When certain lands are important to society-helping to prevent ruinous events such as Alberta's 2013 floods, for instance-will landowners provide them to society? If so, at what price? What would discourage them to do so?
That sort of information is what Peter Boxall, a resource economist and the chair of REES, wants to unearth in his segment of a research project on wetlands restoration that the Alberta Land Institute is launching February 24.
Alberta's Living Laboratory Wetlands Project is a multi-year, interdisciplinary project developed to understand how to restore wetlands in our province. Back when their worth wasn't fully understood, those wetlands were drained for agriculture or development. Now it's known that the bogs, sloughs, swamps and marshes have immense benefit for surrounding watershed areas. They help reduce the risk of floods, slow erosion, filter toxins, and nutrients such as phosphorous in the water supply.
However, the social and economic costs and benefits of ecological restoration are rarely addressed, said Boxall.
"It's important, because we have limited money to do these things, and there could be, for example, social barriers that prevent you from addressing those restoration objectives," he said.
Alberta wants wetlands restored. Since 1993, it's required developers to replace what they destroy. However, developers could opt to make an "in-lieu fee payment," which goes into a fund to restore wetlands. However, it is often difficult to find wetlands to restore, or landowners willing to have wetlands restored on their property, around populated areas like the City of Calgary.
So for this "living laboratory" project, Boxall and two other researchers-Irena Creed from Western University and Shari Clare, an adjunct professor in REES-will use funds from in-lieu fee payments to attempt to procure and then restore wetlands in the 990-sq.-km Nose Creek sub-watershed, north of Calgary. At the same time, the researchers will collect reams of information useful for future restoration endeavours.
Creed's team will build an inventory of drained wetlands from aerial scans and analysis. Meanwhile, Boxall and his team will find owners through land title searches and create a communications strategy. The researchers will work with local landowners to promote participation in the project. Using an innovative, market-based instrument, Boxall will also obtain data on what drained lands cost to secure and how owners determine those costs.
The information gathered will be invaluable for Alberta's new wetlands policy, introduced in 2013 and scheduled to be fully implemented by June. It classifies wetlands according to their functional value as A, B, C or D-types, and requires lost wetlands be replaced by ones of equal value. However, the process for assigning categories hasn't been perfected. The researchers' data will create tools to do so.
"For it to be a success, we need wetlands to be restored," said Boxall. His appeal to owners starts March 11.
That sort of information is what Peter Boxall, a resource economist and the chair of REES, wants to unearth in his segment of a research project on wetlands restoration that the Alberta Land Institute is launching February 24.
Alberta's Living Laboratory Wetlands Project is a multi-year, interdisciplinary project developed to understand how to restore wetlands in our province. Back when their worth wasn't fully understood, those wetlands were drained for agriculture or development. Now it's known that the bogs, sloughs, swamps and marshes have immense benefit for surrounding watershed areas. They help reduce the risk of floods, slow erosion, filter toxins, and nutrients such as phosphorous in the water supply.
However, the social and economic costs and benefits of ecological restoration are rarely addressed, said Boxall.
"It's important, because we have limited money to do these things, and there could be, for example, social barriers that prevent you from addressing those restoration objectives," he said.
Alberta wants wetlands restored. Since 1993, it's required developers to replace what they destroy. However, developers could opt to make an "in-lieu fee payment," which goes into a fund to restore wetlands. However, it is often difficult to find wetlands to restore, or landowners willing to have wetlands restored on their property, around populated areas like the City of Calgary.
So for this "living laboratory" project, Boxall and two other researchers-Irena Creed from Western University and Shari Clare, an adjunct professor in REES-will use funds from in-lieu fee payments to attempt to procure and then restore wetlands in the 990-sq.-km Nose Creek sub-watershed, north of Calgary. At the same time, the researchers will collect reams of information useful for future restoration endeavours.
Creed's team will build an inventory of drained wetlands from aerial scans and analysis. Meanwhile, Boxall and his team will find owners through land title searches and create a communications strategy. The researchers will work with local landowners to promote participation in the project. Using an innovative, market-based instrument, Boxall will also obtain data on what drained lands cost to secure and how owners determine those costs.
The information gathered will be invaluable for Alberta's new wetlands policy, introduced in 2013 and scheduled to be fully implemented by June. It classifies wetlands according to their functional value as A, B, C or D-types, and requires lost wetlands be replaced by ones of equal value. However, the process for assigning categories hasn't been perfected. The researchers' data will create tools to do so.
"For it to be a success, we need wetlands to be restored," said Boxall. His appeal to owners starts March 11.