On March 22, the federal government announced it would develop such a strategy, calling it “an opportunity to discuss how we can address freshwater-related threats and opportunities,” protect freshwater ecosystems, and secure water for communities and the economy, according to a news release.

The Canada Water Agency, which was repurposed in 2024 as a stand-alone freshwater management agency separate from Environment and Climate Change Canada, will spearhead the strategy’s development.

While the announcement was scant on details of what such a strategy might look like, it said the agency will work with provinces and territories, First Nations, Inuit and Métis partners, “stakeholders across sectors” and the public.

Farmers should be among those consulted, the CFA said in a statement to Glacier FarmMedia.

“Water security is absolutely critical for the future of Canadian farmers. Farmers in different regions of Canada have been devastated by water issues over the past few years, such as the floods in B.C., or the ongoing long-term drought in the Prairie provinces,” a federation spokesperson said.

“A lack of water has severe negative impacts on any type of farm, no matter what they grow or raise.”

Prioritizing food security, agriculture

The strategy should protect farmers and mitigate the effects of water-related events. It should also secure predictable access to water so farmers can maintain food production — for example, through effective water management policies and investment in water infrastructure, CFA said.

“Farmers need to make it clear that food security and agriculture production should be prioritized if there was any issues with access to water.”

“Farmers are also on the front-line of climate change, dealing with the on-ground realities of water-related events,” CFA added. “They have experience and knowledge that will be critical in developing this strategy.”

While the announcement made no specific mention of the agriculture industry, the sector will have an opportunity to share its views during the public engagement process, “recognizing that freshwater is fundamental to our economy, powering industries, agriculture, and the growth of communities,” a federal spokesperson told Glacier FarmMedia.

The federal government has not yet set timelines for consultations, but said those will be announced “in the coming months.”

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It’s an area featuring high levels of biodiversity, but one with unique challenges for the farmers who live there.

Sanita and Ainis Āboliņš are two such farmers.

Together with their four children, Sanita and Ainis organically raise Charolais beef cattle on mixed woodland-grassland meadows — a system historically associated with the region, but was abandoned in favour of collectivized plantation forest, and in places arable production, by Soviet authorities through the 20th century. Many areas were subsequently neglected or abandoned as new production systems proved less than viable, leading to overgrowth and biodiversity declines.

In partnership with the Latvian government and the European Union, the Āboliņš family have remediated portions of their farm back to the traditional mixed woodland-grassland grazing system, spurring ecological recovery in the process.

Water, water everywhere

The area within which the Āboliņš’ operate their business, Vekši Eco-Farm, comprises part of a wider protected landscape where high-biodiversity meadowlands and forests were historically prominent. As with grazing on Canada’s prairie grasslands, pasture-based cattle production is an ideal farming system for supporting the wide range of unique flora and fauna characteristic of the Gauja River Valley ecosystem.

Combined with sandy soil, the family’s mixed woodland-grassland meadow production system is also ideally suited to handle the area’s unique environmental conditions, particularly seasonal floods.

High-flow events in the River Gauja regularly cover nearly the entirety of Vekši Eco-Farm and other nearby farms under several metres of water. Only the barnyard and farm house are spared, thanks to the structures being built on a slight elevation called “the Island.”

When laneways and nearby roads underwater, Sanita and Ainis are forced to navigate through the meadowlands — or go to town — by boat. Their cattle hunker down on the “the Island” during such times, making their way back to the woodland meadows after the water recedes. Manure collected over winter (when their cattle remain in the barn) and during their flood refuge periods is provided to another farmer, for field application outside the floodplain.

Biodiversity and tourism

Sanita and Ainis have participated in a number of nature-focused projects. This includes invasive species control, mowing some pastures (and not mowing others) to promote different ranges of meadow species, and continued efforts to expand their existing mixed meadows by deforesting more overgrown land left abandoned by the Soviets.

Reclaiming overgrown land is hard work, requiring extensive brush cutting, tree felling, and stump grinding. But because nature protections — and thus, operational restrictions — apply across much of the region, clearing overgrown land is one of the only means of expanding their farm business. The allowance is, in part, a result of the state recognizing the link between biodiversity and the grazing systems historically practiced in the Valley.

Walking trails throughout the area’s park-like appearance are common, including across the Āboliņš farm. The trails including observation platforms highlighting the ecological value of the different forms of grassland meadows, large oak trees, and livestock. The family also maintains a recreation area with a fire pit — and outhouse — along the riverbank for guests.

While visitors generally don’t bother their cattle, Sanita says they do make a point to regularly remind people to mind the herd when in proximity. Colourful as some visitors might be, however, they enjoy being able to highlight the biodiversity of their farm, and how they’ve had success working within the unique conditions of the Guaja River Valley.

