Nature Canada

Prairie Grasslands in Saskatchewan named as one of Canada’s Top Ten Endangered Places for 2016

Image of Stephen Hazell

Stephen Hazell
Director of Conservation
and General Counsel

Prairie Grasslands in Saskatchewan have been named as one of The National Trust for Canada’s Top 10 Endangered Places for 2016. The Top 10 Endangered Places List is released annually to bring national attention to sites at risk due to neglect, lack of funding, inappropriate development and weak legislation. The National Trust describes these grasslands as “a storied landscape of natural and cultural value at risk”

In 2012, the federal government decided to shut down the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) which had restored one million hectares of community pastures that had been overworked in the Dustbowl years in the 1930s. These community pastures, composed mainly of native prairie, are being transferred to the provincial governments; the Saskatchewan government has stated its intention to sell these public lands as they are transferred to it.

Nature Canada and Nature Saskatchewan are calling on the new Liberal government to stop the transfers of these lands until a plan is in place to protect the ecological values of these endangered places—including protection of the numerous species, conservation of soil and water, management of invasive species and storage of carbon.  See how you can help save Canada’s grasslands.

For more information on the Top Ten Endangered Places see the National Trust Canada website.

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