May 12, 2011
Water, Water Everywhere...
A bird's-eye view says it all...southern Manitoba is experiencing the wettest conditions in the past three hundred years. Despite extensive flood control measures, officials plan to deliberately breach dikes on the Assiniboine River to release pressure downstream. Hundreds of square kilometres will be further flooded under this "controlled release", affecting hundreds of square kilometres. Officials expect the extremely wet conditions to continue well into the summer. Home owners and farmers are facing very challenging times. The good news is the potential effect on waterfowl breeding success.
"The small wetlands will stay wet and we're going to have that sort of situation," says Delta's Science Director Frank Rohwer. "We're going to have water spilling out into agricultural land… a disaster for farmers, but it's going to great for ducks. It's exactly what we ask for when we want a fabulous duck season."
