Canadian Wildlife Federation wants Ottawa to protect prairie grasslands
The Canadian Wildlife Federation wants Ottawa to stop turning over community pastures to the Prairie provinces because of concerns it has about species at risk.
In 2013, the previous Conservative government began a plan to transfer control of 900,000 hectares of community pastureland to Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta by 2018.
The federation says these provinces have not committed funding for managing species at risk on the pastures that were owned and managed by Agriculture Canada.
Carolyn Callaghan of the federation says these prairie grasslands are home to at-risk animals such as the greater sage grouse, swift fox, burrowing owl and black-footed ferret.