allthecanadianpolitics:

An environmental group says it is opposed to the proposed sale of oil and natural gas rights in the Milk River Natural Area and other native grasslands in southern Alberta.

The United Conservative government is holding an auction, which closed at noon Wednesday.

The Alberta Wilderness Association said in a letter to the province earlier this week that it has long been interested in conservation of native grasslands. It noted that less than half of native cover remains in Alberta’s Grasslands Natural Region and it is highly fragmented.

“We want to make sure they will not be disturbing any native grasslands,” Grace Wark, conservation specialist with the group, said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

Wark said the group is concerned about any development within the Milk River Natural Area because it contains grasslands that are home to threatened populations of swift fox and the greater short-horned lizard.

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