MVA hosts meeting on the future on the Northeast Swale

Modern day Saskatoon is encroaching on the borders of the Northeast Swale, and that has its steward, the Meewasin Valley Authority (MVA) working to ensure its future.

Today, the MVA is seeking feedback on its recently released Northeast Swale Master Plan.

Ensuring the valuable and endangered prairie ecosystem has never been more important as the city grows and new neighbourhoods spring up all around the swale.

"To maintain that biodiversity requires a lot of resource management when you've got that many people right next door to it,” said the MVA’s Alan Otterbein. 

Much depends on sound management of the swale

According to the MVA, the swale is home to hundreds of significant species of birds, animals and insects. It is also a rare example of untouched prairie.  Native grasslands, said the MVA, are now one of “the most imperilled ecosystems on the planet.”

Find the balance between protection and progress is the goal of the Master Plan, according to Otterbein.

"Going forward with nothing or just fencing it off and saying you everybody keep out, I don't think either of those options would work. You would lose that resource."

The plan has been up on the MVA website for about a week now. But today’s public meeting at the Forestry Farm House from 4 to 8:00 p.m. CST is the first opportunity for people of both sides to offer their views, and ask questions about the draft plan.