Smithers Farmers' Institute
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Climate Change Adaptation Program

All of the projects completed during this three-year initiative started under the BC Climate Action Initiative, and then were moved over to the Climate Change Adaptation Program administered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. The study area for all projects included the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako and the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George. All projects started with extensive community consultation to determine regional priorities (full Regional Adaptation Strategy found here).
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Pollinator Assessment (Year 1)

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What's pollinating crops in BC's Central Interior?
Year 1 (2021 Growing Season)
  • Factsheet
  • Report​
A second field season was completed for this project in 2022. Factsheets and the final report are currently being finalized and will be available soon!

Collaborative Fuel Managment

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Three years were spent on different phases of this project. The core premise was to explore different cost-effective strategies for reducing wildfire risk (through fuel reduction) in the interface areas between extensive agricultural operations and crown land. The third phase also focused on the impact of the fuel mitigation strategies on forage availability.

Phase I and II were administered by the Nechako Valley Cattlemen's Association; the study area for these two years included the Regional Districts of Bulkley-Nechako, Fraser-Fort George, and the Cariboo Regional District. One site in the Bulkley-Nechako region was selected for Phase III. The Skeena Regional Cattlemen's Association are administering Phase III.

Project Outcomes:
Phase I Report - Fuel Management Pilot Business Case for High-Risk Agriculture Interface Areas
Phase II Report - Fuel Management Pilot 

Water Management

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Knowledge Transfer for Adoption of Water Management Best Practices report and list of resources.
Several webinars were produced for this project:
Agriculture, the Water Cycle and Agroforestry (2021)
Forage Crop and Variety Selection for Dryland Farms (2021)
​Building Soil Carbon and Soil Tilth for Water Conservation (2021)
Keyline Water Management (2021)

Dryland Forage

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Selecting suitable and adaptive dryland forage crops and varieties project - this project looked at the suitability of forage crops (and their varieties) for our area. The project also tested the Forage U-Pick Tool to see if was useful for this region.

​Several factsheets were developed as part of this project - they are currently being finalized and will be available soon! 
 
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