Launched in September 2018 as a partnership between ALUS Canada and Wheatland County, ALUS Wheatland is the 11th ALUS community in Alberta and the 24th in Canada. 

Wheatland County lies in the mixed grassland and dark brown soil region of southern Alberta. It is a diverse agricultural community of more than 8,000 residents, including portions of 19 Hutterian Brethren Colonies, all living on a 4,539 square-kilometre territory divided by the Red Deer River and the Bow River, fed by the Serviceberry Creek, Rosebud River and Crowfoot Creek watersheds.

In all ALUS communities, ALUS works closely with landowners to develop and support projects that are best suited to local needs and priorities. The ALUS Wheatland program aims to help address important environmental issues in this part of Alberta, namely riparian health and the loss of wetlands and native grasslands. The region’s most sensitive ecological features also include hard alkaline and saline soils, the Wintering Hills, native grasslands and numerous pothole prairie wetlands.

ALUS Wheatland’s Program Coordinators work with farmers and ranchers to help establish these projects, while participants receive annual, per-acre payments for the management and maintenance of these projects on their land.

Through their ALUS projects, ALUS Wheatland participants will help to produce cleaner water, cleaner air and more biodiversity, including pollinator habitat, for the benefit of everyone in the community.