Agrologists toured the Pemberton Valley in summer 2019 to collect information on crops, irrigation, livestock, and land-use for farming areas in the region.
Agriculture is an important sector in the Pemberton Valley, and to help ensure its viability, the Ministry of Agriculture, SLRD, and the partnership for Water Sustainability in BC partnered to update the Agricultural Land Use Inventory (ALUI) and Water Demand Model (WDM), which were last completed in 2009.
Representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture presented the resultant updates to the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District Board on Wednesday, August 26, 2020 at 11am. The recording of the Board meeting can be accessed here. The final ALUI web application will be uploaded once publically available.
ALUI Update Presentation - August 2020
Agriculture Water Demand Model Report - September 2020
What is the purpose of the update?
An up to date ALUI is an important tool for making effective land-use planning decisions. It is a snapshot of current conditions, as well as an ability to predict agricultural land use trends in the region.
The updated ALUI:
- Defines the amount of actively farmed land in the region as of 2019;
- Provides a measure of change since the last inventory in 2009; and
- Will inform a future update of the 2012 Pemberton Valley Agricultural Plan.
The WDM:
- Enables examination of water management alternatives that consider future land use changes;
- Defines potential impacts of climate change and identify appropriate adaptation strategies;
- Better plans for changing water demand pressures; and
- Informs future water storage modelling projects.
This project is geographically focused in the Pemberton Valley (including both Electoral Area C and the Village of Pemberton), however the broader regional community stands to benefit as the data will support agriculture and regional food production, as well as overall regional food security.
The SLRD allocated $5,000 plus in-kind support in the SLRD 2019 budget to complete the project. This project was funded in part by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the Government of British Columbia through programs delivered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of B.C.