Glenbow Ranch Park Foundation (GRPF) organizers are asking people to vote to help the foundation win a grant.
The GRPF applied for the Aviva Canada’s Community Fund with the funding level between $50,000 and $100,000 for restoration and research to find low-cost and effective methods for restoring native fescue grasslands.
The fescue grasslands are home to a variety of animals, including birds, bees, badgers, squirrels, deer, coyotes and bears, and the land filters drinking water and helps clean pollution from the air, according to a GRPF press release.
The grant would provide funding for heavy-duty farm equipment, seeds and live plants, as well as manual labour.
“To date, our volunteers have proven a fantastic resource, but we have to be realistic and need to invest some funds in summer staff to collect the data…they have to literally watch grass grow,” the Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park grant application stated.
The Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park protects 1,300 hectares of native grassland and riparian habitat along the Bow River.
“Over the past 150 years, human use and misuse of these grasslands has intensified to such a point that in much of Southern Alberta only about five per cent to 16 per cent of these historical grassland remain intact,” the application said. Currently, the foundation has a total of 290 research plots to examine 58 different planting combinations to determine what works best for restoring the fescue grasslands. If the GRPF is successful in its application, the research project would be continued for long-term monitoring restoration.
The project would be completed in phases, the first phase to finish in 2016, with a two-year project to follow, with the opportunity for long-term followup studies for the next 30 years.
The Top 30 most voted projects go to the finals, where a panel of judges will choose the grand prize winner.
For more information go to the Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park Foundation Facebook page, and to register and vote, visit avivacommunityfund.org.
