Programs & Services
Clear Water Landcare provides programs and services to County landowners with emphasis on environmental stewardship and education.
Services
2020 Conifer Tree Seedling Program
County landowners can order affordable tree seedlings for white spruce or lodgepine suitable for starting/renovating a shelter belt or rejuvenating a natural area. The Tree Seedling Program, in partnership with West Fraser, provides purchasers with options to purchase bundled seedlings of fifteen spruce or fifteen pine at $4.50 per bundle (min. order five bundles) with a deposit of $22.50. White spruce and lodgepole pine seedlings are grown for West Fraser by PRT Nurseries in Skimikin, BC from seed collected west of Rocky Mountain House. This program is also a good candidate for rejuvenating a naturally wooded area.
Application deadline is extended to June 19, 2020 with a seedling delivery in mid-July.
Trees must be planted on the property applied for and not sold or given away. Please provide verification of land ownership in Clearwater County (example: property tax notice). Applications are subject to Clearwater County approval. Planting sites may be subject to verification.
Each year, between 8,000 – 10,000 seedlings are distributed to County landowners through this program.
If you would like to beautify your property and help the environment, click on the link below to submit an application form.
Please note that due to the COVID-19, Clearwater County offices are closed to public access (open by appointment only) until further notice. For alternative payment options, see below:
To submit applications:
- Email dens@clearwatercounty.ca
- Drop application form off in the main County building drop box near the front doors
Payment option:
(deposit of $22.50 and pay the balance at time of seedling pickup or pay for entire order with application submission)
- Cheque or cash in an envelope dropped off in the main County building drop box near the front doors (if paying by cheque, make it out to Clearwater County with "Tree Seedlings" in the memo
For additional information or any questions, please call 403-846-4040 to reach Ag and Community Services
Hemp Fiber Mats for Purchase
Available 12-inch and 18-inch square hemp fiber mats to help maximize your tree seedling investment. Great for helping seedlings access light, nutrients and moisture that other vegetation otherwise robs. Only $0.40/12-inch and $0.50/18-inch plus GST. Hemp fiber products also come in rolls for custom applications like slope protection, row planting where plants are closer together, lining swales or low areas, culvert inlets or outlets, and even pond banks. This is an alternative to straw or coconut matting. Call 403-845-4444 for more info.*NEW* Verbenone Repellent Pouch for Purchase
Available at the Agriculture and Community Services office. To protect hi-valued pine trees over a small area, the pouches give off a pheromone letting beetle know "this tree is full” to ward off attack. Hang one pouch per tree between June 15 and July 1 at a 5m radius to the next pouch. While verbenone has been shown to be effective at low to moderate beetle population pressure, it is not very effective when the pressure is high. Even under low and moderate beetle pressure, complete protection may not be achieved.
Pouches will be sold in packages of 10 at a cost of $100.00 plus GST. Packages are to be stored in a sealed freezer bag in a freezer. For more information call 403-845-4444.
Programs
Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP)
The CAP program launched in the spring of 2018 with an investment of $406 million, toward a variety of programs and grant incentives. There is an environmental stewardship component to this program. For more information click here. Alberta Environmental Farm Plan (EFP)
Alberta EFP website https://www.albertaefp.com/ states:"Effective April 1, 2018, producers will need to have an EFP completion letter dated within the last 10 years to be considered current and eligible for cost-share funding with the Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change programs of the Canadian Agriculture Partnership (CAP). That means, for example, if you apply in September 1, 2018, your EFP will need to have been approved on or after September 1, 2008 to be considered for current funding.”
EFP’s are moving to web-based delivery. In other words, gone are the humongous binders and in is a computer-based EFP. There are several reasons for this.
The content is much different than when EFP launched in 2002. It will be much easier to make changes electronically and easier for the producer to update their own plans. Think of it like using the Crop Protection manual – the so called Blue Book. Would you rather use the 2018 version for this crop season or one that is a few years old?
The information is readily available and secure. Think how the digital world has changed health care. X-rays, lab work and more is transmitted in hours versus days and immunization or other health data archived for ease of access. An EFP is like farm care with timely access to information.
There is now a fix for a lost information. In the early years there was no data base of names therefore it became common for a lost binder or missing completion certificate to become a big deal to replace. Today a garage can pull up a record of your vehicle, a bank can provide transaction history and an on-line shopping site can manage your order, payment and shipping with a keystroke. EFP is just another opportunity moved into the electronic world.
Starting an EFP is like the elevator in a high-rise building. It’s much easier and prudent to get on the elevator at ground level than to run up six flights of stairs to catch it going up.
The Canadian Agricultural Partnership (CAP) program is due to succeed Growing Forward 2 this spring. A current EFP will be like a key to a door, allowing producers to seek funding for most environment programs.
"Caring for my Land" Funding Program
Recognizing the cost associated with on-the-ground practice change the Caring for My Land (C4mL) program is intended to reduce the financial burden that comes with implementing beneficial practice change.
Rural farm or non-farm landowners in Clearwater County – especially those with land vulnerable to water and/or wind erosion – are eligible to apply.
Funding is provided through the provincial Watershed Restoration and Resiliency Program (WRRP). WRRP focuses on improving upland and lowland areas making watersheds more resilient to seasonal runoff and high water events and periods of drought or water deficiency. There are several ways to achieve this.
- Winter grazing and feeding management including wintering sites to distribute nutrients more evenly and away from runoff areas
- Establishing soil binding, deep rooted perennial forage, trees and shrubs to slow, filter and retain water
- Using cross fencing to manage grazing to encourage deeper rooted grasses, reduce weed pressure, manage soil erosion and more evenly distributed manure
- Using riparian fencing to create buffers for riparian protection or other sensitive areas including erosion prone areas
- Developing livestock watering sites – preferably with either mobile troughs or pasture pipelines – to move cattle through pasture and avoid nutrient build up, erosion and source contamination
- Revitalizing wetland areas to maximize water retention, filtering and aquifer recharge using buffers and added vegetation – planting or seeding – to achieve diversity
- Developing berms and/or catchments along with filtering buffers to capture runoff and release water slowly back into the environment
- Managing runoff on non-farm or hobby farm lands to slow and filter runoff water, recharge aquifers and provide habitat
- Encouraging diversity of beneficial species – such as raptors for rodent control – to protect beneficial vegetation
Rural farm or non-farm landowners in Clearwater County – especially those with land vulnerable to water and/or wind erosion – are eligible to apply.
Green Acreages Guide