PRAIRIE ACRESnews for Alberta’s land stewards

Fall 2012

IN THIS ISSUE: Spotlight on one of OGC’s young ranching families & Identifying birds with iBird

Meet One of OGC’s Ranching Partners:

The Beasley’sJohn and Kelsey are a young family passionate about ranching. They are part of a large family ranching operation near Youngstown, and enjoy the lifestyle that a farming life offers. The Beasley’s also care deeply about their land, carefully monitoring range health, condition of the grass, and grazing. When approached by Operation Grassland Community they were keen to get involved with some grassland restoration. Last year John and Kelsey and OGC undertook a major reseeding project on their ranch in hopes of increasing habitat for the Sprague’s Pipit (a small sparrow-sized songbird that requires large tracts of healthy prairie to survive). The seed and labour for this project was cost-shared with OGC, and resulted in over 250 acres of restored pasture that will be used for grazing. It is the commitment and dedication of members like the Beasley’s that make it possible to have a successful ranching operation while continuing to benefit the species that depend on this land.

Kelsey and John were also recently featured on the FarmOn Foundation website, describing their story, and providing great advice and support to other young ranching families. They are an example of the passion, determination, courage and wisdom that it takes to be successful in this business. Check out the video of Kelsey and John’s farm:

http://farmon.com/pages/workshops/guides/farmon/free-content/stories/ kelsey-john’s-story.aspx

Operation Grassland Community – a program of the Alberta Fish & Game Association

6924 - 104 Street, Edmonton, Alberta T6H 2L7

p. 780.437.2342 f. 780.438.6872 e. office@afga.org www.afga.org

Identify that bird… with your phone

Have you ever been out checking your cattle when you see a bird burst out of the grass in front of you and wonder what it could be? Or heard an ethereal, slurred, descending, “zeer, zeer, zeer, zeer, zeer” notes high in the clear blue sky. Identifying birds has now become easier with the latest and greatest in phone “apps”. No longer do you need to lug around a large cumbersome field guide, when all the information is stored in your phone. One app for the iPhone or iPad is called iBird, which can be downloaded from the App Store. It contains all the information you need to identify birds in North America. Using this app, birds can be identified by shape, size, color, habitat, color, family, length, weight, flight pattern, etc. It contains full color illustrations and photographs, range maps. It also contains bird calls and songs for almost every species. Some of our ranching members have used this app with great success, and enjoy being able to identify some of the birds on their ranch by song. For more information, search iBird Canada in the App Store on your iPhone/iPad or Android phone.

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