“Our Environment: The Co$t of Doing Nothing!”

    
Plan to join us at our 34th Manitoba Conservation Districts Association Convention and Tradeshow at the Keystone Centre – Brandon, Manitoba – with a kick off on Monday evening December 7th, 2009 at our Tradeshow Reception.

The primary purpose of the convention is to provide knowledge and technical transfer information on environmental, landscape and sustainability issues that may impact the well-being of all living within Manitoba’s Conservation watersheds and/or 18 Conservation Districts .

We are pleased to welcome Kevin Stewart of AgVision Inc. as our Keynote Speaker to the MCDA convention. For further information on Kevin please go to the Speakers Workshops and Presentation page.  

Honourable Christine Melnick – Minister of Water Stewardship will join us on Tuesday at the MCDA banquet and Wednesday morning in the Ministerial session.  

NEW to the MCDA this year is our Break-Out Tracks – we have four main themes in the Break out Tracks – each track will have three speakers addressing the topic.  The topics include:

• • Energy and Regional Development – Positioning Manitoba for the carbon economy will strengthen our independence from fossil fuels as well as improve soil and water resources. Learn how agricultural products are playing new roles in our worlds rising heat and fuel energies demands.  
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• • Creating a Watershed Culture – We all know what a watershed is, we can identify them by maps, but do we truly understand what it means to have a watershed culture.  Speakers will discuss Watershed Report Cards, Watersheds in Europe and First Nations Perspective and Issues regarding water.  
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• • Climate Change and Sustainability - This set of speakers will allow us to able to understand the actions required to prevent us from re-living misunderstood choices so that we can act effectively and responsibly as we engage and implement our watershed management plans and plot our future environmental actions.
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• • Assiniboine Community College – The students from Land and Water Management and GPS will provide an overview of their initial report to address the proposals submitted by partner CD’s.  The students will present options for partner CD’s to consider and a framework for continued development of specific plans to meet the partners’ needs.

In the fall of 2008, MCDA was awarded funding to research two Beneficial Management Practices.  On Wednesday morning – December 9th, 2009 Dr. Don Flaten of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Science along with CD managers will share with all of us the findings to date on the Vegetative Buffer Strip and Off Stream Watering Beneficial Management Practices Study.  

For further info on the break out tracks click on Speakers, Workshops and Presentations page or click on agenda .