AWA worried grasslands at further risk

The provincial government is putting critical native grassland habitat at risk by extending an exploration lease on the Milk River Ridge, the director of the Alberta Wilderness Association said on Friday.

A statement from the AWA declared a June 14 decision by Alberta Energy to extend leases owned by Granite Oil Corp. will allow the company to see its application to drill in the area go forward through the Alberta Energy Regulator process. It could mean that “years of perseverance and stewardship are on the verge of being lost,” according to the AWA.

“Grasslands are always the Rodney Dangerfields of rural habitat in Alberta,” said AWA Director Cliff Wallis. “They just don’t get no respect.”

“Here they are treating it as just another property to have resource extraction.”

The Province has identified the Milk River Ridge area to be included in the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan for expansion of the neighbouring Twin River Heritage Rangeland.

According to an AWA release, less than two per cent of Alberta’s grasslands are protected.

AWA believes the legal designation of important grasslands, such as the Milk River Ridge lands, must be given urgent priority.

Internationally agreed to Aichi Biodiversity Targets for the protection of grasslands are set at a minimum of 17 per cent.

AWA sees the decision as an act which demonstrates “no obvious commitment to that goal.”

“We just feel that industrial development is totally inappropriate in a protected area,” said Wallis. “Particularly in the grasslands. Temperate grasslands are one of the most threatened ecosystems on the planet. It’s where we have most of our at-risk species in Canada.”

AWA opposes oil and gas exploration within these lands designated for protection because of the critical ecological value that would be lost.

Large, relatively undisturbed blocks of native grassland are few in number and relatively unprotected in Alberta.

Temperate grasslands are considered one of the most threatened ecosystems on the planet by the World Wildlife Fund.

Much of Alberta’s remaining native grassland is fragmented or degraded.

Native grasslands are about five per cent of Alberta’s land base, but support almost half of rare ecological communities, 40 per cent of rare vascular plant species, and 70 per cent of mammal, bird, reptile and amphibian species considered “at risk” or “may be at risk.”

Wallis said a major concern is the unknown level of development which could come with a discovery.

“These are exploratory wells. And then the question is, what’s the scale-up?”

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