This past week southwest landholders, ranchers, and rural community members attended the Badgers, Beef, & Pastures habitat management workshops. 

Around 13 people showed up to the first workshop at the Val Marie Senior Centre on Tuesday, Feb. 27 and 10 attended the second workshop at the Eastend Activity Centre on Wednesday, Feb. 28.

Nature Saskatchewan partnered with the Saskatchewan Prairie Conservation Plan, Saskatchewan Stock Growers Foundations, and South of the Divide Conservation Action Plan to bring the workshop to both Eastend and Val Marie.

Grace Pidborchynski, habitat stewardship coordinator with Nature Saskatchewan, was excited to see everyone who showed up at the respective locations.

"At both workshops, there were some really great conversations happening," said Pidborchynski. "It was a really good opportunity to get to hear from land managers and ranchers to see how they manage their land and bounce ideas off each other even." 

Workshop participants got the opportunity for hands-on activities and learned about American Badger coexistence, at-risk species identification, ranch planning, conservation, financial incentives such as conservation easements, and more. 

"It gave people the chance to know what resources are out there, such as funding through habitat agreements to help conserve the grasslands," Pidborchynski said. "It's just a good place to learn of those tools that are out there in the province." 

Additionally, there were presentations from a wildlife photographer, a biologist from the Southern Land Trust, and Sherri Grant who is the co-author of 'Where Beef Comes From'. 

Catering from the Eastend 4-H club and the Val Marie Hotel provided the attendees with a dinner free of charge.

"We really appreciated all the people that came out, we loved hearing from everyone, and hope that future events will be just as successful," said Pidborchynski. 

A few of the many sponsors and supporters of the Badgers, Beef, & Pastures workshops included Sask Lotteries, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Sasktel, Earth Rangers, The Mosaic Company, TC Energy, Government of Saskatchewan Fish and Wildlife Development Fund, Alliance Pipeline and more.