Wet Prairie—People, Land, and Water in Agricultural Manitoba

The Canadian prairies are often envisioned as dry, windswept fields;
however, much of southern Manitoba is not arid plain but wet prairie,
poorly drained land subject to frequent flooding.

Wet Prairie brings to light the problems and complexities
of surface water management in Manitoba, from early efforts to drain
the landscape to late-twentieth-century attempts to establish watershed
management. Irregular water-flow patterns challenged the checkerboard
landscape of the 1872 federal Dominion Lands Act, and homesteaders
found their agricultural ambitions at odds with local environmental
realities. Thus, in keeping with liberal principles, the provincial
government undertook substantial drainage efforts. Flooding and
drainage became the subjects of intense and persistent debate among
provincial officials, drainage experts, and Manitoba residents. New
alliances and rivalries emerged amid shifting social, political and
environmental contexts, affecting how Manitobans related to each other
and to the provincial state. All of this has had enduring consequences
for both the landscapes and people of the wet prairie.