast. “I really wondered what the […] Read more