With many producers in Western Canada getting ready for spring seeding and focusing on their seeded acres, it can be easy to overlook those areas that aren’t farmed. Native areas such as shelterbelts, road allowances, and wetlands provide water and nutrient capture for your crop and are key homes for animals and insects that not only benefit agriculture, but the ecosystem as a whole. Dr. Shathi Akhter, research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, talks about the importance of these areas not just from an environmental standpoint, but from an agriculture one as well.
“Many of us do not focus on those areas because that's not where we are growing the crops but those are important because although we are not directly growing crops, they provide some indirect contribution. By removing those areas, we are exposing the lands again to challenges like soil erosion, but (these areas) can also help increase yields by nearly 10-12% in the affected area.”
Shelterbelts, wetlands, and road allowances allow for the blocking of wind, which can whip away the topsoil and water from your fields. As well, these areas can capture nutrients and carbon material for crops to use and with the winter snow beginning to melt, can hold run-off from going directly to waterbodies and instead keeping it in the field for the crop to use. Dr. Akhter notes that these areas, particularly in the southern portions of Western Canada, are going away at an alarming rate.
“In Saskatchewan, we've lost pretty close to 50% of the wetland that we would have in the past, say 50-60 years ago. It’s even more severe in Manitoba, around the Red River Valley we’ve lost almost 90% and by losing those wetlands and shelterbelts, we are actually making our land more vulnerable.”
This causes producers to be stuck in a hard place. One, you want to remove the shelterbelts and wetlands to not only have more access to farmable land for economic purposes but also for ease of operation such as not driving around headlands. At the same time, you don’t want to remove these natural habitats that provide water and nutrient capture for crops, and are also ecosystems and homes to animals, insects, and plants that make up our beautiful country.
At the end of the day, what producers decide to do with their land is their choice, as long as it’s law-abiding. However, being aware of the losses that come from removing these natural habitats can maybe give a different perspective on how agriculture and the environment work together and why what isn’t farmed matters.