WATERSHED DISTRICTS
Boost to Manitoba’s
Watershed Districts
This farm-based network just received capital
funding from the provincial governemnt
BY BILL REDEKOP
In the movie classic, It’s a Wonderful Life, an angel visits
a downcast Jimmy Stewart character and shows him
how much poorer the world would be without him.
It’s a lot like that with Manitoba’s Conservation
Districts, recently renamed as Watershed Districts.
If you were to replay the highlights of its nearly
half century in existence, all the seemingly small actions by
the districts would add up to much larger environmental ben-efits:
all the shelterbelts to stop soil erosion, all the rivers and
creeks fenced off from livestock, all the solar-powered water
systems so livestock don’t require those waterways; and now,
all the lands are being set aside so they can rejuvenate, and
private reservoirs are being dug to keep nutrients in the land
instead of flowing into ditches, rivers, and lakes.
Most of that wouldn’t be here today without the grassroots
network of like-minded farmers that make up the districts.
“What do they say? ‘An ounce of prevention is worth a
pound of cure,’” said Ryan Canart, general manager of the >>
Photo Courtesy of Swan Lake Watershed District
One of two water retention sites being completed this year in the Swan Lake
Watershed District. This site, a few miles north of Duck Mountain Provincial
Forest, will reduce flooding and protect vulnerable roadways downstream.
Manitoba Farmers’ Voice § Summer 2020 § 31