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Recovery is under way in the mid-north coast region of Australia’s most populous state after days of flooding cut off towns, swept away livestock and destroyed homes. At least 10,000 properties may have been damaged in the floods, which were sparked by days of incessant rain, authorities estimate.

About 32,000 residents remained isolated due to floodwaters, which were slowly starting to recede, the state’s Emergency Services posted on the X platform.

“The New South Wales government is providing emergency fodder, veterinary care, management advice and aerial support for isolated stock,” state Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty said in a statement.

It said 43 helicopter drops and around 130 drops by other means had provided “isolated farmers with emergency fodder for their stranded livestock”.

At their peak, the floods isolated around 50,000 people, submerging intersections and street signs in mid-north coast towns and covering cars up to their windshields, after fast-rising waters burst river banks.

Five deaths have been linked to the floods, the latest a man in his 80s whose body was found at a flooded property about 50 km (30 miles) from Taree, one of the worst-hit towns, police said. Taree sits along the Manning River more than 300 km (190 miles) north of state capital Sydney.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Saturday that conditions remained critical in flood-affected regions of New South Wales, as clean-up efforts began.

Australia has been hit with increasing extreme weather events that some experts say are the result of climate change. After droughts and devastating bushfires at the end of last decade, frequent floods have wreaked havoc since early 2021.

— Reporting by Sam McKeith in Sydney

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The two-year study looked at 31 different soybean varieties, including some bred to be flood tolerant or moderately flood tolerant, and more susceptible varieties. Researchers examined the effects of four days of partial submergence on soybeans in the R1 or early flowering stage.

“Flooding research has focused on the early reproductive stage simply because it is when the stress is most pronounced and causes the greatest yield loss,” said researcher Caio Vieira in a Feb. 3 news release.

The most flood-tolerant varieties lost about 33 per cent of yield after being flooded, while the most susceptible plants lost just over half of their yield potential. However, no significant impacts on seed protein or oil content were observed across the different varieties.

Viera said temperature changes in the U.S. have allowed earlier soybean planting, while shifting rain patterns have put additional stress on soy plants.

“We’re pretty much getting the potential for flooding throughout the season. It’s been tougher,” he said.

Arkansas farmers typically plant soy from early April to mid-Mary, putting the R1 stage in late June or early July.

“It can be hit or miss,” Vieira said. “You can get a year where that period is a full-on drought, or you can get a year where that typical R1 period is completely wet with intensive rains. It’s hard, hard to predict.”

Arkansas can also see the remnants of hurricanes roll through. This happened twice in September, the news release noted.

Vieira said the study will help his team identify and incorporate flood-tolerant characteristics into future soybean genetics.

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This weather system occurs all over the world. It starts when a large amount of water vapor from tropical oceans is carried by a jet stream toward land. As the air rises, it cools and condenses, resulting in rain or snow. They most commonly form in mid-latitude oceans, roughly 30 and 60 degrees north and south, according to NASA. They appear as a trail of wispy clouds that can stretch for hundreds of miles.

Atmospheric rivers can carry up to 15 times the volume of the Mississippi River, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Most atmospheric rivers are weak and do not cause damage. They can provide much-needed rain or snow.

Sometimes they do both. In drought-stricken California, such storms have triggered mudslides, toppled utility poles and blocked roadways, but also helped replenish depleted reservoirs and reduced the risk of wildfires by saturating the state’s parched vegetation.

In 2019, an atmospheric river nicknamed the “Pineapple Express” hit California. The water vapor from near Hawaii brought rain and triggered mudslides that forced motorists to swim for their lives and sent homes sliding downhill.

In 2021, an atmospheric river dumped a month’s worth of rain on British Columbia in two days, prompting deadly floods and landslides, devastating communities and severing access to Canada’s largest port.

According to scientists, atmospheric rivers of the kind that drenched California and flooded British Columbia in recent years will become larger—and possibly more destructive—because of climate change. There are projected to be 10 per cent fewer atmospheric rivers in the future, but they are expected to be 25 per cent wider and longer and carry more water, according to a 2018 research paper.

This could make managing water supply much harder as moderate atmospheric rivers, which can be beneficial for water supplies, will be less frequent, and strong ones could become more calamitous.

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The province’s Water Security Agency (WSA) said Friday its $1 million cost-share rebate program will expand its eligibility beyond RMs, conservation and development area (C+D) authorities and watershed associations to also include landowners and small urban (under 5,000 people) municipalities.

