Join us for a Prairie’s Got the Goods Week Webinar about Cattle and Biodiversity!
Tuesday March 17th, 2026 at 12:00pm
Presenter: Dr. Emily Holden, Vegetation Ecologist, Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute
Register for Free: https://shorturl.at/NOXL4
FREE! Everyone welcome! Watch from anywhere!
More Information: Saskatchewan Prairie Conservation Action at 306.352.0472 or pcap@sasktel.net
Presentation Summary:
The beef cattle industry is one of Saskatchewan’s largest land users and an important steward of rangelands and their biodiversity. The Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI) recently completed a multi-year, collaborative project using species-habitat models to assess how beef production influences plant diversity in southern Saskatchewan. We developed new maps of the beef industry’s land-use footprint and compared predicted plant species abundance in current and historical, undeveloped landscapes to estimate habitat intactness. Intactness was generally higher in pasture-dominated areas than in other land uses, suggesting cattle grazing may better support biodiversity than alternative land-use types. However, our analysis focused on land conversion rather than fine-scale habitat quality, meaning further work is needed to evaluate how grazed landscapes contribute to long-term biodiversity outcomes. This project highlights how ABMI’s modelling tools can be applied in new regions to understand human impacts on biodiversity.
This Webinar Presentation is part of SK PCAP’s Prairie’s Got the Goods Week! PGTGW is an annual, week-long series of webinars focusing on the goods and services provided by the native prairie ecosystem. All of our webinars are FREE and everyone is welcome to attend.
Recordings will be uploaded to www.youtube.com/user/skpcap