The Swift Current Creek Watershed Stewards (SCCWS) have mapped out their plan of attack for the next half-decade.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the non-profit corporation wasn't able to finalize until recently their top three areas of priority until the end of 2024.

The group's focus will now turn to the impacts agriculture has on water quality and watershed health, management of water through extreme climatic events, and the management and education on invasive species and their impact on water quality and watershed health.

Kevin Steinley, executive director of the Swift Current Creek Watershed Stewards, said they received input from about 30 stakeholders in the fall of 2019 that played a big part in setting the SCCWS tasks.  

"They helped us identify the three areas that we'd like to focus our work on to give priority to over the next five years," he said.

According to Steinley, the three priority areas aren't anything new to the work of the watershed stewards already, however, outlining the trio of focuses allows them to put more emphasis on them. Something their stakeholders and residents from around the watershed area would like to see.

"We have been working with farmers and ranchers in our area to put in projects that improve water quality and watershed health," he said. "We have been involved in looking at the impacts of climate variability and how we can manage the water. We've also been heavily involved in invasive species programming."

The SCCWS has been doing water quality monitoring in several areas of the creek at least once a month in the summertime since officially becoming an organization in 2001.

"It's one of the pillars of the work that we do," Steinley said. "Many of the projects that we have been given funding for include a water quality and watershed health component."

The 302-kilometre long Swift Current Creek begins at the foot of Cypress Hills and empties into the South Saskatchewan River just west of Beaver Flats.