Beauty above and below: A rainbow seen from Ron Mitchell’s backyard over tall grasses.
When farmers get older and sometimes even before, they may begin to reflect on the fragility of our ecosystems and to consider how they, as farmers, might, on their own little patch of ground, help Mother Nature along. When that happens, Ontario land owner, Ron Mitchell thinks they should consider giving ALUS (Alternate Land Use Services) a call.
On the ALUS website, we learn: “The ALUS program works with farmers to produce valuable ecological services on Canadian farmland. Specifically, ALUS helps farmers and ranchers restore wetlands, reforest, plant windbreaks, install riparian buffers, manage sustainable drainage systems, create pollinator habitat and establish other ecologically beneficial projects on their properties. What’s more, ALUS provides per-acre annual payments to ALUS participants to recognize their dedication to managing and maintaining all the ALUS projects on their land.”
Beardtongue — this beautiful Ontario native wildflower thrives in meadows.
Or, in the words of Ron Mitchell: “These people will help you plan the project and they will help you implement the project and they will give you a stipend.” He receives $720 per year for 24 acres on an agreement made in 2010, and says stipends now are around twice that amount.
In 2010, the previous owner of the 25 acres Mitchell now owns near Simco, Ont., had ALUS and Longpoint Region Conservation Authority do a reforestation on 24 of the 25 acres. At that time they also planted 25 species of wildflowers and grasses and established two ponds.
The project has done well and Mitchell continues to steward it, planting more flowers and trees and doing his best to control invasive species. He uses some of the money he receives from ALUS for this. Often, he says, land that becomes an ALUS project is marginal as farmland, so the farmer is usually not really losing financially.
A young snapping turtle makes use of a pathway.
ALUS describes itself as ”community developed and farmer delivered.” Farmers work with other farmers and with ALUS to figure out the best way to “establish and maintain projects that produce ecosystem services, meaning: the essential things produced by healthy ecosystems upon which all living things rely. These include clean air, clean water, flood mitigation, climate adaptation, carbon sequestration, species at risk habitat and all our native bees and pollinators.”
The ALUS concept, born out of the desire to address shortcomings in traditional approaches to conservation in the ag sector, was created in Manitoba in 2006. Canada’s first-ever ALUS pilot project took place from 2006 to 2009 in the Rural Municipality of Blanshard (now part of the RM of Oakview) located within the Little Saskatchewan River Conservation District. This project was funded by the provincial government and supported by the Delta Waterfowl Foundation and Keystone Agricultural Producers, Manitoba’s largest farm organization.
Tall grasses border a pathway.
In 2016, ALUS Canada relaunched as an independent, nationally registered not-for-profit organization, supported by The W. Garfield Weston Foundation and ALUS also launched its first program in Quebec in partnership with the Fédération de l’UPA de la Montérégie. The plan for the future is to continue to expand into new communities and new provinces across Canada.
On the ground, Ron Mitchell says, “I just love nature. I have always loved it since I was a kid. Now I can plant a tree and not worry about leaves blowing into a neighbour’s pool or onto his power lines. I can work at being God in a sense.”
- Shirley Byers