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Home My WebLink AboutHuron Expositor, 2006-11-29, Page 3(519) .' News Landowners, paid to take' land • out of prod.uction . in new program Jeff H e u c h e r t The issues of envi- ronmental incentive programs and the question of whether landowners should 1;) paid for providing environmental goods and services, was front and centre at a special workshop in Brussels Nov 23. Held at the Brussels, Morris & Grey Community Centre, the workshop was sponsored by the Huron Stewardship Council, Maitland Valley Conservation Authority and Huron County planning department. Nearly 120 repre r:, er,45ttx4002,..af «exp.; 74=1 _11 'y i.i(.iii�t s sentatives from con-_ Local landowners gathered in Brussels Thursday to learn servation authorities, promoting environmental land use. the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs, the Huron County Federation of Agriculture and many other organizations and landowners themselves were in attendance. The main topic of discussion was Alternative Land Use Services (ALUS), a pilot project launched recently in Norfolk County. Under ALUS, landowners would be essen- tially paid to produce clean air and water for the rest of society. Ministry of Natural Resources land stew- ardship coordinator for Norfolk Dave Reid spoke at the workshop and explained how ALUS provides landowners with fair market value to maintain environmental services. "Business is down, but you have to pay the bills somehow. You still have to provide some- thing you'll get a return on," he said. ALUS currently has only demonstration sites set up in Norfolk County, including on the land of Bryan Gilvesy, who also attended the workshop and spoke about his experi- ences thus far. Gilvesy has taken a number of steps to pre- serve and support the environment on his property In 2005, Gilvesy planted prairie grassland on part of his property. During the first part of the year the grass- land is used as nesting 'cover for some rare waterfowl species before he lets his long -horn cattle use it during grazing season. Gilvesy also installed bluebird stations and planted switch grass hedge rows to protect fields from wind erosion. He said while ALUS isn't about to make any landowners rich, he believes in its concept. Ottawa -based lobbyist Bob Bailey, who is vice president with the Delta Waterfowl Foundation, said offering financial incentives Jeff Heuchert photo about new programs to farmers who are willing to take their land out of production only makes sense, since farmers are already under such pressure due to low market prices. He added that because ALUS was started by a grassroots movement, it's going to take time before more landowners are interested. "Without a big communi- cations budget, it's just taking time to build momentum and get the word out there," he said. Bailey added that selling ALUS to the federal gov- ernment has been difficult since this is not the way Ottawa, is used to doing things. "ALUS is different because grassroots organi- zations are taking a hand in policy making," and governments and conser- vation organizations have traditionally led the way with environmental poli- cies, he said. Bailey added that the government has always regulated or restricted landowners, taking land out of production, but never before have they looked at an incentive pro- gram such as ALUS. He said that other provinces are interested in ALUS and he hopes to see pilot projects up and run- ning across the country. 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