Dead Man’s Flats land swap negotiations are back on the table and a local environmentalist is asking Bighorn council to consider an alternative to developing the land if the swap is not successful.
Discussions between the MD of Bighorn and Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development (SRD) began earlier this month after a seven-year attempt to trade 34 hectares of valuable wildlife habitat at Dead Man’s Flats for a parcel of land elsewhere in the MD failed late last year.
The MD, SRD and Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation had reached an agreement to trade the 34 ha of undeveloped land, a parcel the Bow Corridor Ecosystem Advisory Group recognized as part of the Bow Flats Regional Habitat Patch in 1998, for a parcel of land in Bow Valley Wildland Park near Mount Yamnuska.
The MD had reached that agreement with former ATPR minister Cindy Ady, however Christine Cusanelli, appointed as minister of ATPR in the spring of 2012, reversed Ady’s decision.
Starke upheld Cusanelli’s decision, informing the MD in a November 2013 letter, and suggested the municipality and AESRD restart negotiations.
AESRD spokesperson Sarah Jackson confirmed Tuesday (Jan. 14) that the province and the MD had begun discussions early this month.
In a presentation to Bighorn council also on Tuesday, Yellowstone to Yukon executive director Karsten Heuer asked council to consider –if a land swap is not feasible – the ecological value of the land, rather than the economic value.
Heuer pointed out that the MD, when it was still an Improvement District, acquired the land from AESRD in the 1980s for a few thousand dollars to construct a sewage lagoon. The parcel of land was much larger than necessary to avoid the cost of a survey.
“There are questions that are circulating in my organization and in my mind and in the minds of people in the Bow Valley who care about this stuff, including your constituents. Given the history and given the value that was initially paid, given it was a very reasonable price the MD got it for and given the MD’s buy-in in the principles of wildlife connectivity, why does there need to be a land swap?” Heuer said.
“Why can’t the MD put a conservation easement on the land and protect it in perpetuity? There’s a lot of incidents where this has happened in this valley already.”
The Town of Canmore used conservation easements in Eagle Terrace and Three Sisters to protect wildlife corridors, Heuer said.
“There’s a lot of precedence and again, when you think of that long history where the MD essentially acquired these lands for free, I think it is a pertanent question and I understand you’re trying to maximize the value to the ratepayers. But you’re also trying to represent your overall interests and looking at it just from the perspective of a monetary transaction doesn’t really account for the value your residents and ratepayers put on wildlife and connectivity,” Heuer said.
He added a land swap would be in the best interests of MD ratepayers, but he said the alternative – preserving the land – would exceed the monetary value of the land given the MD’s position on the importance of wildlife connectivity.
MD Reeve Dene Cooper said it is not a realistic option for the MD to preserve that land as it has little land left to develop a long-term, sustainable economy outside of industry.
“I appreciate your passion for a functional corridor, not a contrived one. The land swap is very difficult and the conversations are ongoing,” he said. “We will be continuing our conversations with the Alberta government. This MD is on side with having a workable corridor, but we need the Alberta government on board.”
While Cooper acknowledged the value of the land ecologically, he said asking MD ratepayers to shoulder what would be a substantial associated cost of losing a long-term option to broaden its economy down the road would be difficult.
“We have 1,000 people in the MD and we’re talking about millions of dollars in land and when you look at the number of people, you’re very looking at high per person costs of $20-, $30-, $40-, $60,000 dollars a head in the MD to shoulder the full cost of what is being suggested,” he said.
“We haven’t got much freehold land left. The Dead Man’s Flats land is one-third of MD land left and that excludes (Seebe). We have little land left to be sustainable in the long term. We’re also dependent on industry that is not sustainable,” he said, adding the planned closure this year of the Burnt Timber gas plant is a good example.
A land swap, he said, would sustain wildlife and the economy.
In the meantime, chief administrative office Martin Buckley said the MD is continuing to work on an area structure plan for that land.