The program provides a 50 per cent rebate of eligible costs, up to a maximum $100,000 per application/applicant, for activities in the 2023-24 program year.

Eligible work can include removing silt, sediment, beaver dams and/or debris such as trees, brush and deadfall. The work is meant to reduce risk of blockages that can cause flooding on roadways and farmland, whether on approved drainage projects or natural watercourses.

Eligible projects can’t involve altering, replacing or repairing existing structures such as culverts or approaches. Other than sediment removal, projects also mustn’t involve new earthwork of any kind, such as digging new ditches or deepening, widening or otherwise reshaping a natural watercourse.

In clearing natural channels, volumes of water released “must not be so significant as to result in damage to downstream lands.” A project proponent also must have consent from owners of land next to the natural watercourse before starting the work.

Eligible applicants are also responsible for gathering “all necessary approvals, licences or authorizations required under municipal, provincial or federal legislation” and approvals from any affected landowners for access to a work site.

The application deadline for this program year is Jan. 31, 2024; the program will only cover eligible costs incurred between April 1, 2023 and Jan. 31, 2024.

“Preserving unobstructed waterways and proactively managing potential flooding and erosion concerns play a critical role in safeguarding the well-being of every individual residing in Saskatchewan,” Jeremy Cockrill, the provincial minister responsible for the WSA, said Friday in a release.

WSA said it also “streamlined” the rebate program this year by “eliminating unnecessary steps” in the application process. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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That’s the assessment from Drew Lerner, president and senior agricultural meteorologist at World Weather Inc. at Overland Park, Kansas.

While the western half of the Canadian Prairies will remain in a drought, Lerner said that isn’t the case for the eastern half of the region. The outlook for that portion of the Prairies called for improved rains in the summer, he said.

“May has always stood out being an anomalously drier month and it’s verifying that very well,” Lerner said, adding he’s quite encouraged by the prospects for rain during the balance of the month.

As for large portions of Alberta and west-central Saskatchewan, the meteorologist noted he doesn’t see an end to drought anytime soon. “It’s going to take a while for it to go away.”

As for the U.S. northern Plains, significant portions of North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota were having a difficult time drying out this spring. He said excessive snowfall led to flooding in a number of areas — but not as bad as expected due to a lack of frost in the ground, which helped to absorb excess moisture.

“But they got rain over the weekend and they will get more rain coming up this week. So that will obviously further prolong the drying that is so badly needed,” Lerner said, estimating planting in the area should start during the third week of May.

The story for the southern Plains, which remains mired in a severe drought, could improve a little, he said.

“There’s going to be a wetter scenario playing out a little bit later this week,” as he forecast scattered showers and thunderstorms.

Lerner pointed to Oklahoma and Texas at likely to get the best rains. Meanwhile Kansas, Colorado and perhaps a part of Nebraska should see some precipitation in coming days.

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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By Friday, more than 13,000 people were under evacuation orders in Alberta. As of late Friday afternoon, 91 fires were considered active, of which 27 were deemed out of control and 18 classified as “being held.”

Among the worst-hit areas was the territory of the Little Red River Cree Nation, which comprises three communities in the north of the province, where the 1,458-hectare (3609-acre) Fox Lake fire consumed 20 homes and the police station.

The entire 7,000-strong population of Drayton Valley, 140 km west of Edmonton, was also ordered to evacuate late Thursday night, followed by Edson, a town of about 8,100 people about 140 km northwest of Drayton Valley, on Friday evening. Evacuations were also expanding in surrounding Brazeau and Yellowhead counties.

Parts of the counties of Strathcona, Leduc, Athabasca, Parkland and Grande Prairie were also under mandatory evacuation orders Friday evening, as were communities including Fox Lake, Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation and Entwistle.

Alberta has imposed a ban on open burning, including backyard fire pits, across the entire province. Recreational use of off-highway vehicles on public land, including designated OHV trails, is also now prohibited.

MORE READING: Farm checklist against fire

Pembina Pipeline Corp., which operates oil pipelines in the region, said it has activated emergency response and incident management processes and is “evaluating any current or anticipated operational impacts.”

There were no reported impacts on oil and gas producers, although the province said Friday that oil and gas facilities were among the evacuations Thursday night from a wildfire area southeast of Edson.

There have been 363 wildfires in Alberta so far this year and more than 43,000 hectares burned, the province reported Friday. At the same date in 2022, 175 fires had been reported with almost 414 hectares burned.

“This is significantly more wildfire activity for this time of year than we have seen any time in the recent past,” Christie Tucker, an information unit manager for Alberta Wildfire, told a press conference, adding fires were expected to intensify Friday.

