Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
Farmers learned a lot from the real-world whiplashing experiment you could call “Farming in 2021-22.” “Make sure your dugouts are deep enough,” said Ridgeville, Man., farmer Neil Claringbould, when asked what he learned from the brutal drought of 2021, as he showed other farmers and researchers one of his new water retention dams on a stream on his land. How about 2022? “We weren’t short of grass.”
The Saskatchewan government is accusing federal government employees of trespassing when taking water samples in Saskatchewan. The allegation prompted a public letter from Saskatchewan's minister responsible for water security to his counterpart in Ottawa. On Saturday, Saskatchewan's cabinet approved an order in council tweaking the province's trespassing laws, the Trespass to Property Act 2022, "to add a new section regarding the Act and state that 'person' includes the Crown in right of Canada."
Weather modeling data indicates that parts of central and northern Saskatchewan could see wetter than normal conditions between December and March, and near normal precipitation for the rest of Saskatchewan. Due to minimal runoff in spring 2021 followed by what was generally a hot and dry summer, most agricultural areas of the province are currently experiencing drier than normal moisture conditions. Conditions are driest starting in the central area of the province around Saskatoon and extending in a south westerly direction toward Rosetown, down through Leader and then to the Maple Creek area.
Near Oak Point, Man., rancher Tom Johnson waters his cattle using makeshift troughs made out of old tractor tires. "They probably just drank these dry this morning," he said. The dugouts his 120 head of cattle usually get water from are nearly dry. His cattle also have access to Lake Manitoba, but its level is so low, the water is too far away. So twice a day — morning and night — he hauls water from two wells.
This summer, testing water might become a necessity for livestock producers. Hundreds of dugouts across the eastern Prairies are half-full of water, or nearly empty, because of minimal snowfall this winter. When dugouts and other water sources are low, water quality usually drops. “If they (producers) are looking at lower levels… that can sneak up on someone,” said Jenay Werle, livestock and feed specialist with Saskatchewan’s ministry of agriculture in Yorkton. “There are health implications to poor water. It can show it as reproductive failure or other nutritional issues.”
