BARRHEAD – As Alternative Land Use Services (ALUS) Barrhead-Westlock-Athabasca moves into its fourth year of operation, an increase in project work has left the charity in a peculiar position. Coordinator Lisa Card said they have no shortage of funding for their 17 projects across the three counties but lack funds to promote and advertise them.
“Sometimes, funders only want to fund projects related to wetlands, and they only want to fund the cost of the project. Sometimes, it's funders who only want to fund projects related to wildlife,” said Card. “This was just a year where the funding that we had available for admin didn’t cover the costs that we had.”
ALUS is a conservation-focused non-profit that works with farmers and ranchers to help provide local solutions to global problems, according to the group’s website. There are currently 38 ALUS branches across the Prairies, Quebec, Prince Edward Island, and Iowa.
ALUS’s local branch got its start in 2021 and has experienced some early successes on projects working in collaboration with local farmers and conservationists. Despite the increasing workload — which Card expects to continue to rise as word of mouth continues to spread — the charity still only has one employee. Card says their cutting costs down to what she calls the bare minimum: one salary, one work truck, and a space to work out of.
“Our administrative costs cover things that people don’t think about but are equally important, like advertising, office supplies. In the past its gone towards putting signage at sites,” said Card. “We can definitely trim some of the extra stuff just to bring it back to ‘keep the lights on’ type funding.”
Card said the community feedback from projects has been great; in its short life, the branch has helped farmers fence off wetlands, level out beaver dams, and set up hotels for bees, bats, and birds.
“It’s been excellent. Everyone who has participated seems to be happy with it,” said Card. “It’s really convenient since there’s no paperwork on their end, which can be a bit of a barrier for people who may not have the time to do hours and hours of paperwork.”
Of the 17 ALUS groups in Alberta, Barrhead-Westlock-Athabasca is the only joint municipality group, which also plays a role when it comes to funding. Athabasca County councillor Rob Minns, who sits on the ALUS board through his role on the Agriculture Services Board, told his council that ALUS may be asking for more funding in the next year. Card said while that was a possibility, it wasn’t her first choice.
“Each municipality puts in a contribution, it’s less than 15 per cent of our budget. It is what we would consider a steady source of income. In years like this, where we don’t have enough money for the admin costs we budgeted for, it could help on that front,” said Card.
“We have other sources we could explore as well — the counties put in a lot of in-kind support as well, so while it’s not something I would say is a last resort, it’s not the sole option going forward to help with expenses.”
