Small rural communities rely on their volunteer firefighters to handle…
The Grasslands Project - A Ranchers View
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
Miles Anderson is in a tough spot. The land he ranches has been in his family for over a hundred years, but it’s bordered on three sides by an expanding Grasslands National Park and its conservation imperative. Cattle were once considered a major threat to grasslands integrity and the endangered sage grouse in the region, but, due in large part to Miles’ persistence, his cattle are now seen as part of the conservation solution.
Citation
Main credits
Parker, Scott (film director)
Parker, Scott (screenwriter)
Parker, Scott (director of photography)
Parker, Scott (editor of moving image work)
Christensen, David (film producer)
Other credits
Filmed and edited by Scott Parker; music composed and performed by Aaron Macri.
Distributor subjects
No distributor subjects provided.Keywords
WEBVTT
00:00:31.500 --> 00:00:37.500
(door sliding)
00:00:37.500 --> 00:00:43.166
(footsteps)
00:00:44.458 --> 00:00:48.041
- You didn\'t notice if
that horse was lame?
00:00:48.041 --> 00:00:50.125
Coming in, was he good?
00:00:50.125 --> 00:00:51.750
Um, and he looked fine.
00:00:51.750 --> 00:00:55.083
Good, good.
00:00:58.166 --> 00:01:01.375
Hey, old fella.
00:01:01.375 --> 00:01:05.083
Whoa, boy, whoa.
00:01:12.083 --> 00:01:13.208
I\'m Miles Anderson.
00:01:13.208 --> 00:01:17.041
I ranch, like, south of
Fir Mountain, I guess,
00:01:17.041 --> 00:01:19.792
in Saskatchewan.
00:01:23.250 --> 00:01:24.375
Mainly I run cattle.
00:01:24.375 --> 00:01:27.709
We have run horses
and sheep, and that\'s
00:01:27.709 --> 00:01:30.917
how we make our living.
00:01:32.750 --> 00:01:39.125
And we do it on somewhat more
than 20,000 acres, I guess.
00:01:45.083 --> 00:01:54.709
Our family came in 1910,
and they homesteaded in 1911.
00:01:54.709 --> 00:01:56.041
I haven\'t been anywhere else.
00:01:56.041 --> 00:01:59.875
I went to college for a couple
of years, and other than that,
00:01:59.875 --> 00:02:02.917
I\'ve spent my entire life here.
00:02:02.917 --> 00:02:09.083
♪ ♪
00:02:12.875 --> 00:02:14.750
Well, the challenges
are, I mean it\'s,
00:02:14.750 --> 00:02:21.250
it takes a lot of acres
to run and feed cows.
00:02:23.709 --> 00:02:26.250
Oh, there\'s so many
thing that can happen that
00:02:26.250 --> 00:02:30.125
determines the amount of
grass that grows, like,
00:02:30.125 --> 00:02:33.250
there\'s hailstorms,
grasshoppers,
00:02:33.250 --> 00:02:37.041
fire and then drought.
00:02:37.500 --> 00:02:43.542
It\'s heartbreaking to, to have
it happen, but I mean it does.
00:02:47.667 --> 00:02:50.375
Our summer range is
in the middle of the
00:02:50.375 --> 00:02:53.208
Grasslands National
Park in the east block.
00:02:53.208 --> 00:02:57.125
We are on three sides
surrounded by grasslands,
00:02:57.125 --> 00:03:01.333
and then on the other
side is the US border.
00:03:05.458 --> 00:03:10.375
This is our side and
that side is the Parks.
00:03:11.500 --> 00:03:17.166
It\'s not as painful as it once
was having cows get out there.
00:03:17.166 --> 00:03:22.041
They aren\'t the
scourge the once were.
00:03:28.250 --> 00:03:33.917
Well, come on, buddy, come on.
00:03:38.166 --> 00:03:42.500
You can ride them but
you can\'t lead \'em.
00:03:43.959 --> 00:03:46.875
(wind blowing)
00:03:46.875 --> 00:03:51.542
When the wind is blowing
you have no bugs.
00:03:51.959 --> 00:03:56.250
Well, today will be a
good day for moving cows.
00:03:56.625 --> 00:04:00.208
Well, we\'re gonna go down and
gather about a hundred head of
00:04:00.208 --> 00:04:02.542
cow calf pairs.
