Environmental Values in the Great Sand Hills

  • Unique Native Prairie Landscape

    The GSH is the largest contiguous area of native prairie in Saskatchewan, and is a unique landscape that does not exist anywhere else in the world. These dunes support what is considered the best sandhill vegetation in Canada and have been identified as one of five Natural Areas of Canadian Significance in Saskatchewan.

  • Water

    The water table in the GSH is falling, according to well data. This data correlates with a decline insnowfall, and shows that the landscape is under great pressure from climatechange. For Groundwater and Geology publications and maps see this pdf file.

  • Fragile soils

    Soils in the GSH are highly susceptible to erosion. There are areas with active dunes, and where vegetation cover exists it is extremely vulnerable to disturbances such as heavy equipment traffic, weedy invasive plants, spills of contaminated water/drilling fluids.

  • The largest remaining native prairie in the world

    (From information compiled by CPAWS - Saskatchewan ) - Grasslands in Saskatchewan, Canada and the World:

    • Approximately 20% of North America is prairies or grasslands
    • This is about 10% of the world's grassland ecosystems
    • 12% of Canada is covered by the central grasslands ecosystem
    • 38% of Saskatchewan is covered by the prairie ecozone
    • 51% of Canada's prairies lie within Saskatchewan.
    • 80% of Saskatchewan's economic activity occurs in the prairie ecozone

The Historical Depletion of Grasslands in Saskatchewan:

Total area of original prairie ecosystems in Saskatchewan 24,000,000 ha
Total area of native prairie not converted for other uses 4,800,000 ha
Total area of native prairie in "good" ecological condition 960,000 ha
Percentage of original prairie remaining in good condition 4%
Percentage of prairie ecosystems in protected areas 1%

Protection of Grassland Ecosystems in Saskatchewan:

Scientists estimate the minimum area required to support representative levels of native species is 250 ha. In practice we preserve the largest areas we can, as well a special, smaller areas. The areas remaining that are in "good" ecological condition, give this picture:
Number of areas of native prairie larger than 250 ha 1172
Number of areas of native prairie larger than 1,000 ha 192
Number of areas of native prairie larger than 100,000 ha 1

And what is that one largest remaining area of native prairie? The Great Sand Hills!

To summarize:

Only 4% of Saskatchewan's 24 million ha of original prairie landscapes remains in native vegetation, in good ecological condition. And this remaining native prairie occurs in less than 1200 parcels, only 192 of which are larger than 1000 ha. Only one of these remaining areas is over 100,000 ha in size, the Great Sand Hills.

Opportunities for Grasslands Protection:

Who owns and controls the fate of our prairies? This often determines how difficult it will be to protect more grasslands.

  • In Mexico, 94% of the grasslands are privately (and/ or communally) owned
  • In the USA, 84% of the grasslands are privately owned
  • In Canada, 30% of the grasslands are privately owned
Or look at it in reverse:
  • In Mexico and the USA private interests own over 80% of the grasslands
  • In Mexico, USA and Canada, Federal Governments own only7% of the grasslands
  • In Canada, the Provinces own 63% of the grasslands.

Conclusions:

  1. There is very little native grass left in Saskatchewan, less than 1 million ha in good ecological condition, and only one area larger than 100,000 ha, The Great Sand Hills.
  2. The Province owns or controls about two thirds of what is left of our native grasslands, including much of that in good ecological condition.
  3. If we want to protect a significant amount of what is left of the prairies, it is only within Provincial control to do so.