SAF Forage Specialist Wins Range Management Award

Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food

Michel Tremblay, Provincial Forage Crop Specialist with Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food recently received the Society for Range Management (SRM) Outstanding Achievement Award. SRM is dedicated to the conservation and sustainable management of rangelands for the benefit of current and future generations.

Also receiving the award were Ted and Olive Perrin of Beechy. The couple owns and operates the 12,775-acre Castleland Ranch in the northern mixed prairie region. The official citation mentions how Castleland Ranch is a leader in range management in the Canadian ranching industry.

“Forward thinking and conservative range management on Castleland Ranch ensures sustainable grazing resources through extremes in climatic conditions over the short- and long-term. Many of the long-standing management approaches of Castleland Ranch are new technology for many producers,” according to the SRM.

Tremblay and the Perrins accepted their awards at the SRM convention in Vancouver. SRM has about 4,000 members worldwide who deal with natural resource management and range ecology. SRM award recipients may or may not be SRM members, but they will have had a significant impact on the advancement of applied ecology on rangelands.

Tremblay is a native of the Saskatoon area. He developed an interest in rangelands as a result of his farm upbringing.

“We were concerned with the level of soil erosion occurring with the farming practices prevalent at the time," he says. "Seeding light land to forages was a bit of a conservation ethic for our family. We gained much appreciation for the landscape, and for the value of rangelands. Conservation of rangelands is good for the environment.”

Tremblay worked at the Saskatchewan Forage Council for a few years. He joined Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food as a Provincial Forage Specialist in December 1992.

Tremblay finds the Society for Range Management a useful resource for him.

“The society gives you a professional network. You become aware of what other people are working on, and you draw on that to solve problems in your own jurisdiction.”

There are between 10 and 12 million acres of rangeland in Saskatchewan. There is also a large acreage base of introduced forages that has grown steadily in recent years, Tremblay points out.

“That part of the industry expands, but rangeland is a finite resource because you can’t create rangeland. Restoration of broken rangeland is very difficult. This is why we should manage it with a little bit of wisdom,” he concludes.

For more information, contact:

Michel Tremblay
Forage Crops Provincial Specialist
Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food
(306) 787-7712