John Kort and Tricia Pollock

The Fur Trade
1670 - “Rupert’s Land” - monopoly of The Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay (the Hudson’s Bay Company )
- a consortium led by Prince Rupert, nephew of King Charles I.

Before the railway
1818 - The 49 th parallel was agreed to between Britain and the US from Lake of the
Woods to the Rocky Mountains (extended to the Pacific under the Oregon Treaty –
1846).
1867 – Canadian Confederation
• HBC to cede Rupert’s Land to Queen Victoria, who would give it to the Dominion of Canada.
• The Métis of Red River, led by Louis Riel established an independent Republic of
Manitobah in 1869 and were routed by British Colonel Wolseley and his troops from Ontario (Upper Canada). Manitoba became a province in 1870.
• By referendum, British Columbia chose Canadian confederation over annexation to the US and joined Canada in 1871, with a promise by the Canadian government of a connecting railway within 10 years.

1870s – The last of the buffalo, the coming of the North West Mounted Police,
Indian treaties and the creation of Indian reserves

New Manitoba settlers
Provincial status of Manitoba brought new settlers starting in
1873
• from Ontario and Quebec
• Icelanders, fleeing a volcano, settled near the banks of Lake
Winnipeg.
• Mennonites, fleeing persecution in Russia, settled in the Red
River Valley of southern Manitoba. They thrived on the open prairie and, following their traditional practices on the Russian steppes, started planting trees around their dwellings and villages, the first shelterbelts.

The railway and the flood of settlers
1881-1883 – The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) crosses the prairies
The National Policy (including the promise to British
Columbia) was a plan to make Canada a functioning east-towest country - a major goal was to “settle” the prairies.
From 1876, immigration to the prairies increased exponentially in anticipation of a railway. The Ottawa government was under pressure to get the railway built, but it was happening too slowly.

Enter
Cornelius Van Horne.
Track was suddenly being laid at up to 3 miles per day (~300 miles in 1882).
28,000 settlers flooded the prairies in 1881.

The “Last Spikes” were driven at Lake Superior on November 3, 1885 and in the Rocky Mountains on November 7, 1885. Donald Smith ((Lord
Strathcona) drives the spike in Craigellachie, BC).

Homesteading settlers
Homesteaders claimed one quartersection (160 acres) of land. Sod huts and no trees.
Winnipeg was a boomtown – the gateway to the west.
1896 – The Yukon Gold Rush and greater crop productivity led to another wave of settlers, (eastern European - Ukrainians and others), mostly in more agriculturally marginal areas.

Indian Head, Assiniboia, North West Territories
Indian Head was a prime destination for the 1881 wave of homesteaders, including the young Angus MacKay.
1887 – The Dominion of Canada created two prairie
Experimental Farms – Brandon, Manitoba and Indian Head,
North West Territory. Angus MacKay became Superintendent at
Indian Head
- released “Marquis” wheat – a “game changer” – high yielding, early maturing, high protein.
- helped farm families become self-sufficient with fruits, vegetables, poultry, dairy and trees/shrubs for shelter and wood.

Angus McKay

Indian Head, Assiniboia, North West Territories
1901 – Demand for seedlings was so great that the Dominion Forest Nursery
Station was created under the superintendence of Norman Ross, a Scot, who had graduated from the Biltmore forestry school.
Norman Ross - Superintendent
Superintendent’s Residence at the Forest Nursery Station - 1902

From 1892 to 1930, most shelterbelts were multi-row farmyard belts, planted by hand.
Some field shelterbelts by farmers who knew trees, like the
Mennonites in southern Manitoba.
Bags of trees waiting at the Indian Head station - 1917

1905 - Indian Head, Saskatchewan
1905 – provincial status for Saskatchewan and Alberta.
Wind erosion was common. 1910s - Forward-looking farmers started planting field shelterbelts at Conquest, Saskatchewan.

The Dirty 30s, field shelterbelts and the creation of the PFRA
Drought and tillage led to crop failure and the great dust storms of the “Dirty 30s”. Many farmers abandoned their land.
The Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Act was passed in 1935 and an
Administration (PFRA) was established.
Field shelterbelts were funded through the PFRA, especially in special project communities (Lyleton, Manitoba; Conquest and
Aneroid, Saskatchewan)
The Tree Nursery at Indian Head provided the seedlings, training, supervision and inspection of the plantings.

Planting a field belt at Conquest, SK - 1942

Conquest
Aneroid
Lyleton
Winkler

Mechanized tree planting began in the late 1930s
Tree planter developed by W.R.
Johnson of Conquest, SK.
Tree planter developed at Indian Head by Tree Inspector Ralph Dunlop.

Field shelterbelts at Conquest, Saskatchewan

Operated by the Canadian Forestry
Association (1920-1973)

1980s a new era of soil conservation programming
– led by PFRA
From the 1930s to the mid-1990s, cultivated summer fallow was standard on the Prairies.
Late 1980s - Prolonged drought caused severe wind erosion, again increasing interest in field shelterbelts (Saskatchewan’s
Save Our Soils program – other federal/provincial programs in
Alberta and Manitoba).
Record number of seedlings shipped from the Shelterbelt Centre in 1991 (>11 million)

Farmyard and field shelterbelts near Indian Head, Saskatchewan.

2000s – A time of change
- changes in production technology (direct seeding, aerial applications, GPS steering)
- increase in farm size and changed pattern of farm ownership
(corporations, rented land, change of ownership)
- Increase in shelterbelt removal
- more government belt-tightening and passing responsibility to private companies or arm’s-length organizations – federal and provincial levels
- greater consumer interest and diversity creating agricultural niches, especially near urban centres (farmers’ markets, local products, organic, etc.)

2013 - the end of an era and the Prairie
Shelterbelt Program
• The Prairie Shelterbelt Program, ~ 700 million seedlings (1901 –
2013) plus extension, education and research (research continues).
• The social benefits from the Prairie Shelterbelt Program during the period from 1981 to 2001 alone was estimated at over $100 million. Including private benefits, the total was estimated at
$140 million.
• In spring, 2012, Gerry Ritz, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food
Canada, announced the end of the Prairie Shelterbelt Program as a deficit-cutting measure.
• The Minister expressed confidence that the private sector would provide needed seedlings.

Tree Distribution 1901-2013
10
8
6
4
14
12
2
0
1901 1907 1913 1919 1925 1931 1937 1943 1949 1955 1961 1967 1973 1979 1985 1991 1997 2003 2009
Year
0
2000
14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000

Staff and students at 2011 Open House

Canada-US collaboration
• The GPAC Forestry Committee > Plains and Prairie Forestry
Association
• The Windbreak Symposium (Lincoln, Nebraska)
• Tree Improvement - Rich Cunningham and others
• Lincoln-Oakes Nursery – stock exchanges
• AFTA – NAAC hosted in Regina, Quebec, Charlottetown
• Memorandum of Understanding - USDA National Agroforestry
Center/AAFC Agroforestry Development Centre

2014 - the future (??)
Agroforestry research continues at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Canadian universities. We need to continue to develop agroforestry designs and species that are environmentally and/or economically effective .
Perhaps delivered by an arm’s length organization (e.g. ALUS – Alternative Land Use
Services).

Questions for consideration:
• Are we in a cycle?
• What would happen if we had a prolonged drought?
• Are there new opportunities for agroforestry due to technology - like precision farming or specialized farming systems?