Manitoba farmers build resilience against climate change

One month into summer, Manitoba farmers have already faced floods, dust storms and tornadoes.

Farmer-led non-profit Alternative Land Use Services brought 100 people from across Canada to Steinbach last week. It showed off the work ALUS has done to keep the damage done by extreme weather, made more common by climate change, to a minimum.

"The whole premise of ALUS to begin with was that farmers are the best stewards of the land, and that they could meet the needs of society and the government for delivering conservation projects on private land," CEO Jordan Sinclair said.

She was on a tour of four farms in southeast Manitoba as part of the ALUS National Field Conference on Wednesday and Thursday.

One of those farms was Marsh River Farms, east of Morris in the rural municipality of Montcalm.

Owner Harold Janzen had just celebrated 100 years of his family farm and said he had never seen anything like the May windstorm that rained silty dust onto his land and clogged the ditches.

He is also a Montcalm councillor. Montcalm and several neighbouring municipalities in the Red River Valley declared local states of emergency when the dust turned to mud in drains.

"Many people lost tons and tons of topsoil. ALUS has programming that will help you, whether it's through wind or water…. It helps preserve your biggest ingredient to farming — your land," Janzen said before hopping on his tractor to pull a trailer full of guests.

ALUS decided to bring its national conference to Manitoba because this is the province where it all started with a single farm 20 years ago.

The organization now works with 2,400 farms in six provinces.

Sinclair said a farmer-led approach has helped farmers buy into the concept.

"When a farmer's sitting at the coffee shop talking to their buddies, they see that new wetland or riparian area, and they'll say, 'What are you doing over there?' …. When they see a solution that works, they're ready to sign up and do the same thing," she said.

Janzen agrees farmers are keen to build shelter belts and water retention ponds, or plant native grasses along creeks and in cow pastures, when they learn how it works.

The focus is building protection on less productive land, which makes the better land more profitable.

"You're not giving up your land. You're actually preserving your land. You're making it healthier," Janzen said.

He discovered ALUS through its local partner, the Seine Rat Roseau Watershed District.

It is the same way farmer Royden Loewen found out he could have a shelter belt of native trees planted for about 1½ kilometres along a drainage ditch to block wind and hold onto the soil.

It has since turned into its own ecosystem south of Steinbach.

Butterflies and other insects fluttered and buzzed by as the tour guests walked through Loewen's field.

He said waterfowl and other critters make their home on his Millview Grain farm, and bear tracks are a regular sight.

The return of nature right in the middle of his field means more to Loewen than just the extra hardiness.

"We love watching the flowers and the various grasses take off. We think we've created a bit of a paradise here," he said.