Working Ranchlands, Water, and Wildlife
SALTS was founded by ranchers who wanted a powerful, voluntary tool to keep land in ranching in the face of other land use pressures.
SALTS’ work with landowners strengthens Alberta’s economy by safeguarding vital and irreplaceable natural assets - grasslands, wetlands, and rivers - that are crucial for our clean water, food production, tourism, hunting, and fishing.
These natural assets have real and significant economic value that is often overlooked in land use decisions that fragment the landscape.
As Alberta's population continues to grow we will need more water, food production, tourism, and recreation that our remaining intact, natural landscapes provide.
Working Ranchlands
Ranching is a big part of southern Alberta’s economy and heritage. However, population growth and commodity price fluctuations cause continual pressure to see our prime grazing lands converted to non-grazing land uses. This is leading to fewer family-owned ranches. Conservation easements, and the financial and tax benefits they can provide, help keep land in ranching and in families rather than for example housing developments or recreational properties. They also help to keep land in larger, unfragmented blocks by reducing the pressure for landowners to continually sell off small pieces. Larger blocks of land are more economic for ranching than areas with numerous smaller parcels interspersed with landowners who are not ranching.
Water
Alberta’s grasslands, especially in the foothills, act as a critical sponge and filter that help to store and clean the water for everyone downstream. The more we fragment our watersheds with development, the faster and dirtier the water runs downstream. Most of SALTS conservation easements conserve land in important areas of the Bow and Oldman watersheds upstream of Calgary and Lethbridge. In partnership with our landowners, SALTS has conserved hundreds of wetlands, hundreds of kilometres of streams, and dozens of kilometres of riverbanks and adjacent uplands along major rivers like the Oldman, Crowsnest, Castle, and Waterton Rivers. While we struggle to put an economic value on these watershed services, there is no doubt that over the long-term protecting our watersheds will save tens if not hundreds of millions for communities downstream in water treatment costs and the impacts of flood and drought.
Wildlife
Much of southern Alberta’s most important wildlife habitat is on the private land that remains as grasslands and intact river valleys. More than half of the most critical winter range in southern Alberta for deer, elk and moose is on private land. SALTS has conserved approximately 40,000 acres of this critical winter range. The few remaining corridors for wildlife to cross Hwy 3 are mostly on private land. SALTS has conserved over 8,000 acres within these corridors. Lastly, long stretches of our most prized fishing rivers and the creeks that provide the spawning grounds for those rivers, run through private land. SALTS has conserved dozens of kilometers of river valleys along our most prized fishing rivers as well as their tributaries, including the Oldman, Crowsnest, Castle, and Bow Rivers.
Sustainable Ranch Operations
Perpetual conservation easements are one of the few tools available to help ranchers mitigate capital gains tax and support estate planning. This ensures that the next generation of ranchers can continue building a family legacy. Landowners continue to own their land and manage their operations.
Leave a Legacy
Open spaces, clean water, wildlife habitat, and sustainable beef production.
Supporting Ranching Communities and Ecosystems
Conservation easements directly benefit ranching communities, promote healthy ecosystems, and preserve the rich cultural heritage of our western landscapes.
