Family Farming Feature

Within the beautiful farmland of Parkland County, Carla Rhyant and her son Rhys operate Rhyant Rock Farms. They raise heritage breeds of sheep, pigs and chickens. Carla’s passion for sustainable livestock and expanding the genetics of rare breeds has enabled her to offer butcher lambs, breeding stock lambs and Icelandic chicken eggs to other producers.

As a conservationist, when Carla discovered the ALUS program, she instinctively knew that her farm could benefit from a partnership. She was already aware of the sensitive low-lying portions of land on her property and knew that excluding them from her livestock at key points during the growing season could help to maximize the ecosystem services they could produce. With the added benefit of cost sharing with ALUS, she decided to install fencing around three different wetlands on her property. By controlling the disturbance within the fenced areas, she is able to create drought resilience, promote revegetation in bare areas and protect vital wetland habitat.

“Weather is changing all the time, from extreme drought to the other extreme of high amounts of moisture. The nice thing about having the wetlands fenced is that it creates more of a balance to combat weather factors,” says Carla. When conditions are wet in spring and summer, she can offer the waterfowl and shorebirds an important nesting habitat while allowing plants to regenerate. In the winter, the wetland area transitions to a grazing area — helping feed livestock and reducing the fire load that may have accumulated.

ALUS is a non-profit program that has been offered in Parkland County since 2012 to help agricultural producers develop sustainable nature-based solutions on their land, resulting in the production of ecosystem services.

The ALUS program is implemented across Canada in participating communities and continuously focuses awareness efforts towards helping farmers and ranchers with projects that enhance wetlands, create watering systems for livestock, aid with re-forestation, build shelterbelts, enhance habitat for wildlife and more! When a potential project area is identified, a producer can partner with ALUS to share both the cost of materials and the labour required for installation. Producers are also provided with annual payments based on landscape type of what the area would have previously been used for.

Chad Ritter, Parkland County’s ALUS Coordinator and proud local farmer, is excited to work with producers like Carla who understand the impact that this program can have not only in the present, but for future generations. The program follows core principles to ensure projects are targeted, accountable and science-based.

“I feel very fortunate to be able to work for Parkland County as their ALUS Coordinator. As a producer myself, I find it very rewarding being able to help farmers and ranchers benefit both the environment and their agricultural operation by the implementation of ALUS projects,” says Chad. “Through working with ALUS participants like Carla, I know it is possible to make a positive difference with nature-based solutions and enhance the ecosystem services, providing benefits to the entire community.”

If you’re a farmer or rancher in Parkland County and are interested in implementing nature-based solution projects into your operation, please contact Parkland County’s ALUS Coordinator Chad Ritter at 780-968-8888 ext. 8286 or chad.ritter@parklandcounty.com.