RM Morris joining watershed districts for ag producers

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This article was published 28/08/2023 (678 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ranchers and farmers are closer to getting access to funding as the RM of Morris goes through the motions of joining three watershed districts.

Council approved asking for the terms and conditions required to join the Redboine, Pembina Valley, and Seine Rat Roseau Watershed Districts through the Manitoba Ministry of Environment and Climate in May. Since then, the applications have been passed onto other members of the districts.

Every single municipality must agree to the RM of Morris joining. There are 16 municipalities that need to agree in the Seine Rat Roseau Watershed District (SRRWD) alone.

Manager Joey Pankiw said all need to agree because it will change the levy each pays. The estimated levy for the RM to the SRRWD would be $3,140, as it only has the Marsh River subdistrict in that watershed, out of seven subdistricts.

He said the RM became interested in joining the watershed districts when agricultural producers approached them about accessing more money that is only available as members of the districts. Maps of watershed district members show a hole where the RM is, with most neighbours already long-time members.

More tax money would be needed for the other two watersheds. But Pankiw said the investment from the municipality is paid back more than three-fold.

“For every one dollar the RMs put in, the Province of Manitoba matches that one dollar with three dollars. And from that, we can take the money that we get from the Province and our RMs, and we can even amplify that more by applying for outside funding,” said Pankiw.

He said the SRRWD’s budget is about $1.4 million. Estimated money coming in from municipalities reaching as far south as Emerson-Franklin, north as Springfield, and east as Reynolds after RM of Morris joins is $157,000.

From that, work is paid for including things like the Gardenton community pasture, or paying producers to stop producing along the riverbanks to decrease erosion and nutrient runoff that makes its way to Lake Winnipeg.

Pankiw had just finished meeting with producers when he explained what the watershed district does.

“Our mandate is to implement land and water management projects on landscape, so a lot of our projects deal with managing water in a responsible way. We build small berms to hold back water in one spot temporarily to protect local infrastructure. We try to protect our surface water from contamination, so there’ll be a lot of programming fencing off dugouts, riparian area along creeks and rivers, so we keep cattle away from the banks to keep sediments out of there and fecal matter,” explained Pankiw.

Watering systems are then put in place for the animals.

Increasing habitat so the animals living in nature can make their way up and down rivers is a job of the district.

Having the RM of Morris join would allow it to expand on the 100 acres recently converted from farmland along the Marsh River basin into natural grass prairie to keep river and lake water cleaner and mitigate those summer algae blooms in Lake Winnipeg.

Its workers also keep track of ground water quality, and help all sizes of landowners.

Pankiw said it is estimated to take about a year from start to finish to join a watershed district.