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Drought in some central regions of Alberta could force farmers and other rural community members to think twice about their water usage.
Updates from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s drought monitor have found large swaths of the province to be extremely dry, and some smaller areas classified as exceptionally dry.
Agroclimate specialist Trevor Hadwen said, on a national scale, Canada hasn’t seen drought conditions this severe since the early 2000s.
Some of the more extreme cases are concentrated in B.C., southern Ontario and the Maritimes. Regions in the Northwest Territories have also experienced an exceptionally dry fall.
Hadwen said he isn’t too concerned about most of those regions making up for their moisture deficits coming into the winter months, but it’s a different story for regions in Alberta and B.C.
He said large portions of central Alberta received less than 40 per cent of normal precipitation in October. Some regions received as little as five millimetres of precipitation.
“Those conditions have led to loss of water supplies, poor soil moisture, and actually, reductions in some of the lake levels,” Hadwen said.
He said he is particularly concerned about the conditions recorded around the Peace River area, located about 500 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.
Hadwen said that area is experiencing exceptional drought conditions, which started as early as August.
“Dry soils during the fall is going to impact your pasture lands for next year and whatnot,” he said. “But the real concern right now is water supply.
“We need as much moisture before freeze-up in that region as possible to try to replenish those water supplies both from a municipality point of view, but also from an agricultural point of view.”
Hadwen said if the Peace River region doesn’t get enough precipitation before extreme cold hits the province, local officials may need to consider implementing water restrictions well into winter.
Dawson Creek, a city in B.C. near the provincial border with Alberta, is also experiencing exceptional drought conditions this fall. The city declared a state of local emergency last month, which included water restrictions, as a result of the drought.
“What’s in [the water systems] is basically what’s going to be there for the winter availability as the snow has to melt before we get some more moisture into that system. So again, this is a fairly critical period,” Hadwen said.
Water restrictions and dry conditions could mean low crop yields next year for Andre Harpe, chair of the Canadian Canola Growers Association.
He’s been a farmer in the County of Grande Prairie for over 30 years. But this year has brought about the worst drought conditions that he says he’s ever seen.
“If you start digging down into the soil is when you actually really see how dry it is,” Harpe said. “Obviously, because we’ve had some rain showers and some snow showers, we have a little bit of moisture on top. But as soon as you start going down, it is bone dry.
“I am really worried for next year because … we can’t have a crop failure before we’ve seeded. At the same time, we’re going to need a significant amount of snow for the moisture levels to recover in the soil.”
Harpe said he’s already looking into taking precautionary measures during the winter months, like adjusting the amount of fertilizer he typically uses, and being extra cautious of the amount of water he uses.
He said neighbouring farms and communities will be affected if water restrictions come into play, especially for cattle farmers, and many are preparing to proactively cut back their water usage.
Harpe said there aren’t many other precautions he can take until they get a better understanding of how the winter will look.
“We thought last year was dry. And I didn’t think it could get any worse, but it did,” he said.
“This is unprecedented. So, you know, we really don’t know what’s going to happen next year.”
In early October, the Alberta government committed around $25 million in funding to improve infrastructure as part of its Drought and Flood Protection Program.
The province has also been working on increasing water availability and improving the water management system in Alberta.
