Ducks Unlimited has completed a $1.5 million wetland restoration in the County of Starland.
The Mail reported in December of last year the province announced it would be investing $ 5 million to restore more Alberta wetlands. In that funding, over $1.5 million is slated for a project in Starland County.
The funds were awarded through the Alberta Wetland Replacement Program, and it will go towards helping three Alberta municipalities as well as two non-profit agencies to construct or restore seven projects. These cover more than 165 hectares of wetlands.
Darwin Chambers, of Ducks Unlimited, tells the Mail the project is complete.
“It is through the Wetland Replacement program, we were able to take on an opportunity within the county and worked with the land owners to restore the large wetland,” he said.
He explains the wetland on private property had historically been drained, possibly decades ago, and a ditch was installed. They connected with the landowner and worked with them to put an engineered structure, or a wetland ditch plug. This plug will restore the habitat by not allowing water to drain from the wetland anymore.
“So when and if Mother Nature turns on the tap again and the hydrology of the habitat can be restored,” he said.
The project is on private property and he did not identify the location, with the exception to say northeast of Drumheller. According to the Government of Alberta release, the wetland encompasses 73.05 hectares of wetland.
The project was completed by Christmas.
“What we will do is monitor the basin for the establishment of wetland vegetation for the next four years,” said Chambers.
He said projects of this kind can either be identified by the owners, or by Ducks Unlimited.
“There are two avenues that opportunities can be unearthed; one is landowners coming to us if they identify the opportunity and we figure we can help them out. We more often than not are more proactive, which means we do a little bit of targeting… where we will scour satellite imagery and ariel imagery of the province looking for these kinds of opportunities and when we find them we will engage with the landowner and let them know what they have and what we can do. If they are on board we’ll take it from there,” said Chambers.

The planned 6 Avenue SE extension project was brought to the February 10 Committee of the Whole meeting to provide an update on the project, which will see an extension road built connecting the intersection of Highway 56 and 6 Avenue SE to the downtown area via 2 Street East.
Tender bidding for the project closed on Friday, February 21, and it is anticipated the item will be brought forward at a future council meeting to award construction.
This has been a key project identified in the Downtown Area Revitalization Plan (DARP) since 2021 and will help to direct both vehicle and pedestrian traffic from the highway into the downtown core. Not only will the new connector road provide another access point for vehicular traffic to the downtown core, it will also tie into the Rails to Trails pathway system that runs through the area.
Council previously approved $1.4 million for the project in the 2025 Capital budget. Although the project is fully funded, applications for the provincial Local Municipal Initiative (LMI) grant funding program. If successful, this would support $650,000 of the project.
Once awarded the project will include the construction of sidewalks on both sides of the roadway to allow for full pedestrian movement at the intersection of Highway 56 and Railway Avenue East, streetlights and landscaping next to the trail system, and water and sanitary services for potential future development of the surrounding lands.
It is anticipated the project will be completed by the beginning of September 2025.