“It’s going to get hotter, it’s going to get windier and we are expecting some extreme wildfire behaviour. Firefighters are at the ready today for what could be an extremely challenging day,” she said.

As of Friday evening in neighbouring Saskatchewan, 16 wildfires were considered active, with eight deemed “not contained,” out of 77 so far this year, almost double the five-year average. As of Friday morning, the province’s fire weather index, a risk gauge for potential fire intensity, mapped out most of agricultural Saskatchewan as “extreme.”

Its biggest active fire, at about 5,000 hectares as of Friday morning, is around First Nations communities near Jackfish Lake, about 40 km north of North Battleford in the province’s northwest.

In British Columbia, rivers burst their banks, washing through homes and forcing highway closures in numerous communities across the province’s interior, including Cache Creek and Grand Forks.

Until last week Western Canada had been enduring a cold spring but a rapid onset of unseasonably high temperatures, in places 10 to 15 C above the average for early May, is causing both fires and flooding.

With heavy rain in the forecast, the British Columbia government urged communities to be prepared for more flooding over the weekend.

“Warm temperatures in the Interior have accelerated snowmelt and caused increased pressure on rivers and creeks,” the provincial ministry of emergency management said in a statement.

“The situation is expected to worsen as rainfall and thundershowers are forecast for Friday, May 5, and Saturday, May 6, which increases the likelihood of flooding.”

— Reporting for Reuters by Nia Williams. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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The nine consecutive rainstorms that inundated California in succession since Dec. 26 killed at least 20 people while tens of thousands remained under evacuation orders as of Monday, Governor Gavin Newsom said in an executive order that reinforced the state’s response to storm damage.

“The last of the heavier rain in California is slowly fading. After midnight it shouldn’t be heavy anymore,” said meteorologist David Roth of the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center.

Biden will travel to areas of the central coast on Thursday to meet first responders, visit affected towns, and “assess what additional federal support is needed,” the White House said.

The president had already issued an emergency declaration on Jan. 8 to free up federal aid and then on Saturday authorized disaster assistance for Merced, Sacramento and Santa Cruz counties.

The White House has yet to reveal the areas Biden will visit.

Among the more dramatic images of storm damage were those of Highway 1, the scenic coastal highway near Big Sur, which was closed at several points due to mudslides and falling boulders strewn across the road.

Water supplies still limited

While damaging, the storms also helped mitigate a historic drought, as much of the state has already received half or more its average annual rainfall.

But with more than two months to go in the rainy season, officials are urging Californians to continue conserving water. The U.S. Drought Monitor still shows almost the entire state under moderate or severe drought conditions. Reservoir levels were still below average for this time of year, officials said.

Moreover, the atmospheric rivers largely failed to reach the Colorado River basin, a critical source of southern California’s water.

“If you rely on the Colorado River basin as a part of your water supply, then there will be continuing drought problems due to the extreme drought in that part of the world,” Michael Anderson, California’s state climatologist, told reporters.

The Colorado’s two major reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, were at 28.5 and 22.6 per cent of capacity, respectively, and still below levels from this time a year ago according to Water-Data.com.

The ninth consecutive atmospheric river fizzled out on Monday, its remnants soaking the southernmost part of the state, Arizona and northern Mexico, Roth said.

The storms are akin to rivers in the sky that carry moisture from the Earth’s tropics to higher latitudes, dumping massive amounts of rain.

Another storm was coming that could bring moderate rain on Tuesday and Wednesday. The U.S. National Weather Service said it lacked the volume to be classified as an atmospheric river, while the state Department of Water Resources said it may briefly qualify as one.

California can otherwise expect dry conditions for the remainder of January, state officials said.

— Reporting for Reuters by Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, Calif., and Rich McKay in Atlanta.

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In Monterey County along the state’s central coast, communities near the still-rising Salinas River were under an evacuation order, as authorities warned that the cresting waterway could cut off homes and businesses from essential services.

As many as 19 people have been killed in the storms, including two deaths announced on Wednesday — one person found dead in a submerged car in Sonoma County north of San Francisco, and another who was pulled from the American River in El Dorado County on Jan. 3.

A five-year-old boy swept away in San Luis Obispo County had still not been found by Wednesday evening.

At least two more storm systems were set to pound California and the Pacific Northwest starting Friday and over the weekend, the National Weather Service said, including another atmospheric river, systems of dense moisture funneled into California from the tropical Pacific. The state has already been hit with seven such weather systems over the past two weeks.

Precipitation from the storms will fall as rain along the coast and snow in the Sierra Nevada and other mountain ranges, the National Weather Service said.

