Think of them as nature’s lawnmowers.
About 300 sheep are grazing in Saskatoon’s northeast swale to improve the habitat for grassland birds, whose population has declined by 70 per cent since the 1970s.
Meewasin has been using sheep for the past six years to recreate natural disturbances on the landscape.
“When you think of the native prairie, they would have evolved under ten thousand years of bison grazing. We’ve removed bison, and over the last 150 years started using cattle grazing,” Meewasin resource management officer Renny Grilz said.
The swale isn’t fenced for cattle, however, and there hasn’t been cattle grazing in the area for 20 years. They’re also more grass grazers and don’t eat a lot of shrub.
Sheep have proven to be the best option.
“Sheep are easy to contain and have that mix of shrub and grass in their diet that works for what our target is here,” shepherd Sue Michalsky said. “Grassland birds have an aversion to shrubs, so we really need reduce that shrub cover.”
Knocking back the shrubs means long days for the sheep. Every morning they are moved from their night pen to pasture, spending up to 15 hours grazing.
There are fences in place to ensure they are focused on a certain area at a time, and it takes them a few days to graze an acre of land.
Grilz said since the project started, he’s noticed an increase in ground squirrels, which is good news for the grassland birds.
“The open grass provides more habitat for the ground squirrels, which in turn provides more food sources for the birds like the short-eared owl, an endangered species we found on the site the last couple of years,” he said.
The grazing sheep will be in Saskatoon until Sept. 16, but Meewasin plans to have them back grazing in the northeast swale every year.
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