ALUS | Parkland County

ALUS is a national charitable organization that provides expertise, resources, and direct financial support to farmers and ranchers to establish and steward nature-based solutions on their land. These solutions help sustain agriculture and fight climate change and biodiversity loss for the benefit of communities and future generations.

Types of ALUS projects include:

Creating watering systems for livestock
Creating fencing around water bodies/improving waterbody buffers
Enhancing/expanding riparian areas (wet areas surrounding waterbodies)
Restoring, creating or enhancing wetlands
Housing bird nesting structures or other habitat structures
Planting flowering plants for pollinator habitat
Reforesting or enhancing tree stands
Building multi-row shelterbelts of trees to protect fields from wind and snow
Planting native grasses for forage or habitat

These projects transform marginal agricultural lands or environmentally sensitive lands into ecosystems that help improve water quality, mitigate flooding, capture carbon, pollinate crops, prevent erosion and more.

ALUS Year in Review 2025

In 2025, ALUS Parkland established 5 new contracts with new and existing participants.

From these 5 new contracts, 32 new ALUS projects were established. Some of these projects include:

Offsite watering systems
Exclusion fencing,
Duck and bat boxes,
Wetland enhancement
Pasture pipeline

In total, 758.83 project acres were renewed in 2025, with 45 new acres being added over the year.

How does ALUS help agricultural producers?

ALUS helps agricultural producers in three ways:

1. Identifies stewardship opportunities

2. Shares infrastructure establishment costs (materials and labour) with the landowner/manager

- Ratio is typically 50/50
- Additional funding sources (e.g. Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership) can increase funding support for landowner/manager

3. Provides annual payments for production of ecosystem goods and services

- What are ecosystem goods and services? They are the benefits of a healthy and thriving ecosystem; cleaner water, cleaner air, habitat for wildlife, pollinators, reforestation, and much more.

How it works

Follow these six steps to start an ALUS project:

Expression of Interest

Complete the Expression of Interest form or call the ALUS Coordinator to discuss your farm.

Site Visit

The ALUS Coordinator will tour your project site and discuss project opportunities.

Project Proposal

The ALUS Coordinator will create a project proposal and present it to the Partnership Advisory Committee (PAC) made up of local farmers and technical experts. The PAC will review and approve, decline, or suggest changes to the proposal.

Environmental Farm Plan

The ALUS Coordinator will help you complete a short Environmental Farm Plan if needed. Not all projects require this step.

Term Agreement

Once PAC approves the project, you will sign a flexible 5 to 10 year term agreement with the option for renewal. You can opt out at any time and payments will be adjusted accordingly. This contract will contain project details and the payments (project establishment costs and annual payment) that ALUS covers.

Approval

Once the project is approved by the Parkland County ALUS PAC, it is ready for implementation. The producer can begin installation and the ALUS Coordinator will be available to provide support throughout the project.

Agricultural Producers

We're looking for agriculture producers who have properties that include:

Watercourses in fields/pastures
Steeply sloped crop lands
Low wet fields and wetlands
Highly erodible fields
Small fields that can't handle farming equipment efficiently