News Release: Taber destroys grasslands, auctions 6 sections for irrigated cropland

June 8, 2026

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• Areas of Concern
• Grasslands
• Land Use
• News Release
• Uncategorized
• Wildlands

June 8, 2026

Despite strong opposition by conservation organizations, Vauxhall Grazing Association members and municipal grazing leases, the Municipal District (MD) of Taber is converting 6 sections (15 square kilometers) of native grassland into irrigated cropland. This contravenes the municipality’s own bylaw 1845, the “Prairie Conservation Bylaw, which bars leaseholders from altering these landscapes.

Earlier today, these sections were offered for auction for four-year lease terms commencing in the 2027 crop year. However, the irrigated acres will only be added to the Bow River Irrigation District as annual agreements. This means water availability is promised only on an annual basis, and not assured for the entirety of the four-year agricultural lease.

Irrigation for these sections intends to use excess water from the Scope Reservoir that “currently cannot be fully utilized”. The MD of Taber has promised that this use “will not impact others’ annual water allocations.” They have not indicated how these acres will be used if there is not enough water available for irrigation.

These lands and the nearby areas provide increasingly rare habitat for many grassland species, including rare plants like the dwarf woolly-heads (Psilocarphus brevissimus var. brevissimus), small-flowered sand verbena (Tripterocalyx micranthus) and tiny cryptantha (Cryptantha minima). Chestnut-collared longspur (Calcarius ornatus) is among the species-at-risk recorded in the area. Once lost, native grasslands are difficult or impossible to recover.

The grasslands have been vital to providing sustainable livelihoods to many ranchers. In turn, these ranchers have stewarded these lands for generations. Converting these lands removes important grazing spaces and forage, threatening rancher sustainability.

The MD of Taber is breaking promises made to keep these sections as native grasslands. Further, as tax recovery lands, these areas have already proven unsuitable for crops. Converting drought-resilient native grasslands to cropland is unlikely to be sustainable long-term, and risks repeating the mistakes that led to the abandonment of these farms a century ago.

While these six sections have already begun to be stripped of native grass, the MD also owns other sections of tax recovery lands that remain as intact grasslands. AWA is asking the MD of Taber to create meaningful protections for the remainder of these lands to fulfill promises made when these lands were transferred.

Other information

• The “Prairie Conservation Bylaw” (Bylaw 1845) prevents leaseholders from converting native prairie. However, the MD of Taber Land Use Bylaw (Bylaw 2024) does not require the MD of Taber to maintain grassland.
• The Government of Alberta, with the Canada Infrastructure Bank, has invested over $900 million into irrigation expansion. Promises were made that expansion would only occur on already cultivated parcels. However, in an email with the general manager of the Bow River Irrigation District, we were informed “This is not technically irrigation expansion and has no connection to the AIM program.”
• Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA) joined Alberta Chapter of the Wildlife Society (ACTWS), Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS – Southern Alberta), Nature Alberta, and Southern Alberta Group for the Environment (SAGE) to oppose the conversion of these grasslands. Alberta Native Plant Council (ANPC) has also written with specific mention of the rare plants in or near these sections.
• Alberta Native Plant Rescue, which works with developers to rescue native plants from development, were refused access to this site.
• Temperate grasslands are considered the most endangered ecosystem in the world, and a majority of Alberta’s species at risk are found in sections such as these.