The ALUS program came to Parkland County in 2012. Adjacent to Alberta’s capital city of Edmonton and located along the North Saskatchewan River, Parkland County is a centrally located community and a strong ALUS partner.
Parkland County is committed to delivering the ALUS concept. ALUS Parkland works with farmers and ranchers to establish ALUS projects that produce ecosystem services on marginal or environmentally sensitive agricultural land, providing support and annual per-acre payments for the maintenance and management of these projects.
ALUS Parkland has a number of projects established to date, including wetland enhancement, the establishment of ecobuffers, pollinator habitat, multi-row shelterbelts, enhanced and expanded riparian areas, alternative watering systems, nesting structures and fencing around waterbodies.
The ALUS Parkland team works with producers to identify stewardship opportunities on their farms and to help them throughout the ALUS process.
While natural assets such as wetlands are known to provide both tangible and intangible benefits for communities, their value can be hard to put a number on. The Alberta municipality of Parkland County has been experiencing both extreme weather events and degradation of natural infrastructure, and they wanted to evaluate the costs and benefits of maintaining and restoring wetlands and other ecosystems. By partnering at the watershed level with local NGOs and academia, they were able to complete a project involving mapping, modelling and analysis to better understand the value of these ecosystems and build a quantifiable business case for preserving and restoring them within their own borders and across municipal boundaries.
They are using results and recommendations from this project to better understand the value of natural infrastructure as well as the potential impact of its loss on the community, and to incorporate a consideration of natural assets into the decision-making process.
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News & Events
Steward of the Land: ALUS Parkland’s Carla Rhyant
"I think the majority of farmers out there are true environmentalists: Most of the ranchers I know are spending a lot of time and a lot of effort trying to protect sensitive areas,” says ALUS Parkland participant Carla Rhyant. In a video from ALUS’ “Stewards of the...
ALUS Parkland’s Inaugural Tour a Success!
On September 16th, 2015, Parkland County hosted their inaugural ALUS tour in partnership with the Alberta Conservation Association (ACA). The tour took County residents and local producers to four ALUS projects throughout the mid to south western portion of the...
ALUS Parkland Riparian Fencing Project
In October 2014, ALUS Parkland program coordinators Krista Quesnel and Gabriel Clarke visited an ALUS participant to help install a riparian fencing project that will help protect creeks and the shoreline of Lake Isle. Once this project is fully implemented, over 40...
ALUS Parkland Coordinator
Parkland County
Alberta Agriculture and Forestry
Alberta Environment and Parks
Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP)
Alberta Conservation Association
Cows & Fish
Agroforestry and Woodlot Extension Society
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Agriculture Research and Extension Council of Alberta
West Central Forage Association (WCFA)