After a frank presentation about the state of drought in the municipality, Kneehill County councillors unanimously passed a motion to declare a state of agricultural emergency. The decision was made at the July 25 regular meeting of council.
Councillors heard a detailed report on the state of Kneehill County agriculture from Fallon Sherlock, acting manager of parks and agriculture services. Her recommendation was to declare a state of agricultural emergency.
Sherlock noted staff were asked to compare the situation to the Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) checklist for such a disaster and it became clear by listening to Sherlock’s presentation Kneehill County’s situation met all the requirements.
“The 2023 season has been challenging with the season starting off unseasonably early and warm with very little snowpack to feed into soil moisture reserves,” stated Sherlock’s report.
“This, with a lack of the typical seasonal rain in spring and early summer means vegetation has had very little moisture to aid in germination and growth.
“Crops are maturing earlier than usual with all crops in the central region rated at 31.9 per cent in good to excellent condition compared to a five-year average of 78 per cent.
“Moisture conditions have been severely dry across the county with all of the county experiencing less than one in 100-year dry conditions according to provincial soil moisture data.
“Declaring municipal agricultural disasters may serve as indicators for province-wide declarations and can bring awareness to challenges facing agriculture in specific areas of the provincial,” the report added.
Councillors also examined several maps provided by the provincial government and which Sherlock stated she tried to update as late as possible to ensure councillors had up-to-date information.
Sherlock stated all crops in the central region of Alberta were drought-affected and it’s “severely dry across the county.”
As councillors examined the maps Sherlock stated the Alberta crop report information from Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC) as of June 27 showed crop quality ratings were down 41.1 per cent; pasture growth conditions had ratings of 23 per cent poor and 45 per cent fair; and regional surface moisture ratings were almost 60 per cent either poor or fair.
“Overall, looking at these two crop reports the crop rating did slightly go up, the pasture ratings continue to drop,” said Sherlock, adding that moisture levels also continue to drop.
Sherlock showed a provincial government map illustrating 365-day moisture tracking relative to long-term normals and Kneehill County is located in the driest to extremely low moisture category.
Another map showed drought’s impact on hay quality from June, which was rated severe to moderate in Kneehill and Sherlock noted there were low yields and early cuts but still some hay availability.
She displayed a map of drought’s impact on range/pasture which was rated as severe. Another map of drought’s impact on feed availability was rated moderate.
The last map Sherlock showed was surface moisture supply which was rated as severe.
“As you may have noticed there are a few creeks that are very low,” said Sherlock, adding that Kneehill County is working to see if a release of water from Bigelow reservoir is possible.
During discussion Coun. Debbie Penner noted she’s had phone calls from ratepayers who were concerned about oil and gas companies pumping water from creeks. Coun. Laura Lee Machell-Cunningham noted she’d heard the same concerns.
It was stated at the meeting Alberta Environment maintains a toll-free complaint number for concerns like this, and it’s completely anonymous.
Coun. Ken King stated he’d heard from “boots on the ground” the drought doesn’t appear to be getting any better.
“I’d say our conditions have gotten much worse both on the crop side and the livestock and pasture side,” said King. “More and more guys are looking to have crops written off for feed sources.” But King noted some of the crops may not have any feed value at all.
“I think we are sitting at a point where we need to acknowledge the reality of the ag situation out there and we need to move forward and state that we too have a problem here and we need to acknowledge that formally,” added King.
Councillors unanimously passed a resolution to declare an agricultural emergency in Kneehill County.
It was noted, as of July 25, 11 municipalities in Alberta had declared agricultural emergencies or disasters.
Stu Salkeld
Local Journalism Initiative reporter
ECA Review
