SALTS’ stewardship manager ready for upcoming challenge
The Southern Alberta Land Trust Society (SALTS) recently welcomed Rylee Hewitt to their team as their new Stewardship Manager.
“The main role of this position is to oversee the stewardship and monitoring of SALT’s conservation easements,” Hewitt says. “Conservation easements are voluntary, negotiable agreements that landowners enter into with SALTS, relinquishing certain developmental rights to preserve the conservation values of the land. In return, landowners receive a tax benefit and/or payment. These easements ensure that someone’s land will be preserved how they envision over time and over generations.”
With her role, Hewitt says, she works with landowners to ensure that the vision for the original agreement is maintained and said relationships allow her to work with both existing and new landowners.
Hewitt also works with other partner organizations to assist landowners when they are interested in stewardship projects to enhance the health of their properties.
“These projects could include invasive weed control, water development or grazing practices,” Hewitt says. “This role allows me to work with many different types of people and bring together partners in both conservation and agriculture. Working in the field and directly with landowners is certainly the perk of my position with SALTS.”
Hewitt was raised on Rafter T Ranch near Jenner, and she currently live in the southern Porcupine Hills with her husband, Lyle, and their one-year-old son, Meritt.
In addition to her work with the land trust society, Hewitt and her husband also have a small commercial black-angus cow/calf operation, and both enjoy team roping and hiking in whatever spare time they have.
“I am very proud to work with SALTS,” Hewitt says. “Both the position and the organization compliment my lifestyle very well. I can feed our cows in the morning, drive over to a neighbor’s to talk about their easement or maybe assist with getting them funds for a land improvement they are planning, and be back to rope with my family that night.”
Hewitt originally pursued a post-secondary education in Conservation Enforcement, but ultimately received a diploma in Renewable Resource Management from Lethbridge College and a Bachelor of Science Degree, with a major in Environmental Science, from the University of Lethbridge.
Before joining the team at SALTS, Hewitt worked with the Nature Conservancy of Canada and as a wildlife biologist for various environmental consulting groups including the University of Lethbridge, the Government of Canada, Ducks Unlimited and Global Vision International. Hewitt has also always worked part-time on her family’s ranch by Jenner.
Hewitt was drawn to working with SALTS because she knew Justin Thompson, the Executive Director, and Mike Gibeau, the Conservation Manager, for several years and she always appreciated their grassroots approach to conservation in southern Alberta. Some of her neighbors also had conservation easements with SALTS before she started with them, and they always spoke about how the organization was approachable and common-sense.
“All of this, combined with the fact that SALTS was started by ranchers and still rancher-based, made my decision to work with SALTS easy,” Hewitt says.
“The organization perfectly represented me and what I envisioned for a partnership between conservation and ranching. I believe in the organization and what their vision is, and that is what I had been looking for in a career.”
Hewitt also really enjoys getting out on the landscape we are all working to protect and learning about specific operations and challenges for landowners so SALTS can be the best partner for them. Hewitt adds that it a difficult time to be in agriculture or conservation, and she loves that SALTS brings together both sectors for a mutuallybeneficial goal.
“As both a livestock producer and biologist by trade, it is important to me to work for an organization that bridges both the agriculture and environmental sectors,” Hewitt says. “I feel that with SALTS, I can represent both groups without being in conflict.”
For more information about SALTS and the work that they do, visit https://salts.land/
“I think for certain landowners in the right scenarios, conservation easements can be a tremendous tool to assist them in both their family legacy and financially, while serving to protect undeveloped blocks of land and wildlife habitat,” Hewitt says. “For me, conservation and ranching go