Pumpjacks draw oil out of the ground as a deer stands in a canola field near Olds, Alta., in July 2020. Standard agricultural systems in Canada and around the world achieve high yields, but at times at great ecological costs. Agroecology aims to address these issues.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
For centuries, colonial powers have used starvation as a tool to control Indigenous populations and take over their land and wealth. A look back at two historic examples on two different continents.
Highway 4 crosses Lake Diefenbaker at Saskatchewan Landing Provincial Park. Lake Diefenbaker is a part of the South Saskatchewan river basin which faces unprecedented levels of reduced water flows in 2024.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michael Bell
Declining precipitation, climate change and governance failures will drive water flow scarcity in 2024 with serious implications across Western Canada.
Over 1 million acres of grassland burn in the Texas Panhandle in late February 2024.
Greenville Fire-Rescue via AP
The state’s largest wildfire on record tore across the heart of Texas cattle country, and more days of strong winds were forecast. A rangeland ecologist explains why the flames spread so fast.
The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and Agricore United merged in June 2007.
CP PHOTO/Troy Fleece
Governments and wildlife advocates are working to protect 30% of Earth’s lands and waters for nature by 2030. An ecologist explains why creating large protected areas should be a top priority.
Could arts and culture become a new ‘bread basket’ export? This is one of four scenarios the Future Prairie Theatre research team explored.
(Shutterstock)
Amid ecological and social change and economic instability, theatre artists in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba are mapping possible outcomes and goals.
Research found that investor ownership of farmland in Saskatchewan was negligible in 2002, but by 2018 had climbed to nearly one million acres — almost 18 times the size of Saskatoon.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Farm consolidation, increasing land concentration and expanding investor ownership of farmland is leading to growing land inequality in the Canadian Prairies.
Love stories and moments born out of art, politics and revolution were showcased in ‘Secrets from the Born Settee,’ a 2019 production originated by University of Regina theatre students.
(AV Service/University of Regina)
Reckoning around colonialism, anti-Black racism, and inequality is immense across different fields in our society. The Future Prairie Theatre project is addressing these urgent social struggles.
The chestnut-collared longspur spends the winter in Mexico and the southern United States; the Canadian prairies are its breeding grounds.
(Jeremy Price)
Noise created by the oil industry impacts songbirds. Research found that constant noises, like those produced by oil wells, are less disruptive than the shorter bursts of noise produced by drilling.
Pothole wetlands play important roles in prairie ecosystems.
(Shutterstock)
More than 40 per cent of natural wetlands in the Canadian Prairies have been lost due to drainage, and the impacts associated with this are largely unmitigated.
A refurbished Nabataean cistern at the site of Humayma, Jordan.
(Craig Harvey)
Cross-partisanship co-operation among political leaders doesn’t neatly translate into a similar consensus among the Canadian public, including those with disabilities or chronic health conditions.
Men standing with pile of buffalo skulls, Michigan Carbon Works, Rougeville MI, 1892.
(Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library)
Restoring former prairies that have been plowed under for farming delivers land, wildlife and climate benefits. But a new study finds that the weather plays a surprising role.
These grasshoppers, like many insects around the world, are declining.
Dave Rintoul
North America’s prairies once were home to millions of wild animals. Today, most of that land is farmed or developed, but some grasslands have never been plowed and could be rewilded.
Yellow-headed Blackbird in flight over cattails in a prairie marshland in Alberta.
(Shutterstock)
The Canadian Prairies are vanishing more quickly than the Amazon rainforest as they are converted for agriculture and industrial uses.
Strips of native prairie grasses planted on Larry and Margaret Stone’s Iowa farm protect soil, water and wildlife.
Iowa State University/Omar de Kok-Mercado
Investing in farming methods that improve lands and water, and in rural infrastructure and markets, could bring new prosperity to agricultural communities.