By Sheldon Spackman

Environmental Leadership

Local initiatives acknowledged at Alberta Emerald Awards

Jun 6, 2020 | 9:00 AM

An annual celebration to recognize outstanding environmental achievements across the province had three central Alberta agencies vying for some hardware this week.

On June 2, the 29th Annual Emerald Awards took place online this year to honour the province’s environmental achievements of nonprofits, businesses, governments, youth, and more.

ReThink Red Deer’s Piper Creek Restoration Agriculture Project was short-listed in the Shared Footprints Award category.

Presented by the Alberta Real Estate Foundation, the Piper Creek Restoration Agriculture Project (PCRAP) is a publicly accessible site demonstrating riparian restoration and urban agriculture on the edge of Red Deer.

Working together under a shared vision of “Cultivating a healthy environment for all creatures from soil to sky” the PCRA Project is a collaboration between many partners. They include the City of Red Deer, Red Deer River Naturalists, Red Deer River Watershed Alliance, Living Lands Landscape and Design, Cows and Fish, Agroforestry and Woodlot Extension Society, Trout Unlimited, and Waskasoo Environmental Education Society.

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Rene Michalak, Project Lead with ReThink Red Deer, was said to be instrumental in developing the vision for the Piper Creek Restoration Agriculture Project, securing funding, and working together with community groups to make their vision a reality.

Presented by the Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation (ABCRC), Lacombe Composite High School’s EcoVision was also short-listed for an award in the Education: School or Classroom category.

Officials say EcoVision has developed many activities over the last 12 years, such as a 6.0kW solar project including a portable solar module, geodesic energy-efficient tropical greenhouse with four renewable energy systems, commercial aquaponics system raising tilapia fish for consumption, and a two acre garden with 125 fruit trees, 50 raised vegetable beds and potato, squash, garlic patches.

Others include an outdoor classroom with 10 picnic tables, bat houses, and bird houses, a beekeeping program with a bee apiary containing eight hives, a 16 credit Green Certificate Beekeeper Technician program and urban beekeeping certification, among several others.

Elsewhere, the Stettler-based Working with Albertan Farmers to Create Climate Solutions That Are Good for the Farmer, the Farm, and the Climate, was also short-listed for an award in the Community Group or Non-Profit Association Grassroots category.

Rural Routes to Climate Solutions (RR2CS) is described as a project providing agricultural producers with learning opportunities to benefit from climate solutions. It is led by project coordinator, Derek Leahy and supervised by programs manager, Brenda Barritt of the Stettler Learning Centre.

RR2CS runs farm field days, workshops and conference speakers series’ and produces a podcast in order to explain that what is good for the farm can also be good for tackling climate change. In just one year the program has created a space in Alberta for agricultural producers to engage in discussions about climate change where no space existed before.