The Stanley Soil Management Association held its AGM last week.
Richard Warkentin is a technician with the organization.
"What we've done a lot in the past few years and what still is our bread and butter is our shelterbelt planting and maintenance program. In 2013, the PFRA (Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration) disbanded and they closed down their tree nursery at Indian Head and so we decided to fill in the gap a bit. You can order seedling trees from us."
He says in the 80's they planted roughly 60 miles of shelterbelts in a year, and now they plant about six.
"It's nowhere near what it used to be. There are still the forward thinking farmers that are still planting shelterbelts," he said. "It isn't certainly as many shelterbelts but there's still planting happening. Our area has actually expanded quite a bit too."
Warkentin talked about the benefits of shelterbelts.
"You have more soil protection. You have a barrier to the wind, plus there's all kinds of aspects of more pollinators in the shelterbelts. There's been lots of studies to indicate you can actually increase your yield, depending on the year."
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