Foothills County latest to declare agricultural disaster as drought grips areas of Alberta
CBC
A lack of early season moisture, unseasonably high temperatures and varying winter snowpack have led to poor growing conditions throughout Foothills County, south of Calgary, prompting the municipal district on Wednesday to declare a municipal agricultural disaster.
"Once you get down south of Blackie, south of High River, really, we're looking at a repeat of 2021, when we had that severe drought down there," said Caleb Scott, Foothills County's manager of agricultural services.
Two years ago, multiple provincial municipalities declared disasters.
In Foothills County this year, 50 to 90 per cent of annual crops and perennial forage stands have been affected, with eastern areas receiving less than 35 per cent of their average annual rainfall, the county says. Some areas have seen less than two inches (50 mm) to date.
Municipal agricultural disasters don't automatically trigger funding or program responses but are used to signal to provincial and federal governments, as well as the public, that conditions facing farmers have grown dire.
Foothills County's declaration follows several around the province, including the County of Stettler and the County of Paintearth.
Vulcan County also has declared.
Kelly Malmberg, director of agriculture with Vulcan County, said soil moisture reserves are very low this year. There was enough moisture to get seeded in the county, but due to the dry, prolonged heat, they ran out of moisture.
That will mean yield loss this year, with less grain production, and cattle producers who will struggle to find sufficient feed without relying on other areas of the province.
"I'd say, the last five, six years, with the exception of 2022, we are going through a pretty serious drought. We haven't had a lot of our typical winters where we get a fair amount of snow," he said.
"I was hoping this winter, we saw a fair bit of moisture, and I thought we were coming out of this drought. But obviously not. We're right smack dab in the middle of it right now."
Significant rains did fall on Alberta on a wide area of the province starting on June 13. It ranged from roughly Calgary in the south to the southern portions of the Peace Region in the north, according the provincial government's most recent moisture situation report.
Much of the northwest region was inundated with rain, while the northern Peace Region, as well as parts of the southern region and eastern portions of the central region, received little to no rain and remain in immediate need for moisture, the report reads.
The province says it's constantly monitoring crop and water supply conditions as a top priority.
It's small things, like a cigarette or a pair of clean socks, Rachel Montour says, that can go a long way to make you feel more human when you’re out on the street.
Several dozen members of Windsor's Chaldean community and its supporters celebrated in the cold at the corner of Marentette Avenue and Wyandotte Street East Friday, as city officials gave a secondary name to the section of Marentette between Wyandotte and Tuscarora Street: Chaldean Way.
Allison Hill says she tries to make people’s experience at the Thunder Bay Food Bank “as pleasant as possible.”
Two years after a man went missing in Scarborough, Toronto police are renewing the investigation in hopes that the public will bring forward more information.
A musical instrument created in Guelph, Ont., has been thrust onto the international stage — or rather, screen.
More than 1,000 Maritime Electric customers are without power after high winds blew across the Island Friday night into Saturday.
The Supreme Court of Canada is deliberating a case that could shape the way sentences are handed down in cases where both the offender and victim are Indigenous, which some Nunavut lawyers say could have ramifications for the Inuit-majority territory.
A man barricaded in a former church in Welland, Ont., was taken into custody early Saturday, nearly 24 hours into a standoff that began over a fence dispute.
Peel police are investigating after a Friday night shooting in Mississauga left one person dead, police said.
Another busy construction season has come to an end in London, and the city is already looking ahead to next spring when a slew of new projects are expected to begin.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has begun to lay out publicly what he sees as boundaries when dealing with China, as his government wades into a new relationship with the economic giant.
Ferry crossings are cancelled and over a thousand households are left without power Saturday morning, due to high winds and severe weather conditions.
Tens of thousands of Nova Scotia Power customers are waking up without power on Saturday morning after high winds and rain hit the province on Friday night.