Forage and Grasslands Unpacked

Welcome to Forage and Grasslands Unpacked, a podcast by Canadian Forage and Grasslands Association. This week we’re talking about riparian areas and their impact. We have four special guests joining us.

 This week’s host Kaylee Healy chats with Shari Clare, Amy Berlando, Kylie McRae and Jordan Sinclair. 

Jordan Sinclair holds a PhD in ecology and is CEO of ALUS, a national charitable organization delivering farmer-led, community-governed conservation across 41 Canadian communities. 

Amy Berlando is a registered professional biologist with 20 years of experience in watershed and landscape analysis, ecological restoration, and collaborative planning.  She is the Provincial Riparian Specialist for Cows & Fish Riparian Management Society. 

Kylie McRae, a professional agronomist, is a Conservation Program Specialist with Ducks Unlimited Canada. Situated near Kisbey, Saskatchewan she works with producers in southeast Saskatchewan interested in converting cropland to perennial forages on both DUC-owned projects as well as their own private lands. Recently, she has been involved with seeding forages on marginal acres by drone and looks forward to more development on this initiative. 

Shari Clare is a professional biologist and one of the co-founders of Fiera Biological Consulting Ltd., an environmental consulting firm based in Edmonton, Alberta, on Treaty 6 territory. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Physical & Environmental Sciences at the University of Toronto Scarborough. Shari specializes in watershed management, wetland ecology, and conservation planning. 

Canadian Forage and Grasslands website

Welcome to Forage and Grasslands Unpacked, a podcast by Canadian Forage and Grasslands Association. This week we’re talking about management options and how we can support grasslands so they thrive. 

Host Cedric MacLeod leads an informative conversation with guests Tom Harrison or the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Foundation, Alvin First Rider with Blood Tribe Land Management and Serena Black of the BC Forage Council. 

Spoiler...grazing is only part of the story.

Serena is a professional agrologist working out of Prince George. She has been working in the livestock and forage sector for more than a decade, focusing on soil health, plant productivity and advanced grazing management. She is grateful to have the opportunity to focus her work on supporting farmer-led research and extension throughout British Columbia, and across Canada. She is also the current chair of the Canadian Forage and Grassland Association. 

Alvin is the environmental manager for Blood Tribe Land Management and he oversees numerous land steward initiatives including cultural burns, bison herd management, native tree and shrub planting and ecological restoration.

Tom is the program manager with Saskatchewan Stock Growers Federation. A professional agrologist, he works with multiple agencies as a consultant, in addition to operating his own ranch with his wife and daughter.

Stock Growers Foundation

Blood Tribe Land Management - bloodtribe.org

B.C. Forage Council – Promoting the growth and development of a viable forage industry for domestic and export markets

Canadian Forage and Grassland Association

This week on Forage and Grasslands Unpacked we have a full panel representing a wide variety of voices who represent a network of people and organizations with a stake in preserving grasslands. 

Joining us today are: 

Graham Gilchrist is a professional agrologist with over 35 years of experience serving the needs of rural Canadians. He is the CEO of the non-profit society Biological Carbon Canada, which specializes in learning and knowledge transfer about greenhouse gas markets for Canadian farms. He is an independent director for the Alberta Federation of Agriculture. 

Adrienne Hanson is the National Grazing Coordinator with CFGA. She and her family custom graze 400 cow/calf pairs on a fourth-generation cattle operation near Langbank in southeast Saskatchewan.  

Candice Pete-Cardoso is a nēhiyaw-iskwēw from Little Pine First Nation, Treaty 6 Territory, and a University of Saskatchewan alumna with a Master of Public Administration, a Bachelor of Commerce, and a Certificate in Indigenous Business Administration. As director of the kihci-okāwīmāw askiy Knowledge Centre at the University of Saskatchewan, she supports Indigenous-led collaboration, knowledge sharing, and conservation initiatives that strengthen relationships between Indigenous communities, academic institutions, and partner organizations.  

TylerMcCannis the managing director of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute. Canada's agriculture and food think tank. He spent almost a decade working in government advising Ministers, serving the Agriculture and Agri-Food minister for most of that time. He has also worked as a consultant for farm groups, industry associations, and small and large agri-food businesses, advising on government relations, policy, and association management. Tyler operates a cow calf farm with his wife and kids in Western Quebec.  

Dr. Diana Doan-Crider is a wildlife and landscape ecologist with more than 30 years of experience in conservation, ranching, and education across North America. Her work focuses on Indigenous grassland stewardship, bringing together Indigenous knowledge, ecological science, and community-based conservation. She directs Ánimo Partnership in Natural Resources, supporting culturally grounded education, land stewardship, and workforce development.  

Naomi Carriere (niitum-agheezhig, "First Light of Day") is Cree (Swampy) and Anishinaabe (Ojibway) from Cumberland House, Saskatchewan, and a member of Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation. She holds a Master of Science from the University of Saskatchewan, where her research focused on Indigenous knowledge systems, species at risk, conservation policy, and recovery efforts. As Manager of the Indigenous Grasslands Conservation and Knowledge Exchange Network at the kīhcī-okāwīmāw askiy Knowledge Centre, Naomi supports Indigenous-led collaboration, knowledge sharing, and conservation initiatives that strengthen the stewardship of grassland ecosystems across Turtle Island.  

If you enjoyed this podcast, you might find the following links interesting. 

Grassland Learning and Knowledge Hub 

kīhcī-okāwīmāw askiy Knowledge Centre 

Ánimo Partnership in Natural Resources 

Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute 

Biological Carbon Canada 

Welcome to Forage and Grasslands Unpacked, a Canadian Forage and Grassland Association podcast which explores grasslands and grazing through a multifocal lens.

This week, we're discussing the role grasslands play in supporting biodiversity, we'll talk about species at risk and ways to mitigate habitat loss.

Host John Pattison-Willams chats with Silke Nebel, vice-president of Key Conservation Initiatives with Birds Canada and Paul Galpern a professor at the University of Calgary and the lead of a multi-institutional research program in agricultural sustainability called the Prairie Precision Sustainability Network.

Welcome to Forage and Grasslands Unpacked, a Canadian Forage and Grassland Association podcast exploring forage, grasslands and grazing through a multifocal lens.

This week we're talking about the current state of grasslands.

Host Kalyee Healy sits down with professional agrologist and the director of conservation at the Meewasin Valley Authority Renny Grilz; and Sam Robinson who is a sustainable agriculture research scientist for Ducks Unlimited Canada. They're talking about grasslands, how they've changed over the past five decades and the challenges which face them today.

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Forage and Grasslands Unpacked, a Canadian Forage and Grassland Association podcast exploring forage, grasslands, and grazing through a multifocal lens. This season opens by grounding listeners in a deceptively simple question: What is a grassland?

Host Cedric MacLeod sits down with Dr. John Pattison‑Williams, natural resource economist and producer, and Heather Peat Hamm, botanist and plant ecologist, to unpack the many ways grasslands are understood — from native prairie to tame pasture, from ecological function to cultural significance. Together, they explore why these landscapes matter for biodiversity, climate solutions, agricultural livelihoods, and the communities who steward them.

This episode sets the stage for a season of conversations featuring producers, researchers, Indigenous voices, youth, policy makers, and land stewards from across Canada.