Sandwiched between the Rat River and the St. Malo Canal, Martial’s land was highly susceptible to flooding during high water events. Flood water would remain on the field from 2-3 weeks. The result was Martial was losing a large portion of his crop every few years. Martial thought that this land would be better suited to perennial grass where it could act as a flood plain. While giving up productive land is a hard decision, receiving an annual payment and being able to harvest the grass, made this decision much easier for Martial. While providing a benefit to himself Martial also sees that by providing environmental benefits like nutrient capture and erosion control their is benefit to the wider community as well.
Martial Gosselin ALUS Perennial Grass Project
La Rochelle
Benefits
Environmental Benefits
- Captures nutrient run-off
- Erosion Reduction
- Carbon Capture
- Wildlife and pollinator habitat.
Producer Benifits
- Reduce costs for seed, fertilizer, etc
- Reduce nitrogen loss
- Income from grazing or baling
- Easier land management
Characteristics
- Mixture of lowland grasses is planted to help stabilize soil and capture nutrient runoff
- Grass is either cut and baled or flash grazed once a year for nutrient removal
- Removal of grass is done after mid-July to protect possible wildlife nesting sites found within the buffer.





