County of Stettler takes direct route on wild boar pest

Stu Salkeld,
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The County of Stettler’s Agriculture Service Board (ASB) decided directly lobbying upper levels of government on the ubiquitous wild boar problem may be more effective than employing lobby groups. The decision was made at the July 24 regular ASB meeting.

The ASB is comprised of members of county council and chaired by Coun. Les Stulberg.

Director of Ag Services Quentin Beaumont provided board members with a request to consider any resolutions they’d like made for the upcoming Central Alberta ASB Regional Conference scheduled for Oct. 17 in Starland County. An important note was that a previous resolution the County of Stettler ASB forwarded, regarding a major Alberta pest, the wild boar, was sent back to the County of Stettler.

Beaumont noted he was told the County of Stettler’s wild boar resolution “wasn’t strong enough.”

The chair asked his peers if they had an appetite for writing a strong wild boar resolution. Readers should note lobby groups such as the Central Alberta ASB’s gather decisions and opinions from their members and then lobby other levels of government on member’s behalf.

Reeve Larry Clarke noted the resolution process takes a lot of time and he isn’t sure there is a return on that investment. Clarke used the recent banning of the poison strychnine which was popular among producers for controlling pests like gophers.

Clarke noted lobbying didn’t appear to have much effect on the ban, while gopher populations appear quite healthy. “They’re taking over,” said the reeve of the small, yellow prairie pest.

Clarke stated he felt if the County of Stettler was going to draft another resolution about wild boars he felt it needed to be done properly to ensure adoption, but pointed out you don’t hear anybody talking about a problem like wild boar or gophers unless it directly affects them.

Coun. James Nibourg agreed, adding that he believed if wild boars and gophers were causing a lot of problems in Ottawa there would be more urgency to find a solution.

He further noted he hoped upper levels of government could at least see from discussions that many in the farm community want something done about wild boars. He stated it appears the provincial ASB board “has given up on this.”

The reeve noted the issue of addressing pest threats isn’t just centred on wild boar, but points out a weakness when new threats arise as well. Clarke stated elk appears to be the next major threat to producers as some have reported the ungulate attacking corn crops.

Nibourg echoed this concern; he pointed out a recent anecdote near Calgary that involved insect farming and a report that there was a leak where a neighbouring warehouse was damaged.

During discussion board members wondered for example who regulates insect farming practices and ensures they don’t have negative effects on other producers?

Stulberg stated it sounded to him like the County of Stettler ASB wasn’t interested in sending another wild boar resolution to the provincial board. Instead, board members agreed directly lobbying provincial and federal agriculture ministers and departments about pest problems like wild boar was more likely to get results.

Councillors accepted the report as information.

Stu Salkeld,
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
East Central Alberta Review