Conservation projects receive funds

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This article was published 22/04/2023 (1288 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation has approved more than $10 million in funding for conservation organizations across Manitoba, including several Westman non-profits looking to improve the environment and tackle climate change.

The Souris River and Assiniboine West water districts are among others in the province that have been approved to receive up to $7.75 million, with an additional $2.79 million in new grants to support 19 projects. The endowments, made through the province of Manitoba, will benefit all Manitobans, a press release sent out by Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation said.

A large portion of the funding for the Souris River Watershed District will go toward incentive payments to landowners who enter into agreements with the district to set aside portions of their land for conservation. Landowners enter into agreement with the watershed district for 10 years and receive payment on an annual basis. Another program the district oversees is securing temporary wetlands in cultivated acres.

“It’s just water that appears, and when the frost is out of the ground, it recedes, but they’re important for waterfowl and flood mitigation as well,” Dean Brooker, the watershed district’s general manager, told the Sun.

Ducks Unlimited Canada, a non-profit organization that has been conserving wetlands and other natural spaces for waterfowl and wildlife for more than 80 years, is receiving $500,000 to conserve and restore wetland and grassland habitats across the province.

DUC will use the money in a similar way to the Souris River Watershed District, working with producers to help convert some of their land to forage or to restore wetlands on their properties.

“That really does a lot for waterfowl, but there’s a lot of societal benefits for carbon sequestration, flood mitigation and biodiversity, so it’s a real win for us,” Ken Gross, head of DUC’s Manitoba conservation programs, said.

Carbon sequestration refers to the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide, which is a method of reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in order to lower the rates of global climate change.

Other groups that operate in Westman that received funding include $400,000 to Manitoba Beef Producers to support projects that help cattle producers conserve grasslands and enhance habitat for threatened and endangered birds and $2.2 million to the Assiniboine West Watershed District to conserve wetlands by focusing on improving water quality and building flood and drought resiliency. The Sun contacted both organizations but did not receive a reply.

Funding to support the Westman projects, and initiatives in other parts of the province, comes from three endowments made to the Winnipeg Foundation, a registered charity dedicated to social improvement in Manitoba, between 2018 and 2020. The money was put into the GROW and Conservation Trusts, which are dedicated to land, water and wildlife conservation.

The projects are also supported by endowments made by the province. The total grants approved this year from the trusts is $10.36 million. That amount is being matched by $16.9 million in funds and services by the various groups that received the funding, resulting in $27.26 million of conservation activity in Manitoba, MHHC said.

“These investments in nature-based solutions provide new opportunities to deliver on the ground action to improve wildlife, water and soil conservation across the province,” MHHC chief executive officer Stephen Carlyle said in the release.

Ensuring conservation groups have access to the funding they need is what the MHHC is all about, Megan Thompson, the organizations’ trust programs manager, told the Sun.

“We feel very lucky to be able to administer these funds,” she said. “It’s supporting a lot of great work that’s being done in the landscape here.”

The trusts and the funding they deliver are building a legacy that will benefit all Manitobans, said Environment and Climate Change Minister Kelvin Klein.

“The funds are invested in local projects that conserve and enhance natural infrastructure,” he said.

Since the inception of the trust funding in 2019, a total of $38.6 million has been committed to 182 conservation projects delivered by 47 groups across the province.

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