Here are some scenes from my bird & nature watching trip on Thursday. It's about an hour's drive west of where I live now.
Saskatchewan was recently voted to be the 'least beautiful', or as most people said, the 'ugliest' province in Canada. Really? Guess those people haven't been here.
This is the eastern edge of the Big Muddy valley & lake in Southern Saskatchewan.
A lot of this prairie is community pasture - publically-owned land - and the Feds plan to sell it off.
I cannot imagine anything more devastating than one day, in the near future, to drive along this road and see the prairie gone and fields of corn planted. No, maybe too arid and sandy for corn - more like canola (genetically-modified, of course)...but the native prairie, once broken is gone forever.
That's Big Muddy Lake in the distance. There are so many grassland birds this year. Many Baird's Sparrows and Sprague's Pipits, both of which have been in decline everywhere. These mixed prairie grasslands are home to many species of animals and plants.
I love this place.
If you do too, please write letters to Peter Kent, Minister of the Environement and Gerry Ritz, Minster of Agriculture, in Ottawa asking them to reconsider the sale of public prairie lands here in Saskatchewan. Also contact your own MP. Write letters to the provincial counterparts as well.
Save the PFRA community pastures! These are about the only tracts of native prairie left in most parts of the province. It really IS important, not just to me.
Saskatchewan was recently voted to be the 'least beautiful', or as most people said, the 'ugliest' province in Canada. Really? Guess those people haven't been here.
This is the eastern edge of the Big Muddy valley & lake in Southern Saskatchewan.
A lot of this prairie is community pasture - publically-owned land - and the Feds plan to sell it off.
I cannot imagine anything more devastating than one day, in the near future, to drive along this road and see the prairie gone and fields of corn planted. No, maybe too arid and sandy for corn - more like canola (genetically-modified, of course)...but the native prairie, once broken is gone forever.
That's Big Muddy Lake in the distance. There are so many grassland birds this year. Many Baird's Sparrows and Sprague's Pipits, both of which have been in decline everywhere. These mixed prairie grasslands are home to many species of animals and plants.
I love this place.
If you do too, please write letters to Peter Kent, Minister of the Environement and Gerry Ritz, Minster of Agriculture, in Ottawa asking them to reconsider the sale of public prairie lands here in Saskatchewan. Also contact your own MP. Write letters to the provincial counterparts as well.
Save the PFRA community pastures! These are about the only tracts of native prairie left in most parts of the province. It really IS important, not just to me.
Please read Trevor Heriot's post about this issue:
That would be very sad. We have only a few remnants of our original tallgrass prarie left here in Minnesota. One of my favorite places for birding. I'm catching up on post as my computer died a while back and it been a slow process to replace....
ReplyDeleteYes, it will be very sad - as you can see, I'm not hopeful that there are enough people who care and who will try to prevent the prairie from disappearing.
DeleteI just read your last blog post. Some strange things have been going on with you & Mrs. T. Hope everything 'straightens' out soon.