Publication Date
1997
Description
The Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) Community Pastures origins are rooted in a climate catastrophe response that assembled initial areas of overgrazed native range and severely eroded cereal cropland in the Palliser Triangle into community pastures as a public conservation mechanism. Today this conservation system has grown to encompass 929,000 hectares in total that serve a multiple set of area objectives with important social, economic and ecological benefits. Management of these pastures has expanded considerably, necessitating close cooperation between local livestock producers, government agency staff and other users of the resource. Over the last half century a unique communal grazing operation on the PFRA Community Pasture System has evolved that constitutes an integral part of the economic structure of prairie livestock enterprises as well as sustaining an increasingly important set of general societal objectives for biodiversity and endangered species habitat.
Citation
Cook, H R., "PFRA Community Pastures- The Canadian Communal Grazing Experience and Multiple Values of Public Grasslands" (2024). IGC Proceedings (1997-2023). 1.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/igc/1997/session18/1
Included in
Agricultural Science Commons, Agronomy and Crop Sciences Commons, Plant Biology Commons, Plant Pathology Commons, Soil Science Commons, Weed Science Commons
PFRA Community Pastures- The Canadian Communal Grazing Experience and Multiple Values of Public Grasslands
The Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) Community Pastures origins are rooted in a climate catastrophe response that assembled initial areas of overgrazed native range and severely eroded cereal cropland in the Palliser Triangle into community pastures as a public conservation mechanism. Today this conservation system has grown to encompass 929,000 hectares in total that serve a multiple set of area objectives with important social, economic and ecological benefits. Management of these pastures has expanded considerably, necessitating close cooperation between local livestock producers, government agency staff and other users of the resource. Over the last half century a unique communal grazing operation on the PFRA Community Pasture System has evolved that constitutes an integral part of the economic structure of prairie livestock enterprises as well as sustaining an increasingly important set of general societal objectives for biodiversity and endangered species habitat.
