Saskatchewan has identified the first 10 federal community pastures to be transferred to the province which will then lease them out. The province says the pastures were selected based on proposals, consultations and interest from people who use the land to graze cattle. Ranchers are to take over operating the 10 pastures in 2014. The province and Ottawa are working on a plan to ensure federal staff continue to manage the pastures through next year's grazing season.
Ottawa announced earlier this year that it was walking away from 900,000 hectares of community pastures on the Prairies. Agriculture Canada also announced that one pasture in Alberta, located at CFB Suffield, is to be closed in 2014 with the land going back to the defence department. The Community Pasture Program was created in the 1930s to reclaim land that was badly eroded during the Prairie drought. It includes 61 community pastures in Saskatchewan and 24 in Manitoba. There were just two in Alberta, both at CFB Suffield in the southwest corner of the province.
