On August 29, I did a quick survey of Central Alberta drought conditions by travelling in a wide circle around the City of Red Deer.

Beginning at Aspen Beach on the south end of Gull Lake, I met up with Lon Kasha who pointed to the receding water’s edge as seen from shore. Local residents with waterfront properties – and others – are very concerned about what is happening to the lake. They are looking at ways of replenishing lake water, either from the Blindman River (as has been done in the past) or from the Paskapoo Aquifer underlying the lake.

I checked out another lake to the east of Red Deer beside the Village of Alix, where the campground caretaker spoke about the low level of that lake. Sloughs along the highways in the area were at low levels as well.

Driving east to Highway 21 and going south to Highway 27, I ended up in Olds in the afternoon. Many grainfields had already been harvested, while others were left with major moisture challenges and unharvested at the time. 

Canola windrows were also observed frequently, as were many fields of corn. Generally crops along Highway 21 were in middling to poor condition in terms of stalk length observed, including the corn crops.

Things looked a lot better in the Olds area, with six foot corn stalks rather than the three to four foot ones further east.

The driver of the observed conditions is most likely lack of subsoil moisture in the area around Red Deer, created by ongoing drought.

By Helge Nome, RDRWA Board member