Peace River District Office

Assistance available

The Peace River District Office assists clients and partners with a range of services and expertise. Technical (and limited financial assistance in some cases) is provided for client driven initiatives to assist with the environmentally sustainable utilization of land and water resources as well as progressive and sustainable economic development. This includes land management and soil conservation, water supply investigations and development, project engineering, and research and education.

Land Mangement and Soil Conservation

We offer assistance to our rural clients on residue management, reduced tillage, conservation planning, range management, and erosion prevention. Also offered is shelterbelt planning, design and maintenance assistance, as well as a cooperative program with Alberta Agriculture Food and Rural Development to provide tree seedlings for farmstead, field and wildlife shelterbelt plantings. Working with municipalities and farm groups we also conduct and assist with field demonstrations and applied research.

Water Supply Investigations and Devlopment

Assistance is available to rural residents, communities, other government agencies and businesses for developing or enhancing water supplies where water is identified as a constraint. PFRA has expertise in assessing feasibility, and in designing and supervising construction of water supply projects. Typical projects include groundwater supplies (wells), and surface water supplies such as dugouts and dams. Technical staff are available to visit clients at the project site to provide services such as surveying, and follow-up work such as design and drafting.PFRA can also assist clients with licencing projects.

Financial assistance can also be provided for qualifying projects. Under PFRA's Rural Water Development Program (RWDP), eligible projects include wells, dugouts, dams and pipelines. Other initiatives include groundwater exploration and mapping, aquifer management, research and development, and water quality monitoring projects. All projects must be environmentally acceptable.

Project Engineering

The Peace River District Office provides engineering assistance to clients for a range of small and large projects each year. Feasibility and concept studies as well as detailed engineering designs, tenders, and cost estimates may be developed to assist clients and partners with sustainable development of the Districts land and water resources.

Research and Education

Research into new ideas and methodologies assists PFRA to provide state-of-the-art solutions to various rural land and water development problems such as water quality. Consequently, the Peace River District Office conducts and assists with various research projects in conjunction with its partners, private industry and educational institutions. Information learned from this research as well as research by others is disseminated to the public via demonstration projects, field tours, educational brochures, newspaper articles, etc.

District description

The region is largely boreal forest incised by deep river valleys, such as the Peace River as the largest, with a few small open prairie areas. Significant land clearing since the early 1900's along the Peace River uplands and south to the Wapiti River and Little Smoky has resulted in a significant agricultural industry. The population is limited and widely dispersed, but centers such as Grande Prairie with 29,242 people; Peace River with 6,696; Fairview with 3,262; High Prairie with 2,932; Valleyview with 2,039; Falher with 1,183 and High Level with 2,921, are the key trade/economic centers for the region.

The district includes 13 municipal districts 125 Big Lakes, 130 Smoky River, 131 East Peace, 133 Spirit River, 135 Peace, 136 Fairview, 16 Greenview, 19 Birch Hills, 20 Saddle Hills, 21 Clear Hills, 22 Northern Lights & 23 MacKenzie and Grande Prairie County No.1.

The mainstay of the Peace River region economic base is its natural resources, of which agriculture, oil/gas and forestry are the most important. Agricultural production includes cereals, wheat, canola, grass seeds, legume seeds, forages, specialty crops, cow/calf and backgrounder operations, and specialty enterprises such as honey, bison, elk, fruits, etc. There are a few large and medium sized dairy farms and a few hog farms. Good off farm employment opportunities in the oil/gas and forestry sectors during the winter and distance to slaughter markets have limited the growth of the livestock industry in the region.

The region has four afalfa dehydrating plants, a canola crushing plant, honey processing plants, tree fruit processors, grain handling facilities and numerous other processing and handling facilities.