A Big Idea

Some ideas are so big you know they’ll never happen. Why? They’re too expensive, too difficult, or there are too many vested interests involved. Such ideas, I think, are worth having because they stimulate thinking and debate that might actually lead to a realistic idea.

I have a big idea. More like a capital B capital I, Big Idea. See if you think this is useful at all.It involves weaving together threads of urban planning, rural land use, climate change policy, and wildlife conservation, among other things. What it really needs is for all of us to change our attitude to how we use land.

There’s the basic problem: Strathcona County as just announced that it will create a brand new city from scratch right next door to Sherwood Park that will eventually hold up to 200,000 people (that’s more than Regina or about 4x Lethbridge). At the same time For Saskatchewan is booming, as is Redwater, and even Lamont is going to triple is size in the next few years. People have pointed out that the new developments are going to destroy some highly valuable agricultural landMeanwhile in Southern Alberta farmers are worried that the melting of glaciers and less snowfall each year will leave them without enough water to irrigate their crops. And without irrigation they can’t grow much there.

Rome, the greatest city in the ancient world, was built on a swamp. Why? Because the ancients knew better than to ruin their most fertile lands by putting cities on them. Cities went on bare hilltops or rocky valleys or in swamps. Only in the last 200 years or so have we decided that it’s okay to ruin the best land so that cities can grow.When Palliser and the other early surveyors came to Alberta, they basically said everything south of Calgary was a dessert and shouldn’t be settled (Palliser’s Triangle). The CPR and the government ignored him and thousands of people settled those lands. Well disaster eventually struck, and by the 1920s people were fleeing from the south in droves. Some scientists will tell you that we’ve been lucky, and the 20s and 30s would normally have repeated themselves by now even without man-made global warming. In any event, some areas of Alberta we now think of as farming country were probably too dry to start with or will be soon. These lands were originally home to the thick, hardy grasses of the short-grass prairie, and the Plains Bison.

Now back to the cities (keeping up?). The nearest land near Edmonton that isn’t good farmland is Elk Island National Park. Why do you think it ended up being a park? Because it’s too rocky, with too many swampy little lakes. However, that type of land wouldn’t be a challenge to build a city on."But wait!" you say. "You can’t build in the Park. We need the park; it’s a sanctuary for the bison." And you are right. However, that park is really too small to hold a proper bison herd. They need enough land to be able to migrate back and forth so they don’t overgraze and strip the place bare. As it is, the park takes care of that by shipping the extras out to start new herds up in Wood Buffalo park or in Saskatchewan, but that won’t last forever. They need a park that’s big enough to migrate across. Just like the Serengeti is for the wildebeests and zebras.

Oh yes, one last thing, there are a few areas of good soil that aren’t being farmed yet in Alberta, mostly up in the Peace Country.

So what I think should happen:

1. Alberta government passes a law preventing any urban expansion into prime agricultural lands. However, we don’t want a land shortage that forces real estate to get even more expensive than it is. So they’ll also have to assist municipalities to identify the best land to build on (i.e. the worst farm land) and acquire it from it’s current owners. They already have somthing like this in BC, so why not here?

2. The province and the city of Edmonton (and maybe Strathcona County) offer to buy Elk Island Park from the Federal Government.

3. The feds then buy up all the farms in the driest parts of the South. The places around Oyen and Cereal, and Hanna, the area north of Medicine Hat, east of Drumheller. That area. They don’t have to buy everything, just enough to create a interconnected migration route. (They will have to tear out all the gravel road and fences).

4. The farmers that get bought out get incentives to break new land up in the Peace. (Just like pioneer days).

End result: Edmonton keeps growing without killing the best lands. The bison get to go back to their original range, and lands that should never have been farmed get to go back to their natural state. Farmers get the chance to abandon doomed lands for new opportunities up north. Southern Alberta get a new tourist attraction, the Serengeti of North American. Hell you could even add in pronghorns and deer, and elk, and wolves and bears, and it would be just like the way the prairies were 150 years ago. It would also be as awesome as the Serengeti, and you could even have safaris.