Action Alerts

A Chance to Make a Difference: Please Provide Input to the Province’s Land-use Framework

Deadline for comments is June 15, 2007

Dear CPAWS supporters, and friends of wild things and wild places in Alberta,

As citizens concerned about the environment, it is difficult not to be distressed about the amount of activity occurring on Alberta’s landscapes. Today, with Alberta’s economy booming and the population growing, our land base faces more pressure than ever from the competing uses of oil and gas exploration, industrial development, residential expansion, forestry, mining, and off-highway vehicles. Taken together, the effects of these activities accumulate into a disturbing picture that threaten our open spaces, wildlife and water resources.

While protected areas in Alberta have some safety from these mounting pressures, most of the Alberta’s public lands remain unprotected. These unsecured public lands and many large, well-stewarded private lands help secure Alberta’s biodiversity, open landscapes and water resources. Without careful management, however, these lands continue to be overwhelmed by our uncoordinated multiple-use approach.

Alberta’s Land-Use Framework Initiative – Potentially a Helpful Change

As you may have heard, the Alberta Government continues with its Land-use Framework initiative (LUF for short). The Land-Use Framework is the government’s attempt to reshape Alberta’s various land policies to address “unprecedented pressure on our natural resources and environment … To ensure our children and grandchildren benefit as much from the land as we do today, we need to make sure we manage the land, and all the activity on and below it, in a responsible way.”

The Land-use Framework’s goals are as broad as these statements. Accordingly, the initiative has the potential to drift with little meaningful impact if it is not better defined. To the government’s credit it has asked Albertans to give their advice in shaping this effort.

Public Input

The provincial government has asked for input in two ways. Thus far they have invited participation with a variety of sectoral expertise – CPAWS and other ENGOs have been invited to participate in various roundtables. We and others, including many landowners groups are pushing to maximize the effectiveness of the LUF process through our efforts, but there’s room for you to help too.

The Need for Your Input

Now, the Province is inviting the general public to offer its input through the internet and public forums. Your effort here has the potential to make a big difference for wildlife, water and open spaces.

What you can do:

• Fill out the Government’s Land-use Framework Workbook.
  The government has compiled a resource describing the challenges facing Alberta’s landscapes: Understanding Land Use in Alberta (Acrobat [PDF] file) that does a relatively respectable job of identifying many of the challenges Alberta faces.

What you can say / ask for:

Many of the things you’ll want to say to stand up for wildlife, water and open spaces are very basic, but here are some general principles you can apply to help you with the LUF workbook:

1. Tell government you want a Land-use Framework that enacts effective land use planning with management thresholds that set limits on the human footprint we will make on Alberta’s public lands.
2. Tell the government these management thresholds need to respect the needs of wildlife and healthy watersheds, groundwater and riparian areas.
3. Tell the government that Protected Areas are a valuable land use tool, and that new protected areas should be created for areas too sensitive for industrial activity.
4. Tell the government you want your input listened too and implemented through legislation, not put on shelf like previous consultation efforts, or limited to policy with flexibility for industrial exemptions.
5. Tell the government that all government departments should be bound by meaningful land-use planning – that there should be no special passes for departments like Energy to opt out; that government silos are not acceptable when it comes to land use.

Pat Yourself on the Back!

Your efforts here ensure the government clearly hears that it must implement meaningful land use planning help future Albertans to enjoy clean water, open spaces and abundant wildlife.

Deadline for comments is June 15, 2007

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