THE GREAT SAND HILLS

	- Photo by Branimir Gjetvaj

The Great Sand Hills (GSH) lie just south of the South Saskatchewan River and just east of the Alberta border. They cover about 1,900 square kilometres (750 square miles) of sand dunes grasslands, short hills, saline lakes, pebble plains, cotton wood groves and aspen bluffs. Individual dunes rise to more than 15 metres (50 feet), second in Canada only to the Athabasca Sand Dunes in the fart north of Saskatchewan. Most of the Great Sand Hills landscape has been settled and utilized for ranching over the last hundred years, but the majority of land remains in provincial ownership.

The Great Sand Hills are the largest remaining contiguous native prairie area in Saskatchewan. It is a home to a wide spectrum of native plants and animals, including species at risk. To put it in historical perspective, Saskatchewan had about 24 million ha of intact prairie ecosystems. Today, only 960,000 ha of that is considered to be in good ecological condition - that's about four percent. The Great Sand Hills are a significant part of the remaining four percent.

- Photo by Branimir Gjetvaj

Today, the only large-scale ongoing threat to the ecological integrity of the Great Sand Hills, and indeed much of our remaining native grasslands, is the oil and gas industry. The absolute footprint of this industry seems small with roughly five to ten percent of the land being directly impacted by well pads, access roads, pipelines, compressor stations, and other infrastructure. But the issue is not so much this direct impact, as it is the diffuse and universal nature of the development. Over time, the whole of the area becomes covered with a spider web of roads, pipelines, power lines, and fencing that cut the prairie up into innumerable little enclaves, each subject to regular traffic, noise, weed introduction, gas leaks, and lighting. It is an insidious insult on a sensitive ecosystem, and it can down grade ecological functions over time as surely as if it consumed the prairie directly.

State of Protection
After several years of controversy about protection in the Sand Hills, in Spring 2004, the Saskatchewan government announced that four small areas will be protected (total area: ). A larger, contiguous area (187,000 hectares) that had been protected, would no longer be protected.

This is unfortunate, but the good news is, the government has promised an environmental review of the Great Sand Hill's ecosystem. CPAWS favours protection of the continuous 187,000 hectares, as it was identified in the 1998 Planning Commission Plan. We look forward to a meaningful environmental study that will determine the protection needs for this fragile and important landscape. We hope to have voice in the implementation and outcome of this study.

LEARN MORE:

About the Prairie Saskatchewan's prairie is part of a huge continental ecosystem.

About the Prairie Quick Facts Learn about the largest grassland region in Canada.

Great Sand Hills Quick Facts Read about the history of protection.