The province classifies those water bodies as areas only covered in water for a few weeks in spring or after heavy rain, and that have water in them for most of the growing season but dry out by the end of summer, respectively.<\/p>\n
Under the newest amendments to the policy, farmers will be able to drain those wetlands without needing provincial approval. Previously announced<\/a> amendments to the policy had limited those exempt activities to cultivating, direct seeding, spraying and other “low-impact activities.”<\/p>\n \u201cFarmers should not have to spend thousands of dollars, hire consultants, and wait for government approval to manage temporary water on land they own and farm,” the office of Environment Minister Grant Hunter said in a statement to CBC News.<\/p>\n “Alberta\u2019s government is removing those unnecessary barriers and restoring farmers\u2019 ability to make routine decisions about their own property.\u201d<\/p>\n It’s a move Alberta Wilderness Association conservation specialist Ruiping Luo says has significant ecological implications, as wetlands play a key role in supporting biodiversity.<\/p>\n “We’re concerned because we think that there’s a reason that we have these assessments in place,” Luo said.<\/p>\n She says temporary and seasonal wetlands provide critical habitat for animals like birds, amphibians and insects because they don’t hold water year-round, meaning animals there are less likely to have to contend with permanent predators.<\/p>\n According to the provincial government,<\/a> Alberta’s wetlands are home to about 400 different species of plants, with some listed as threatened or endangered. <\/p>\n Luo said wetlands also mitigate floods and droughts by storing water, slowing runoff into rivers, and letting water seep slowly into the ground to keep surrounding soils productive. She said they also protect water quality and human health by preventing nutrient runoff, which can trigger toxic algal blooms<\/a>. <\/p>\n WATCH | Students studying wetlands collect valuable data on ‘nature’s kidneys’: Students studying wetlands collect valuable data on ‘nature’s kidneys’<\/p>\n Pothole marshes \u2014 sometimes called ‘nature’s kidneys’ because of their purification powers \u2014 dot southwestern Manitoba. For more than a decade, University of Manitoba biology students have collected data on the wetlands, using standards developed for the provincial government, but their instructor says the province has never used the data.<\/p>\n “There’s a reason that we’ve been trying to encourage wetland conservation for so long, and we’re still losing wetlands in a lot of the province through a lot of different developments,” she said.<\/p>\n The Alberta government estimates between 60 to 70 per cent of wetlands in settled parts of the province have been lost.<\/p>\n “Now it seems like we’re going back on that and we’re not considering these temporary and seasonal wetlands, even though they do have important roles in hydrology, in biodiversity, in maintaining our lands,” Luo said.<\/p>\n Move puts ‘vast majority’ of remaining wetlands ‘at risk’: conservation expert<\/p>\n Tracy Scott, who recently retired after a career in wetlands conservation, was involved in developing the province’s wetland policy. He says it took into account various ecological benefits, including biodiversity and water quality improvement. <\/p>\n “This move is very counter to the evidence that supports wetlands conservation, so I find it puzzling,” he said. <\/p>\n “Alberta has already lost a large percentage of its wetlands, and therefore the functions and values that they provide to society, already,” he said. “And what this change will do is it will put a vast majority of the remaining wetlands in the settled area of the province at risk of drainage without consequence.”<\/p>\n Guy Greenaway, executive director of the Corvus Centre for Conservation Policy, says the new rules could make it impossible to determine how much of Alberta’s wetlands end up being lost.<\/p>\n “What this change does is say that you can make all of these impacts and not request any sort of of permission,” he said. “I think it’s reasonable to expect that there will be a lot of this activity happening with nobody knowing that it’s happening.”<\/p>\n ‘Higher-value wetlands’<\/p>\n Scott said he took issue with the province’s classification of other wetland categories as “higher-value wetlands” in the August announcement. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789338501_843_default.jpg\")
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Small pockets of wetland scattered across the prairie. (Charlie Riedel\/The Associated Press)<\/p>\n
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