AB
Canada
Conservation begins at home: Understanding personal, commercial, and conservation values of landowner stewardship on the family farm
Presented by Robb Stavne, Sora Ecological Consulting
Growing up as a farm kid in central Alberta exposed me to many interests related to raising cattle and life on the family farm. Exploring and enjoying the willow thickets, aspen stands and wetlands, observing and learning to identify wildlife led me to a career in wildlife ecology, punctuated by a Master’s thesis exploring impacts of cattle grazing on wetland bird communities. It also led me to eventually buy a small parcel of land near Peace River where I raise 75 head of cattle, and operate a wildlife consulting company. My roots to the farm life and interest in promoting wildlife interests on a working landscape lead me to find and enhance a small 30 acre parcel of wetland and associated upland habitat on my own property, with activities initiating in 2016. My talk will speak to the landuse history of my farm, and the state it came to be in when I purchased it and started to produce cattle. It will include my path of establishing key partnerships in the local community as well as the conservation community to help implement strategies to produce a small but effective patch of habitat that increases in wildlife value each year.