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Latest news about the Safe Drinking Water Team
Much of Alberta and Saskatchewan relies on water from melting snow in the Rocky Mountains for replenishment of waterways in the summer. But John Pomeroy — director of the University of Saskatchewan's Coldwater Laboratory in Canmore, Alta. — told CBC that this past winter provided one of the lowest snowpacks he's seen. The snow also melted about six weeks earlier than anticipated, fuelled by the unseasonably warm weather.
The Prairie Blood coulee winds through a property on the Kainai Nation, also known as the Blood Tribe, in southern Alberta. On a warm fall day, about a dozen people haul willows, mulch, dirt and water to several spots along a dry creek bed. Some pound large posts into the ground. Technicians from Blood Tribe and volunteers from local environmental groups are building five beaver dam analogs, which mimic a natural logjam. They hope to restore the stream flow to help the landowner care for his animals and have more water for wildlife as the area experiences a decade-long drought.
In the spring of 2018, Health Canada proposed a ban on all agricultural uses of two insecticides, thiamethoxam and clothianidin. Health Canada scientists said the insecticides, known as neonics, were accumulating in ponds, creeks and other water bodies near agricultural land. The concentrations were harmful to midges and mayflies and therefore posed a threat to birds and other animals that rely on the insects for food.
A stunning new nature documentary, Wings Over Water, will make its Canadian debut this Friday at the TELUS World of Science - Edmonton. The IMAX® film follows the migratory journeys of three bird species that make remarkable, and often harrowing, flights to the wetlands of North America's prairies to breed and raise their young. Audiences will be captivated by the stories of the sandhill crane, yellow warbler and mallard as they soar across one of the most important—yet little known—ecosystems on the continent.
Steve Donald has one word to sum up the current condition of his southeast Saskatchewan farmyard: "Muck." The 42-year-old grain and cattle farmer near Moosomin, Sask. — just over 200 kilometres east of Regina — says repeated spring snowstorms have delayed seeding on his land. But he's optimistic the extra moisture will provide adequate feed and water for his cattle, and better growing conditions.
It just keeps coming. More snow. For many parts of the Canadian Prairies, it's more of the white stuff than they've seen in years. At Stan Jeeves's cattle and grain farm near Wolseley, Sask., 100 kilometres east of Regina, strong winds have blown the snow into huge piles that engulf his hay bales. He's already had more than 60 centimetres of snow this winter, compared with just three centimetres at this point last winter, according to Environment Canada data. "I think it's given me some optimism, for sure," Jeeves said. "We're receiving fairly regular snows, and so if that continues through the growing season into timely rains, we should be much better off than we have been in the past two or three years."
Though models indicate an overall increase in precipitation, future droughts and soil moisture deficits are projected to be more frequent and intense across the southern Canadian Prairies during summer by the end of the century under a high-emission scenario. So how does that work? When you look at the water supply chapter of our changing climate, timing is very important. David Sauchyn, director of the Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative at the University of Regina, is a lead author of a report detailing the changes we can expect in the Prairies as our climate warms.
A national farm organization is asking the federal government to pitch in with efforts to move hay from the East Coast to struggling farmers and ranchers in Western Canada. The Canadian Federation of Agriculture is seeking financial support for its Hay West initiative, which aims to ship donated hay from Maritime farmers to drought-affected Prairie provinces.
This year witnessed one of the hottest and driest summers in recent history for Western Canada and the American Southwest. The resulting droughts adversely affected food supply and helped send meat prices rising three times faster than inflation. Despite the severity of these droughts, the worst may be yet to come. Extreme weather events are expected to become increasingly severe and frequent in the Prairies, with longer dry periods coupled with the risk of floods from intense rainstorms.
University of Saskatchewan (USask) PhD candidate Leila Eamen and her research team have developed a hydro-economic model that investigates alternative ways to allocate water resources from the Saskatchewan River Basin among the Prairie provinces to maximize economic benefits, such as a province’s gross domestic product. In Saskatchewan, where precipitation has been low and heat levels high in the summer of 2021, such a model has become extremely relevant as natural water supply dwindles.
