It isn’t just people working on maintaining the Beaver Creek Conservation Area (BCCA).
A lot of work has been going on behind the scenes to prepare for BCAA’s reopening on Thursday, after being closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In grassland areas, 130 sheep are grazing, reducing shrub cover and invasive species.
“Within the past 150 years, we’ve lost the bison from the prairies, but we’ve replaced them with cattle, sheep and horses,” Meewasin resource management officer Renny Grilz said.
“The grazing done by the sheep replicates that historical grazing of those large wild animals.”
It’s a task the sheep can’t do on their own. Shepherd Jared Epp and one of his seven sheepdogs follow whistle commands to herd the sheep.
The dogs go through rigorous training and are able to change their speed and direction based on the different sounds they hear from a shepherd. They are bred with a hunting instinct, which is utilized to guide the sheep.
“The leader gives some direction to the predator and the predator is allowed to hunt its sheep. The sheep are responding as a prey animal trying to stay safe from the predator,” Epp explained.
“It’s really just nature being utilized to fix nature.”
The grazing will also impact other wildlife.
“When we’re adding more grazing to the site, we’re seeing an increase in gophers on the land. With that increase in gophers, we’re seeing more hawks and birds of prey coming in to eat those gophers,” Grilz said.
Demonstrations will be held Thursday through Sunday at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. with a 30 person limit per session.
Meewasin Valley Authority is hoping capacity can be increased as BCCA is open. There will also be some other changes people can expect to see at the site.
“We’ve been doing a lot of upgrades to the building and fixing some of the pieces in the trail that need to be widened and increases to safety to meet the COVID guidelines,” Meewasin marketing and fund development manager Amy Wall said.
Wall encourages people to stay for shorter periods of time so more groups can walk through BCAA.