00:04:02.542 --> 00:04:04.834
They\'re, like, 2 1/2
miles south of here,
00:04:04.834 --> 00:04:08.625
and we\'ll move \'em back up
towards here and move them into
00:04:08.625 --> 00:04:11.041
Grasslands Park.
00:04:14.750 --> 00:04:17.542
You get dealt a set of cards
and you got to play \'em, and,
00:04:17.542 --> 00:04:19.500
and I don\'t really want
to go anywhere else,
00:04:19.500 --> 00:04:25.625
and the hand that I\'ve been
dealt is to learn to deal with
00:04:25.625 --> 00:04:31.709
folks that maybe care more about
sage-grouse than they do about
00:04:31.709 --> 00:04:37.667
cows, or me making
a living from cows.
00:04:42.709 --> 00:04:45.500
See, there\'s all kinds of signs,
00:04:45.500 --> 00:04:51.291
that\'s fresh
sage-grouse droppings.
00:04:51.291 --> 00:04:54.583
Like, I can\'t believe
we can pop some out yet.
00:04:54.583 --> 00:04:57.959
They could be walking
around, watching us, too.
00:05:02.208 --> 00:05:06.917
Well, what the cattle do is they
remove the tall grass from in
00:05:06.917 --> 00:05:08.917
between the sagebrush plants.
00:05:11.083 --> 00:05:16.333
But you can see the
patchwork grazing there.
00:05:16.333 --> 00:05:19.000
There\'s places that\'s
grazed off short,
00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:23.458
which allows in the spring for
the forbs to get sunlight and
00:05:23.458 --> 00:05:29.041
heat to grow early, so that
would feed the chicks when
00:05:29.041 --> 00:05:32.125
they\'re first hatched.
00:05:32.125 --> 00:05:37.583
So, if they don\'t have
forbs and insects, they die.
00:05:41.750 --> 00:05:44.291
On our side of the fence
with the sage-grouse,
00:05:44.291 --> 00:05:48.875
the chick survivability was a
whole lot better on my side than
00:05:48.875 --> 00:05:50.000
it was on the Park side.
00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:53.709
They decided that for the sake
of the sage-grouse that they
00:05:53.709 --> 00:05:56.250
maybe ought to put
some cattle in there,
00:05:56.250 --> 00:05:59.125
or have some grazing
of some kind.
00:05:59.125 --> 00:06:06.166
(mooing)
00:06:08.709 --> 00:06:14.458
(mooing)
00:06:15.542 --> 00:06:18.458
By working together,
it can be better for both us,
00:06:18.458 --> 00:06:21.375
both us, the sage-grouse, the
people that care for them,
00:06:21.375 --> 00:06:30.458
and for me and my family as
far as raising livestock.
00:06:30.458 --> 00:06:38.667
(mooing)
00:06:45.834 --> 00:06:48.083
Well, I feel
pretty bad if we let the
00:06:48.083 --> 00:06:50.709
sage-grouse
disappear, I mean why,
00:06:50.709 --> 00:06:58.333
what gives us the
right to decide?
00:07:01.625 --> 00:07:07.375
♪ ♪
00:07:07.375 --> 00:07:12.000
I don\'t know, I mean whether
it\'ll be the next Dodo bird,
00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:15.542
or passenger pigeon, I
don\'t know, like, they\'re,
00:07:15.542 --> 00:07:19.542
like, right on the edge, so.
00:07:22.041 --> 00:07:23.750
A lot of people say
that they don\'t
00:07:23.750 --> 00:07:26.000
have much of a chance here.
00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:27.792
I can\'t really see
\'em disappearing,
00:07:27.792 --> 00:07:33.166
but I guess maybe that\'s
what they thought about the
00:07:33.166 --> 00:07:35.875
passenger pigeon, too.
00:07:35.875 --> 00:07:41.417
(wings fluttering)
00:07:41.417 --> 00:07:46.333
(birdsong)
00:08:00.041 --> 00:08:07.166
♪ ♪
Distributor: National Film Board of Canada
Length: 8 minutes
Date: 2016
Genre: Expository
Language: English
Color/BW:
Closed Captioning: Available
Existing customers, please log in to view this film.
New to Docuseek? Register to request a quote.
Related Films
The southern Prairies are overwhelmingly anglophone, yet a strong and…
Many small communities are losing their young people, attracted to careers…