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Positive Working Relationships

Since 1985, DUC has worked with landowners on the Milk River Ridge to protect through agreements and outright land purchase a total of 17,044 acres of uplands habitat and 2,479 acres of wetlands.

DUC’s relationship with McIntyre Ranch began in 1987, when waterfowl surveys revealed healthy numbers of several duck species, pintails in particular. A plan was initiated to maintain those population levels. After calving season is complete, the ranch has up to 8,000 cattle within its fences. DUC negotiated an agreement with Ralph Thrall II – the son of the ranch’s founder – to ensure that grazing cattle didn’t impact on nesting pintails.

DUC offered expert advice on agricultural and environmental sustainability, and provided dugouts and money for fencing and future maintenance costs. In exchange, the ranch modified its spring grazing regime to keep cattle out of fields and wetlands used by nesting pintails.

Since 1991, Ducks Unlimited Canada and McIntyre Ranching Co. Ltd. have finalized 30-year agreements protecting a total of 13,154 acres.

“We felt it was a win-win situation,” says 39-year-old Ralph Thrall III, whose vehicle licence plate reads R III. “It goes way beyond ducks. It’s quite fitting with our family’s own attitude toward wildlife and sustainability.”

Don Watson says that having a positive partnership with the McIntyre Ranch gives DUC increased credibility with other area landowners.

That credibility is enhanced through the involvement of longtime farmers like Gary Stanford, whose family has farmed near Magrath since 1950.

Stanford works with DUC’s Core Grower program, aimed at promoting increased production of winter wheat to decrease disturbance to nesting pintails. Winter wheat is planted in early fall and generally harvested in summer, after nesting is complete.

To encourage more winter wheat production, DUC offers farmers extensive agronomic technical support, successful demonstration sites and an interest-free operating loan of up to $18 per seeded acre. A total of 5,000 acres on the Ridge have been brought into the program since last year.

Stanford is an enthusiastic advocate of winter wheat on the basis of higher yields, lower fertilizer and pesticide bills and the ability to spread out his year’s work schedule.

“Ducks Unlimited is kind of on the same page as I am,” says Stanford. “We each have our own agendas. I want to help farmers make more money and DUC wants better nesting for the ducks.”

Morley Barrett, DUC’s Prairie Region director of operations, concurs. Stanford’s endorsement, he says, showcases the environmental benefits DUC programs can provide while promoting the sustainability of farming practices that have potential to improve the landowner’s way of life. And that, according to Barrett, is a valuable asset when it comes to sitting down around the landowner’s kitchen table and hammering out the details.

“The importance of ongoing positive working relationships between landowners and DUC on the Milk River Ridge – and anywhere else for that matter – can’t be stressed enough. It’s absolutely critical to the ability of DUC to function on the landscape,” Barrett emphasizes. “Without the understanding and co-operation of landowners much of what we do on the landscape would be impossible. And landowners, particularly those located on and near the Ridge, are increasingly realizing that our programs also have huge benefits for them as well.”

On the north end of the Milk River Ridge, DUC works with the Milford Hutterite Colony to protect critical grasslands surrounding the Milford Marsh, an important pintail breeding and staging area.

Since 1998, the colony of 112 people has agreed to keep cattle off 124 acres of uplands and allows DUC to keep the marsh flooded. In exchange, the Hutterites cut about 200 acres of hay on nearby land that DUC leases from the St. Mary’s Irrigation District.

Colony secretary Ben Wipf calls it “a good arrangement,” especially in years of good moisture and high yields. “ We’re getting a good benefit out of it,” he says. “I feel they’ve been fair with us.”

 

<< Page 6: Ag. Research—Helping Landowners and Waterfowl

 

 
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