The Globe and Mail - Alberta’s iconic cattle ranches face critical moment as two-year drought continues
“Rachel Herbert spent the past few days fixing up her water pump. The water in her well was barely reaching it. The surrounding streams had slowed to a trickle, or were bone dry.”
Rachel Herbert moves cattle on her family-run ranch near Nanton, Alta., on July 4.
(Sarah B Groot/The Globe and Mail)
While springtime flooding is a drastic and near-immediate reminder of the importance of managing water resources, as we move into the summer months we will invariably hear more and more about the impacts of drought on regional hydrology throughout Canada, impacts which are often even more disastrous (though less ‘flashy’) than catastrophic flooding. This article in the Globe and Mail sounds the alarm on drought in southern Alberta, specifically the Foothills County region, which has just declared an agricultural disaster amid years of ongoing drought.
It’s no secret that farms are at the heart of the the food industry, a complex, international network of businesses which supply our daily bread, and the largest threat faced by the global food industry is climate change. In much of Canada, climate change is paradoxically expected to lead to both increasing frequency/severity of drought, and an overall increase in precipitation (which will fall in fewer, more intense storms). The recent experience of Foothills County is a perfect example: the region has been in drought conditions for at least two years, with 2022 being saved only by a major mid-June rainfall.
What will the water cycle look like in the future? This is the key question that the Canada1Water project aims to answer. Bringing together a comprehensive modelling framework including regionally downscaled climate modelling, land surface modelling and integrated hydrologic simulations will give all Canadians a reliable estimation of climate change impacts on Canada’s water resources, and how they might affect different industries like Alberta’s iconic cattle ranges.
“As a result of the drought in the Foothills, 50 per cent of the agricultural producers in the county are predicting decreases of 60 per cent in their yields of hay, grain and pasture, compared with a five-year average. This is why the local council declared an agricultural disaster on June 28”
“With more droughts on the horizon, she would like to see the provincial government guarantee protections for water sources. In particular, she pointed to the Oldman watershed, an essential source of water for her ranch and others. The watershed is part of the eastern slopes of Alberta. It consists largely of public land that has drawn significant interest from coal mining companies.
“Water is the most precious resource here,” Ms. Herbert said.”
Moisture Anomaly Index at Bar None Ranches (Foothills County) illustrates soil moisture trends over 2022. The grey zone represents typical conditions. Values greater than 2 indicate abnormally wet conditions and values less than -2 indicate abnormally dry conditions.
(Figure from the AgSat Farm Data Essentials web platform, https://agsat.ca/)