By Bruce MacLeod
The entire Horsefly River Roundtable meeting March 17 was devoted to Lee Heskith’s presentation on the Farmland — Riparian Interface Stewardship program, or FRISP.
More than 30 ranchers and farmers were in attendance.
Heskith gave a very educational talk and a PowerPoint presentation with some stunning examples of recovered riparian areas and problems solved through common sense and compromise, and distributed some excellent literature and information.
The first thing Heskith did was establish how long the folk attending the meeting had lived where they are now, and how many people planned on moving in the near future.
This quickly found common ground in the fact that everyone in the room including himself were in it for the long haul, and that working with their land to establish the most productive means of managing the environment we have control of in the best possible manner is a “win-win” situation for both man, beast, and nature. I spoke with a couple of attendees after the meeting to see if they got anything from the meeting. Unfortunately, they both felt they did not. However, that was only because Heskith was speaking to problems they had already overcome, or were not currently facing.
At a debriefing later at the local pub, there was general enthusiasm from the majority of land owners who felt they had learned a great deal of useful information they could implement on their property.
As a roundtable member, I am extremely encouraged that organizations like the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association and Ducks Unlimited take such a personal interest in riparian oversight and management, and feel both organizations have much to offer. Their interests reflect many of the same views expressed by the Horsefly River Roundtable.
Their participation is good news for our local environment and helps create a great place to raise children.
A key to obtaining financial aid to save your land from erosion or other damage is to have an environmental farm management plan, and know where your groundwater resources lie.
The FRISP program will run for two more years. It is confidential, free, and has funding from the Cattlemen’s Association and Ducks Unlimited. Before you access FRISP, you must do an environmental plan. This is done by Cathy Mumford from Environmental Farm Planning on a first-come, first-serve basis. Her telephone number is 250-394-4223 or e-mail cathy.hillside.ranch@gmail.com.
