Representatives from the Prairie Conservation Forum (PCF) board will - - PDF document

Alberta Prairie Conservation Forum Page 1 Representatives from the Prairie Conservation Forum (PCF) board will present on initiatives related to the status and conservation of native prairie and parkland ecosystems identified in our Prairie Conservation Action Plan and lead round table discussions following each session. The Prairie Conservation Forum: Who we are and What We Do – Robert Oakley P. Ag. The purpose of this session is to provide a broad overview of role, composition and approaches

• f the Prairie Conservation Forum and the Prairie Conservation Action Plan.

The Prairie Conservation Forum is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1989 whose membership has grown since then and now consists of voluntary participants from about 50

• rganizations including all levels of government, land and resource managers, conservation

groups, agricultural producers, academia and individuals. Through an education and advisory role, the PCF strives to provide the public, producers, managers and professionals in the prairie environment tools and ideas that can be used in further understanding the ecosystem we all depend on and how to conserve it going forward. The PCAP is a 5 year blueprint for conserving, protecting and managing native prairie and parkland species, communities and habitats. PCAPs have been developed every 5 years since 1989 and the current one (the sixth) runs from 2016-2020. Implementation of the PCAP hinges

• n a collaborative approach from the PCF leadership (board of directors and annual work

plans), engaged membership and strategic alliances (other partners and initiatives). The primary goal of the PCAP is to conserve native prairie and parkland landscapes while enabling stakeholders to benefit from the resources provided by the ecosystem. This is achieved through collaboration between PCF members while focusing activities around three primary strategies: to complete inventories and assessments of native biodiversity in Alberta; to share knowledge and foster a dialogue around prairie conservation; and to promote stewardship of native prairie and parkland ecosystems. Two primary outcomes of these strategies will be discussed in the following sessions as well as contemporary challenges related to renewable energy. Maintaining Large Native Prairie and Parkland Landscapes: Karen Raven P. Ag. Maintaining large native prairie and parkland landscapes and their associated biodiversity are key outcomes of our organization and partner members. Within this session, collaborative approaches undertaken by the PCF to quantify the state, extent and change over time of native prairie and parkland within Alberta will be presented. Other strategies to support achieving this outcome include completing inventories and assessment of biodiversity and identifying and mapping areas of high native biodiversity. This session will specifically highlight three collaborative projects and their results: State of the Prairie –collaborative GIS-based project between the PCF, Environment and Parks, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, and external rangeland experts to evaluate and transform existing land cover information to determine the area, extent, rates and trends of loss of prairie and parkland within Alberta.

• State of the Prairie TimeScan – A related and supporting project funded by

Agriculture and Forestry and Prairie Conservation Forum (PCF) to test innovative

Alberta Prairie Conservation Forum Page 2 approaches to grassland cover classification using multiple sources of data and using statistics from a 30 year archive of Landsat imagery developed by the German Aerospace Centre. The Status of Biodiversity in the Grassland and Parkland Regions of Alberta –This report completed by the ABMI, contracted by the PCF provides baseline information on the current types of land uses, status of prairie species, remaining native prairie and index of fragmentation. This integrated assessment provides a comparison of biodiversity within and outside of high value landscapes. Habitat connectivity in the prairies: more than just lines on a map: Dr. Marie Tremblay One of the outcomes of the 2016-2020 Prairie Conservation Action Plan is to conserve connecting corridors for biodiversity because connectivity is essential for maintaining ecosystem

• function. Yet, little is known about what connectivity looks like in the highly altered prairie

landscape, or how to manage for it. In this session, we will explore connectivity from the perspective of the moving organism and discuss why ensuring functional landscape connectivity entails a lot more than drawing corridors on a map. Key questions to be discussed include: Why, how, and when do organisms move? What elements of the landscape either impede or facilitate movements? How can land managers ensure habitat connectivity across the prairie landscape for a full spectrum of biota? Contemporary Challenges: Brian Peers BSc. (solar) and Nolan Ball R.T. Ag (wind)

• Renewable energy

The renewable energy sector in Alberta is rapidly expanding driven by current political realities which strive to realize a goal of 30 percent of the Provinces total electricity use generated by renewable sources by the year 2030. The current trend away from relying on conventional energy sources to renewable energy is proceeding at a pace where the unknown, long-term ecological impacts of such developments may become ancillary. Southern Alberta is an attractive target for renewable energy development with its abundant wind and solar resource. In an effort to address the potential impacts renewable energy developments may have on native landscapes, the Prairie Conservation Forum has commissioned Graminae Services Ltd. to produce “Beneficial Management Practices for Renewable Energy Projects. This document identifies strategies for proponents of renewable projects to minimize their footprint on native landscapes in which they may be working. The speakers for this session will summarize this report and provide their experiences with the renewable energy industry from a municipal government perspective. Nolan Ball is a Rangeland Agrologist for the Special Areas Board in Hanna, AB. The Special Areas covers an area of approximately 5.2 million acres of public and privately held lands. There has been increasing interest from renewable energy companies to secure lands within the Special Areas for future development. Recently the Government of Alberta has awarded EDP Renewables a bid to produce 248 MW of installed wind power capacity in the Sharp Hills

Alberta Prairie Conservation Forum Page 3

• project. This will be the first large scale renewable project in Special Areas with possibly more

projects to follow. Nolan will discuss how the Special Areas Board has approached renewable energy thus far and the potential opportunities and challenges on the landscape. Brian Peers is the Director of Lands for the Municipal District of Taber. The M.D. of Taber is in the unique and fortunate position of holding title to 80,000 acres land, primarily native

• grasslands. To provide consistency in municipal decision making and messaging to industry, the

M.D. of Taber council have tasked administration to develop policies surrounding siting renewable energy projects on M.D of Taber municipally owned lands. Brian will highlight the solar component of the Gramineae Services Ltd. paper and share his municipal perspective on the M.D. of Taber’s response to the sudden increase in wind and solar project being proposed in that jurisdiction.