The Rural Municipality of Blucher No. 343 ( 2016 population: ) is a

rural municipality A rural municipality is a classification of municipality, a type of local government, found in several countries. These include: * Rural municipality (Canada), Rural municipalities in Canada, a Lists of municipalities in Canada, type of municipa ...

(RM) in the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

within Census Division No. 11 and Division No. 5. It is located in the north-central portion of the province on the

South Saskatchewan River The South Saskatchewan River is a major river in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The river begins at the confluence of the Bow River, Bow and Oldman Rivers in southern Alberta and ends at the Saskatchewan River Forks in ce ...

History

The RM of Blucher No. 343 incorporated as a rural municipality on December 13, 1909. In 1958, the Patience Lake Mine was the first potash mine built in Canada.

Geography

Numerous water bodies are located in the RM of Blucher No. 343. The larger lakes include

Cheviot Lake Cheviot Lake is a lake in the central part of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, south-east of Saskatoon. The lake is located in the Rural Municipality of Blucher No. 343. It is a small lake predominantly surrounded by agricultural farm la ...

Bradwell Reservoir Bradwell Reservoir is a man-made reservoir in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan in the Rural Municipality of Blucher No. 343. The reservoir was built as part of the South Saskatchewan River Project. That project involved the damming of the ...

, Crawford Lake, Judith Lake, and

Patience Lake Patience Lake is a lake in the central part of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The lake is east of Saskatoon in the Rural Municipality of Blucher No. 343. The lake serves as a groundwater discharge region for higher elevations to the e ...

Communities and localities

The following urban municipalities are surrounded by the RM. ;

Towns A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

* Allan ;

Villages A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village ...

* Bradwell * Clavet The following unincorporated communities are located within the RM. ;

Special service area Communities in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada, include Incorporation (municipal government), incorporated municipalities, Unincorporated area#Canada, unincorporated communities and First Nations in Canada, First Nations communities. Types ...

s *

Elstow Elstow is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Borough of Bedford, Bedfordshire, England, about south of Bedford town centre. History The Countess Judith of Lens, niece of William the Conqueror, founded a Benedictin ...

(dissolved as a village, December 31, 2014) ; Unincorporated hamlets * Blucher * Cheviot

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...

, the RM of Blucher No. 343 had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. In the 2016 Census of Population, the RM of Blucher No. 343 recorded a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change from its 2011 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.

Government

The RM of Blucher No. 343 is governed by an elected municipal council and an appointed administrator that meets on the second Wednesday of every month. The reeve of the RM is Blair Cummins while its administrator is R. Doran Scott. The RM's office is located in Bradwell.

Attractions

* Christ Church — West Patience Lake (municipal heritage property)

Bradwell National Wildlife Area (NWA)

Bradwell National Wildlife Area () is a

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewood ...

established in 1968. It is in the RM of Blucher, about south-east of

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

. With the completion of the

Gardiner Dam The Gardiner Dam on the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatchewan is the third largest embankment dam in Canada and one of the largest embankment dams in the world. Construction on Gardiner Dam and the smaller Qu'Appelle River Dam was started ...

and

Lake Diefenbaker Lake Diefenbaker is a reservoir and bifurcation lake in the southern part of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It was formed by the construction of the Gardiner Dam and the Qu'Appelle River Dam across ...

in 1967,

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

habitat in the area was lost.

Ducks Unlimited Canada Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) is a Canadian non-profit environmental organization that works to conserve, create, restore and manage Canadian wetlands and associated uplands in order to provide healthy ecosystems that support North American wate ...

was involved in a project with

Canadian Wildlife Service The Canadian Wildlife Service or CWS (), is a Branch of the Department of Environment and Climate Change Canada, a department of the Government of Canada. Founded in 1947 as Dominion Wildlife Service, it is Canada's national wildlife agency resp ...

to bring water to the marshes in the area to ensure stable water levels year-round. The water for Bradwell NWA comes via aqueduct from Lake Diefenbaker, which is about to the south-west, and controlled by a series of dykes, ditches, and water control structures. Directly upstream in the aqueduct system is

Blackstrap Lake Blackstrap Lake is a man-made reservoir in central Saskatchewan, Canada, south of Saskatoon in the Rural Municipality of Dundurn No. 314. The lake was created as a reservoir in 1967, as part of the Saskatoon South East Water Supply System. Bl ...

and downstream is

. Bradwell NWA is in the Moist Mixed Grassland

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) is an ecological and geographic area that exists on multiple different levels, defined by type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and c ...

. The landscape has groves of trembling aspen and idled hayfields. A total of five wetlands are protected within the NWA and birds found there include the

bobolink The bobolink (''Dolichonyx oryzivorus'') is a small New World blackbird and the only member of the genus ''Dolichonyx''. An old name for this species is the "rice bird", from its tendency to feed on cultivated grains during winter and migration. ...

horned grebe The horned grebe or Slavonian grebe (''Podiceps auritus'') is a relatively small and Threatened species, threatened species of waterbird in the family Podicipedidae. There are two subspecies, ''P. a. auritus'' (Slavonian grebe), which breed ...

redhead Red hair, also known as ginger hair, is a human hair color found in 2–6% of people of Northern or Northwestern European ancestry and lesser frequency in other populations. It is most common in individuals homozygous for a recessive alle ...

canvasback The canvasback (''Aythya valisineria'') is a species of diving duck, the largest found in North America. Taxonomy Scottish-American naturalist Alexander Wilson described the canvasback in 1814. The genus name is derived from Greek ''aithuia'', ...

northern pintail The pintail or northern pintail (''Anas acuta'') is a duck species with wide geographic Range (biology), distribution that breeds in the northern areas of Europe and across the Palearctic and North America. It is bird migration, migratory an ...

ruddy duck The ruddy duck (''Oxyura jamaicensis'') is a species of duck in the family Anatidae. The ruddy duck is one of six species within the stiff-tailed ducks (genus ''Oxyura''). Stiff-tailed ducks occupy heavily vegetated habitats in North and ...

, lesser snow goose,

white-fronted goose The greater white-fronted goose (''Anser albifrons'') is a species of goose, closely related to the smaller lesser white-fronted goose (''A. erythropus''). The greater white-fronted goose is migratory, breeding in northern Canada, Alaska, Gre ...

marbled godwit The marbled godwit (''Limosa fedoa'') is a large migratory shorebird in the family Scolopacidae. On average, it is the largest of the four species of godwit. Taxonomy In 1750 the English naturalist George Edwards included an illustration and a ...

, and the

Wilson's phalarope Wilson's phalarope (''Phalaropus tricolor'') is a small wader. This bird, the largest of the phalaropes, breeds in the prairies of North America in western Canada and the western United States. It is migratory, wintering in inland salt lakes n ...

References

{{Authority control B Division No. 11, Saskatchewan