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COVID-19 Updates: Taking steps to return to normal.
The Alberta Wetland Policy helps conserve, restore, protect and manage the province’s wetland areas.
Wetlands are lands saturated with water long enough to promote:
The Alberta Wetland Policy maintains the value of wetlands to the environment, society and economy through:
For more information on the policy, supporting documents and tools, see:
The Crown owns the bed and shore of permanent and naturally occurring bodies of water, including wetlands on private property. Section 3 of the Public Lands Act outlines the legal aspect of this ownership. Short-term or seasonal surface water in wetlands is not considered a permanent body of water.
Section 17 of the Surveys Act states:
… the bed and shore of a body of water shall be the land covered so long by water as to wrest it from vegetation or as to mark a distinct character on the vegetation where it extends into the water or on the soil itself.
The provincial government is responsible for claiming ownership to the bed and shore of a permanent and or naturally occurring body of water within a wetland. However, a surface water permanency assessment can be done in advance. It is submitted to Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP) when requesting a Crown ownership assessment. Only assessments on wetlands that contain semi-permanent or permanent surface water should be submitted.
For information on assessing surface water permanency see: Guide for Assessing Permanence of Wetland Basins.
To request a Crown ownership determination:
Email: [email protected]
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