Tag: biodiversity

EP 80 – Meet the Prairie Precision Sustainability Network

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Welcome to Restoring the Margins, our brand new podcast series, in partnership with the Prairie Precision Sustainability Network (PPSN). This series explores how agriculture producers in the Prairies can take their marginal lands and turn them into something both more profitable and more beneficial for the environment. In this opening episode, we’re joined by Dr. Christy Morrissey, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan and a lead researcher with the PPSN.

Stewarding the Land, Building the Future: The Story of Timber Ridge Ranch

Since well before regenerative agriculture became a buzzword, Glen and Kelly Hall have been quietly practicing its principles. At Timber Ridge ranch, near Stavely, Alberta the Halls are blending time-honoured traditions of ranching with forward thinking practices that put soil, water and biodiversity at the centre of the story.

Ranching in today’s agricultural climate come with its challenges – rising costs, extreme weather and difficulties with expansion and succession to name a few. That’s why the Halls, in partnership with conservation organizations and impact investors have embraced a bold alternative – steward ownership.

We spoke to the Halls about this innovate model, which flips conventional farm financing on its head. We discussed putting the stewards (producers) at the centre, how they set up collaborative agreements and how this is helping them plan for a successful future at Timber Ridge.

It’s clear from this conversation that connections underpin the whole system – connection to the land, the animals and their community. Glen and Kelly are living proof that when innovative thinking meets a deep rooted care for the land, anything is possible.

EP 76 Partners in the Ecosystem – SoR Part Eight

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Meet Rebecca Harbut and Mike Bomford from Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) in Richmond, BC—prime examples of such trailblazers. Now, you might wonder, how do university professors fit the description of being ‘on the ground’? Well, let me tell you, KPU isn’t just any university; it boasts a farm that lies at the heart of Rebecca and Mike’s endeavors.

Moreover, as we’ve touched upon throughout this podcast series, with Canada’s population nearing the 40 million mark, farm and ranch operators, along with farm laborers, represent a mere fraction—around 1%—of the populace. The takeaway here? It’s going to require a collective effort, involving many of us outside the traditional farming community, to partner with that crucial 1%. This collaboration is key to expanding regenerative agriculture from a niche practice to a widespread one.

EP 72 Connecting People to Place – SoR Part Five

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2023 was a challenging year for Canadian farmers and ranchers and for humanity in general. We had droughts, wildfires, floods, an affordability crisis and a number of armed conflicts. According to scientists working with the European Union, 2023 smashed temperature records globally.

And yet, someone like Nova Scotia agricultural producer Rachel Lightfoot still finds ways of being optimistic even after her farm got hit by a polar vortex, a dry spring and a very rainy summer all in the same year.

The Healing Power of Collaboration – Timber Ridge, Stavely, Alberta

Glen and Kelly Hall have been managing Timber Ridge Ranch, a 480-acre farmland situated an hour south of Calgary near Stavely, Alberta, for over 40 years. Their approach to agriculture involves regenerative practices and the conversion of their land back to perennial coverage, including the cultivation of multi or polyculture crops for swath grazing. Their operations primarily consist of a cow-calf program with approximately 200 mother cows, and they also custom graze calves from fall to spring.

Since 2018, the Halls have been on a mission to collaborate with local organizations to rejuvenate their land, which was previously subjected to conventional farming methods involving fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. Over the last four decades, they have seeded an impressive 5,000 acres, aiming to enhance biodiversity both above and below the soil.

We spoke to the Halls about the challenges of ranching in Alberta’s drought-prone “banana belt” and how they’re adapting their practices to “drought proof” against increasingly warming temperatures and extreme conditions.