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The Manitoba Habitat Conservancy (MHC) is celebrating a partnership that truly demonstrates the benefits of farm to table connections, and how those can lead to improved environmental outcomes.
It started with a $72,300 contribution from Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries (MBLL) to the Conservancy's Grassland Stewardship Agreements project. That helped cover the infrastructure costs of several miles of fencing for Souris area Ritchie Bison Owner-Operators Jim and Bridie Ritchie and neighbour Brian Powell.
MHC C.E.O. Stephen Carlyle noted MBLL first approached the organization a number of years ago regarding some craft beer initiatives they had developed, and since that time the two kept in touch.
"We just had a meeting on what we were up to, and describing some new programming around carbon, and carbon is pretty popular these days, getting a lot of attention," he explained. "So Liquor and Lotteries found a sort of nexus for us, and opportunity to work together mitigating carbon impacts."
Thanks to the funding from MBLL, the collaboration of the Ritchie and Powell Grassland Stewardship Agreements with MHC will promote carbon sequestration, expand grazing capacity, and allow for sustainable growth of the Ritchie Bison farm while maintaining and enhancing the native grasslands and biodiversity on the landscape.
"It’s truly a grassroots project," added Carlyle. "By helping the Ritchies with fencing costs, we are supporting the rotational grazing of the bison. This allows areas of native grassland to rest and put down large root systems while the bison graze in other areas. These healthy root and plant systems, with the addition of manure from the bison themselves, really helps keep carbon in the ground that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere,"
Project helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions
"First and foremost, it keeps the carbon that's already in the ground in the ground," said Carlyle. "When you plow the fields, turn over that grass, it's like taking the top off of a pop bottle. That 'pfft', that's the carbon dioxide being released. That's what happens when when you plow up grassland as well, so all the the carbon that's stored in there, a lot of it gets released to the atmosphere. Secondly, the bison hooves punch the dead material, the litter, the dried grasses and things into the soil increasing the soil carbon."
And getting back to the farm to table nature of this project was the fact MBLL staff travelled to the Ritchie's farm to get an on the ground perspective of what was being done.
"We did a tour out there with them, so boots on the ground, and head chef Alain (Dumonceaux - Director, Food, Beverage and Events, MBLL) is very keen on doing a little feature menu for serving the Ritchie's bison at the casino, restaurants, and ultimately it's the calculated carbon emissions from the sales of their protein in their restaurants that this project is looking to offset."
To measure the impact of this project, MHC will be using a custom Outcome Assessment Tool developed in partnership with the International Institute for Sustainable Development. The tool will provide an estimate of the greenhouse gas reduction and other environmental benefits.
What's next?
Reflecting on the future of their ranch, Bridie shared in a news release, "James and I asked ourselves, ‘How can we leave this farm and land better than we found it for the next generation of farmers?’ The ‘Keep Grazing’ Grassland Stewardship Agreements program from MHC provided an opportunity to do just that. "
Meanwhile, Carlyle noted the MHC is looking forward to creatively collaborate with other corporations and groups on wildlife conservation and greenhouse gas emission reduction projects.
"This is just one example of the many projects that Manitoba Habitat Conservancy has been doing over the years," he said. "A lot of the work, if not all the work, the Conservancy is doing is partnership based. We can't do this alone. By far our biggest partners are Manitoba land owners. We're working on their land, helping them achieve their goals and finding where we can meet in terms of our wildlife habitat and fish goals, and private land owners goals for conservation of their lands."
You can learn more about this Grassland Stewardship project and other Manitoba Habitat Conservancy initiatives, here.
You can listen to the entire interview with Stephen Carlyle, below.