Shinny game in the foothills highlights 30 years of conservation success
How a hockey rink also doubles as safe haven for wildlife
Thirty-odd years ago, a team from Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) hit the road south of Calgary, driving down through the rolling Rocky Mountain foothills, to a ranch not far from Diamond Valley, Alta.
The Tullichewan Project, south of Calgary near Diamond Valley.
There, they met with the landowner to discuss the benefits of preserving the ponds on his farm.
As both parties well knew, these sections of particularly waterlogged soils could work natural wonders on the farm and beyond if restored as wetlands.
Wetlands store water in times of drought, and mitigate the impacts of flooding by slowing down the movement of water in wetter years.
They naturally filter pollutants, improve water quality, store carbon and support a huge variety of plants and wildlife — 550 species rely on the wetlands across Canada.
But these important ecosystems were quickly disappearing, especially in developed regions of southern Canada.
So these forward-thinking stewards of the land put their heads together and an agreement was made to ensure the wetlands on this property would remain intact for decades to come.
Natural overachievers, wetlands make up roughly six per cent of the earth’s surface, but store an estimated 33 per cent of the earth’s terrestrial carbon.
Thirty years later, in the cold heart of another prairie winter, a community came together for a classic game of pond hockey on that same property.
The game drew players from adjoining farms and acreages, and even a few city-dwellers from Calgary. They played shinny under the gleaming prairie sun, drank delicious hot cocoa that steamed in the cold afternoon air, and tired out two young puppies delighted to slip and slide across the freshly shovelled ice surface.
Beyond preserving the quality and quantity of water on the landscape, wetlands help cool the atmosphere through processes like heat absorption and evapotranspiration.
DUC Conservation Programs Specialist Madi Martens says the good ol’ game of pond hockey is a shining symbol of the work DUC does, and the impacts it creates.
“As you can see, this project is still holding water today, and we’re able to get out there and skate on it,” she says.
“These are the projects we love to see that keep holding water for years and years.”
And as Martens explains, this work is even more important now than it was when an agreement was made to conserve wetlands on the Tullichewan Ranch in the 1980s.
In developed areas of southern Canada, DUC estimates 70 per cent of wetlands have been lost or degraded, and more than 80 per cent in parts of the prairies.
Through conservation agreements with landowners, which can legally protect individual wetlands even if the property changes hands, as well as through the purchase of land holding significant ecological value, DUC plans to continue preserving and even restoring what Martens calls “nature’s multitaskers”.
“Wetlands provide so many goods and services to the ecosystem,” she says.
“And with winter being such a huge part of Canadian culture, being able to get out there and play some pond hockey - wetlands are such an amazing place to be able to get together and hang out with the community.“