Native Prairie and Parkland Conservation in Alberta: Initiatives by the Alberta Prairie Conservation Forum

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1 Native Prairie and Parkland Conservation in Alberta: Initiatives by the Alberta Prairie Conservation Forum Maintaining Large Native Prairie and Parkland Landscapes

2 Maintaining Large Native Prairie and Parkland Landscapes The grassland and parkland regions continue to experience pressure from land use change. These landscapes are home to 80% of the species at risk in Alberta Provide important wildlife habitat, biodiversity values, carbon sequestion Important for first nations traditional uses and ranching Decision makers need defensible and accurate information to support land use decisions that: View the native prairie landscape in Alberta as a as a valued asset. Builds a case to support initiatives such as: Payment for ecosystem services, on private lands Biodiversity conservation, Ensuring intact native grassland for wildlife habitat and other ecosystem services

3 Overview: State of the Prairie State of the Prairie TimeScan Pilot Results and Implications Status of Biodiversity in the Prairie and Parkland Regions of Alberta Questions and Round Table questions

4 State of the Prairie Project initiated in February 2017 with PCF leadership and AF, EP and retired technical experts Objectives: To compare and utilize recent land cover imagery and inventories vs. older versions to develop products on current, & past, state; & rates of change. Gathered together available Grassland and Land Cover Inventories: Native Prairie Vegetation Inventory (NPVI) PFRA s: Land Cover of the Prairies 1995 AFSC s: Agricultural Land Cover Classification 2006 AAFC s: Annual Crop Inventory 2016 EP s Grassland Vegetation Inventory (GVI) Started 2006 Completed 2013 ABMI Wall to Wall 2000 and 2010, Central Parkland Vegetation Inventory etc.

5 State of the Prairie Gathered available Grassland and Land Cover Inventories: Native Prairie Vegetation Inventory (NPVI) PFRA s: Land Cover of the Prairies 1995 AFSC s: Agricultural Land Cover Classification 2006 AAFC s: Annual Crop Inventory 2016 EP s Grassland Vegetation Inventory (GVI) Started 2006 Completed 2013 ABMI Wall to Wall 2000 and 2010, Central Parkland Vegetation Inventory etc. Initial re-classification of data to a consistent set of cover classes. A second reclassification to match those contained NPVI

6 Evaluation & Summary Process Reclassify Pixels to State of the Prairie (SOTP) six Standard Cover Classes Reclassify SOTP Pixels to a more General Native Prairie Class % Native Prairie summarized on a quarter by quarter section basis

7 State of the Prairie TimeScan Pilot project to test new remote sensing approaches using TimeScan temporal statistics from the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) contracted with Maapera Analytics Inc. TimeScan temporal statistics generated by DLR for all of Alberta for time frames in 3year groupings.

8 TimeScan/GVI Classification TimeScan Map Codes GVI codes 1 Wetland temporary, seasonal, alkali and semi-permanent to permanent 1-4, 10 Lentic Wetland temporary, seasonal, alkali and semipermanent to permanent, lotic herbaceous 2 Open Water 5-6 Open water lakes, rivers 3 Woody vegetation coniferous, deciduous and shrubs 7-9 Lotic Coniferous, deciduous and shrub 4 Native Upland High grassland Cover Subirrigated, overflow, clayey, loamy, sandy, limy, sand, blowouts / solonetzic 5 Native Upland Moderate grassland Cover 21, 23 Shallow to gravel, gravel 6 Native Upland Low grassland Cover 19-20, 22 Choppy sandhills, thin breaks, saline lowland 7 Bedrock, baresoils and impervious surfaces low to no grassland cover 24 Badlands and bedrock 8 Crop high variation between dense vegetative cover and semi- to exposed soils, moderate to high moisture 9 Crop high variation between moderate vegetative cover and semi-exposed to soils, moderate to low moisture 10 Pasture low variation between dense vegetative cover and semi-exposed to soils, high to moderate moisture 11 Pasture low variation between moderate vegetative cover and semi-exposed to soils, moderate to low moisture 25 Crop Irrigated 26 Crop non-irrigated 27 Tame Pasture or Hay Irrigated 28 Tame Pasture or Hay non-irrigated 12 Mixed urban 31 Urban

9 Prairie Time Scan Results Lake Newell Red Deer River Classification maps: w112-n51 w111-n50

10 TimeScan Results 3 year time frame classification maps

11 Inventory Comparison TimeScan and Traditional Satellite Image

12 Change Comparison TimeScan Vs Inventory Region Change (100 km 2 )* Loss No Change Gain Grassland Parkland Region Change (100 km 2 )* Loss No Change Gain Grassland Parkland

13 Take Away Messages on Results Overall change in land use in native grassland and Parkland over time Grassland Parkland New approaches to quantify extent and change over time are necessary and can be cost effective Innovative approaches are needed to help maintain large native grassland and parkland landscapes

14 Prairie Time Scan Collaborators German Aerospace Center (DLR) & Maapera Inc. Thomas Esch Uta Heiden Derek Rogge Preston Sorenson PCF Steering Committee: Ron McNeil Ian Dyson Karen Raven Barry Adams Agriculture and Forestry (AF), Environment and Parks (EP) and PCF Technical Team: Livio Fent Ed Karpuk Oriano Castelli Patrick Wensveen David Spiess David Hildebrand Javed Iqbal Other Collaborators: Shane Patterson AEP Anne Smith AAFC Corrina Copp ABMI

15 Status of Biodiversity in the Prairie and Parkland Regions of Alberta Report commissioned by the PCF with the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute To provide an evaluation on the status of biodiversity in Prairie and Parkland Alberta and Biodiversity status of high value landscapes as identified by the PCF

16 Status of Biodiversity in the Prairie and Parkland Regions of Alberta

17 Trend of Human Footprint in Grassland Natural Region of AB (ABMI 2018) Human Footprint Type Total Human Footprint 1999 (%) 2015 (%) Change (%) Agriculture Energy Forestry Human-created Water Bodies Transportation Urban/Industrial

18 Status of Biodiversity in the Prairie and Parkland Regions Areas of high native biodiversity values Predicted intactness

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20 Round Table Questions 1. Identify strategies to maintain native prairie and support biodiversity On private lands On public lands