Protection Issues

The facts make it plain what is available to protect. But what are we protecting it from?

  • Historically the prairies evolved under the hooves of 50 million Bison
  • Over the past century the native grass has continued to flourish under the hooves and good management of the ranching industry.
  • Only about 1% of the land is occupied by urban infrastructure.

The only current threat to the environmental integrity of the Great Sand Hills is oil and gas developments which would seek to enter the ES landscape zones and which would despoil these zones by means of, amongst other activities:

  • multiple access roads and trails (and associated fencing) that directly destroy native prairies and create barriers to the movements of plants and animals.
  • regular vehicle access and traffic that will bring noise, odours, chemicals and invasive plants into the area,
  • well drilling, operation and maintenance operations that directly impact the landscape, taking significant areas out of native cover
  • pipeline construction from wells, as collectors, and for regional and national flow that increase environmental impacts over a wide area, and
  • accidental releases of gas and other fluids and chemicals that occur on a regular basis with breaching of pipelines, malfunctioning equipment, and maintenance activities.