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THE GREAT SAND HILLS
Quick Facts
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The Great Sand Hills occupy 1900 square kilometers (190,000 ha) in southwestern Saskatchewan. |
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The fragile native grasslands and open sand dunes of the Great Sand Hills have been identified by many as an important place to protect. Interest in protection crystallized after the Sand Hills were identified as nationally significant ecological landscapes in the 1960s and 1970s by the International Biological Program (IBP) in 1969, a provincial land use study in 1977, Parks Canada in 1985 (as one of five Natural Sites of Canadian Significance in Saskatchewan), the Provincial Parks System Plan of 1990 (as a candidate Natural Environment Park), and provincial identification in 1992 of five areas as candidate Ecological Reserves.
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Ranching has been going on in the area for about a century, and although it does impact the land, it also supplies a critical element of grassland ecology that would otherwise go missing - large herbivore animals. The prairie grasslands evolved over tens of thousands of years under three major natural forces: a severe mid-continental climate, annual random grass fires caused by lightning and later by humans, and over 50 million bison. There were lots of other grazers too, from grasshoppers to ground squirrels and pronghorns. But without the huge impact of the bison, the prairies would be a different place. In the absence of bison, cattle fill a similar niche, and with well managed grazing on native grass, as has been done by some four generations of ranchers in the Great Sand Hills, the Great Sand Hills would not be so great anymore.
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| History of Protection in the Great Sand Hills (GSH) |
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Ranching: The Great Sand Hills (GSH) area is, and has been, both a living landscape and a working landscape. Ranchers in the area have spent generations on the land, and have learned to live in harmony with the land that feeds their cattle and provides a wholesome life for their families.
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Oil and Gas: The Sand Hills came under intense development pressure from the natural gas industry in the late 1980s. Oil and gas is the only large-scale ongoing threat to the ecological integrity of the Sand Hills. Local gas is shallow, sweet, adjacent to other developed fields, and lies along a major trans-Canada pipeline corridor. It is easy money, high profit, low risk investment. The trouble is, it spells the end of the contiguous native grasslands
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Great Sand Hills Land Use Strategy: In 1991 the Province released a Great Sand Hills Land Use Strategy. This document proposed the protection of only 8,741 hectares out of the 191,100 ha (4.6%) in the contiguous native prairie, in three small widely separated areas. The government was promising to protect only the areas of open blowing sand dunes, and not the rest of the many prairie habitats in the hills. After the publication of the Great Sand Hills Land Use Strategy in 1991, some of its recommendations were brought into effect.
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Great Sand Hills Planning District and a Joint Planning Commission: Later in the 1990s, ranchers in the GSH identified the need for greater protection in the area, and they lead a process for creation of a unique plan to accomplish protection and sustainable land use. Four rural municipalities (RMs) in the GSH formed the Great Sand Hills Planning District and a joint Planning Commission under provisions of the Planning and Development Act. The four RMs include Piapot , Pittville , Fox Valley and Clinworth.
Over several years, the Joint Planning Commission worked with government, industry, environmental groups and local people to come up with a better plan. In 1998, a Joint Development Plan and joint zoning bylaws were brought into place by all four RMs, with the approval of the Province. The new zoning system created two zones of environmentally sensitive lands plus a third zone for most land uses (called agriculture reserves). Protection was at two levels:
- Environmentally Sensitive 1 (ES1) which included 455 sections (117,845 ha) of lands protected from oil and gas development, as well as other potentially detrimental uses, and;
- Environmentally Sensitive 2 (ES2), that included 306 sections (79,254 ha) of land surrounding the ES1, and that could be developed for oil and gas with special environmental provisions.
The Joint Development Plan was a marvelous achievement, a deal dreamed up and forged by local people with partners in all sectors of society.
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Proposal to Rezone Protected Lands: In 200?, in response to requests by the oil and gas industry, the RM of Piapot proposed re-zoning most of the protected ES1 lands within their municipality to ES2 (approximately 75 Sections) so that gas development could proceed. Their plan also proposed a rezoning of approximately 100 Sections of ES2 lands to Agricultural Reserve (AR), which would be open to most land uses. This proposal called for removal of about one-quarter of the ES1 lands from protection in the Great Sand Hills. It also started a general movement towards other requests for re-zonings in the other Great Sand Hills municipalities.
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Review of the 1991 Land Use Strategy: As a result of the Piapot re-zoning requests, the Province faced enormous public pressure to protect the Great Sand Hills. After four attempts by Pipaot to rezone, the Province formed a committee to review the 1991 Great Sand Hills Land Use Strategy. This review committee did not have any representatives from environmental organizations. It met mainly in secret.
In May and June of 2003, public meetings were held as a result of intense pressure to open the review up to the people of the Great Sand Hills area and Saskatchewan. CPAWS and others made several presentations on the ecological importance and values of the Great Sand Hills and the need to maintain the existing protective land use designations. The government received hundreds of letters from the public, calling for meaningful protection.
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Announcement of new Protected Areas: In Fall of 2004, the government announced that four small areas would be protected in the Great Sand Hills. The larger contiguous areas that had been protected under the 1998 Planning Commission Plan would no longer be protected. In addition, the government committed to conducting an environmental review of the Sand Hills ecosystem.
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LEARN MORE:
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| About the Prairie |
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| Saskatchewan's prairie is part of a huge continental ecosystem. |
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| About the Prairie Quick Facts |
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| Learn about the largest grassland region in Canada. |
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| Great Sand Hills |
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| Read about the largest remaining contiguous native prairie area in Saskatchewan |
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