Backgrounder
Coteau Stewardship First Step Project

The Coteau Stewardship First Step Project seeks to maintain a mosaic of natural, restored and managed landscapes capable of sustaining species at risk populations found within the Missouri Coteau landscape of southern Saskatchewan, located within the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of Canada.

The Missouri Coteau is an extensive glacial moraine (rock, sand, and clay sediment left behind by a glacier) considered as one of Canada's most significant tracts of prairie grasslands, lakes and pothole complexes. This area covers approximately 23,000 square kilometres in the prairie ecozone of Saskatchewan. This landscape is orientated in a diagonal belt radiating outward from a line drawn from the northwest near the community of Biggar through Chaplin, Crane Valley and extending to Lake Alma and the United States border (Figure 1). This project will target stewardship activities in the Missouri Coteau landscape and adjacent grassland and wetlands.

Figure 1:
The Missouri Coteau Landscape

The Missouri Coteau landscape was chosen as a first step project because:

• the Missouri Coteau landscape represents important habitat for a multitude of species at risk,
• southern Saskatchewan's prairie habitat is threatened by the conversion of native prairie to cropland, by fragmentation and degradation, and by wetland drainage,
• protecting the prairie ecosystem's existing wetland and grassland habitat base is the best long-term strategy to address the needs of species at risk and all prairie wildlife, particularly migratory birds,
• the Missouri Coteau Stewardship project will complement other Environment Canada initiatives including the development of a Prairie Ecosystem Initiative and the development of a Prairie Grassland Initiative under the Prairie Habitat Joint Venture.

The Coteau First Step Project will be implemented at a landscape level on private lands. This action will be complementary to the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP) land management activities in the same area.

The project's specific activities will occur where: Piping Plover and Loggerhead Shrike surveys (identified by the Prairie Canada Shorebird Conservation Plan) identify critical wetland habitat for protection and, where Nature Saskatchewan is looking at Operation Burrowing Owl land parcels for protection.

The Missouri Coteau landscape provides essential habitat to the following species at risk:

Species at Risk * Targeted by Habitat Stewardship First Step Project

COSEWIC species shown as endangered or threatened and marked above with an asterisk will be targeted. Other vulnerable species shown above are expected to also benefit from habitat stewardship.