Cut off from services

In Monterey County, water from prior storms continued to swell the Salinas River, officials said. Some residents of the Monterey Peninsula and parts of the Salinas area could be cut off from other communities for as many as three days as roads flood.

“My husband went and got some provisions, just things we needed, so if we’re going to be here two to three days or however long we may be stranded, we’re good to go,” said Diane Souza, a retired office manager who decided to ride out the storm in the community of Spreckels near the river.

The couple put sandbags around their garage, which sits lower than the rest of the house, and put together a bag with emergency items in case they need to flee.

Not far away, the muddy Salinas River flowed at a steady pace, widening and encroaching on nearby trees. The tops of fences could be seen just above the rising water.

Monterey County Sheriff Tina Nieto said her officers had gone door-to-door in communities affected by evacuation orders, urging people to leave. She said the river was expected to hit flood stage by 11 p.m. Thursday night and remain high through the weekend.

Dozens of roadways across the state were made impassable by mudslides and snow as the state’s department of transportation urged drivers to stay off impacted roads until crews could clear the way.

In the state capital of Sacramento, crews continued to clear fallen trees and restore power on Thursday, aiming to complete as much of the work as possible before rains begin again on Friday.

The heavy rains have eased California’s historic drought but not ended it, the U.S. Drought Monitor showed Thursday. The state is no longer considered to be in extreme drought or exceptional drought, the two worst categories, but much of the state is still considered to be experiencing moderate or severe drought conditions.

Even with more atmospheric rivers in the immediate forecast, the state’s water system will remained strained in coming years without new infrastructure to capture more storm water, restore flood plains and recycle wastewater.

— Reporting for Reuters by Sharon Bernstein; additional reporting by Nathan Frandino.

Explainer: Why weeks of rain in California will not end historic drought

By Daniel Trotta

Reuters — California has been deluged since Dec. 26 by seven atmospheric rivers that have dumped up to 76 cm of rain over some areas, but the drought that has gripped the western U.S. remains far from over.

Virtually none of the storms has reached the Colorado River basin, which means the river that provides drinking water to 40 million people in seven states will continue to be endangered.

Even with more atmospheric rivers in the immediate forecast, and larger and more frequent ones predicted in the future, California cannot solve its long-term water crisis without major infrastructure investments to capture more storm water, restore flood plains and recycle wastewater.

Meanwhile, California’s US$50 billion agricultural industry continues to consume 80 per cent of the state’s supply.

Weather whiplash

Climate change means climate extremes. As California experiences more severe droughts and heat waves, its occasional wet years are expected to be excessively rainy. But the state’s water infrastructure, mostly built in the 20th century when the population was barely half of today’s 40 million, is ill-equipped for the new situation.

On Dec. 14, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California declared a drought emergency for all 19 million people in the region. A few weeks later, the state was underwater with major flooding.

Despite a deluge that by one estimate has been expected to dump more than 80 trillion litres, the state’s major reservoirs remain well below their historic average. The largest reservoirs, at Shasta and Oroville, are still at 42 and 47 per cent of capacity, according to state data.

The shortfall underscores the severity of the drought. A report published in the journal Nature last year found 2000 to 2021 to be the driest 22-year period for southwestern North America in at least 1,200 years.

Infrastructure deficit

The state’s infrastructure, largely a network of cement canals, lacks the capacity to capture excess stormwater.

Irrigation and flood control projects were largely designed to convey water as quickly as possible in straight lines. That deprives flood plains of water taking a natural meandering path that would better protect adjacent cities from floods while also helping recharge the aquifer below.

With temperatures rising, snowpack in the mountains is melting more rapidly each spring, and the state lacks enough storage capacity to conserve the runoff.

California Governor Gavin Newsom plans to ramp up infrastructure spending, including US$8.6 billion budgeted for drought and flood management next year. Billions more are available under a major U.S. infrastructure law signed by President Joe Biden in 2021.

But until that money is converted to projects, excess stormwater will continue to drain into the Pacific Ocean.

Colorado River under stress

Arid southern California relies on two external sources to slake its thirst: aqueous northern California, through massive state and federal conveyance systems; and the Colorado River, under a century-old compact that assigns its water to seven states, with California receiving the largest allotment.

But the compact was written after an unusually wet period, assigning the states more water than the river can now provide. Even as the Colorado River basin faces its own drought, and the atmospheric rivers provide no relief, the Colorado River suffers more from overuse than from a lack of precipitation.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has warned the seven states in the compact — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — that they must negotiate a new agreement to reduce consumption 15-30 per cent by Jan. 31 or else face mandatory cuts imposed by the federal government.

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