Official says Great Sand Hills study will be released to public
Angela Hall, Leader-Post
Published: Thursday, July 10, 2008
REGINA -- Planning to ensure that the Great Sand Hills of southwest Saskatchewan has a sustainable future remains underway, a year after a massive two-year study of the area was handed over to the provincial government.
But members of the public will soon be given a formal chance to weigh in, said Randy Seguin, director of the province's environmental assessment branch.
The Great Sand Hills Regional Environmental Study was completed and handed over to the province last July, and then forwarded to the environmental assessment branch for review.
The then-NDP government also announced that more portions of the native prairie landscape in southwest Saskatchewan would be designated as ecological reserves.
However, the report contained a number of recommendations for the area, and some observers have questioned why little has been heard about the report in the past year.
But Seguin said work has been ongoing. A technical team has been reviewing the massive report, and that input will be put into a public document that aims to bring some "clarity to the complexity," he said.
"What we try to do is create something that's helpful to the public to understand what the technical people think about the report," Seguin said.
People will have 60 days to provide written input, up from the usual 30, once the technical document is ready for review sometime in August, he said.
"It's an exciting piece of work and it will be interesting to see how the public responds to it."
Biologist Branimir Gjetvaj said he has been concerned about a lack of action, and worried that the report of a year ago seemed to have faded away in the wake of an election and the transition to a new government.
However, Gjetvaj said he's encouraged to hear the public will have two months to provide input.
But he hopes the province will ultimately put up the money -- and potentially use some of its resource revenues -- to make some of the recommendations happen. There are good ideas in the original report, such as hiring environmental monitors, but they will "require a lot of funding and commitment from the government," he said.
Having a comprehensive plan is critical as the resource industry eyes further development opportunities in the area, Gjetvaj said.
Seguin said the native prairie at the centre of attention is ecologically important, but it also carries spiritual and cultural significance for First Nations. As well, the Great Sand Hills area is important to ranchers, and holds economic potential due to natural gas in the area.
"If we're going to attempt to look at sustainability and management ... you have to take all these key things into consideration, into the mix, and try to come up with an overarching plan to help hopefully guide us down the path that will allow these things to work in a harmonious fashion," he said.
ahall@leaderpost.canwest.com
© Leader-Post 2008
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