Why was margaret atwood traipsing around a cow pasture in the southwest corner of Saskatchewan on a hot, clear day in late June?

Atwood and her naturalist-writer husband, Graeme Gibson, were getting a first-hand look at one of 85 federally managed community pastures – 62 in Saskatchewan alone – that were being transferred back to the province and sold off or leased to livestock producers.

It’s all part of the Harper government’s plan, announced in April 2012, to get out of the business of riding herd on the country’s 2.2 million acres of community pastures, 1.6 million of them in Saskatchewan.

The couple had been invited to tour the Val Marie pasture by Public Pastures-Public Interest (PPPI), a loose-knit band of environmentalists, wildlife enthusiasts and farmers committed to stopping the divestiture of the community pastures and saving the 75-year-old federal Community Pasture program.

Why would Atwood want to save a program that was implemented in the 1930s by the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) to reclaim millions of acres of farmland devastated by drought, soil erosion and obsolete farming practices during the Dirty Thirties?

Atwood, Gibson and other environmentalists fear that the demise of the Community Pasture program and the sale of millions of acres of natural grassland could threaten the 32 endangered species of plants and animals that live in 55 of the 62 pastures. Rare bird species, such as burrowing owls, pipits and longspurs, and even well-known species, such as meadowlarks and killdeers, make their home in the grasslands, but four out of five grassland bird populations are declining.

In fact, the prairie grasslands contain more species at risk than any other region in Canada, according to PPPI. The PFRA pastures contain 10%-15% of the remaining grasslands and aspen parkland in Canada and are considered critical to the survival of many endangered species.

PPPI members believe that when the PFRA pasture managers are replaced by landowners who may or may not be concerned about sound environmental management, the pastures could suffer from overgrazing and other damage.

But local owners are not happy about the attention. Mark Elford, a rancher and chairman of the Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association (SCA), blasted PPPI as “crackpots crawling out of the woodwork.”

In a recent SCA newsletter, Elford stated: “Most of the detractors seem to be people who speak because of the money that backs them” – a none too subtle jab at PPPI and its chief spokesman, Saskatchewan naturalist Trevor Herriot.

Herriot says neither he nor PPPI receive any money, except through donations. But he believes that ranchers and environmentalists should be working together.

One person who seems to be staying out of the controversy is federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, who announced the decision to cancel the program.

Being a farmer himself, Ritz knows that when you wander into a cow pasture, you’re bound to get something stuck to your boots.

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