Celebrating Rosewood’s Collaboration

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Celebrating Community Collaboration: Rosewood’s Commitment to Nature Conservation

In the heart of Southeast Saskatoon lies a vibrant community pulsating with life and brimming with natural wonders—the Rosewood Community. Nestled within its embrace are 65 acres of wetlands, green spaces, and natural trails, forming a haven for both residents and wildlife alike.  Namely these areas are Adams, Bitz, Mackay, Struthers, Swick, Glen Penner, and Secondary Core Parks!

One of the key players in preserving this natural beauty is the Rosewood Community Association, whose unwavering dedication to environmental conservation has been nothing short of remarkable. Their recent collaboration with the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas for the City Nature Challenge from April 26 to 29 stands as a testament to their commitment to protecting and celebrating nature.

The Rosewood community boasts an impressive array of natural assets, including the Rosewood Pocket Park—a 1.64-acre oasis of tranquility set to bloom into life this spring. Residents will soon find themselves immersed in the sights and sounds of nature as they explore its lush trails and serene conservation areas.

But the beauty of Rosewood extends beyond its borders, as it is located in Southeast Saskatoon and bordered by the breathtaking Hyde Park naturalized area. Spanning 65 acres, this award-winning wetlands design is a testament to the city’s and community’s dedication to preserving native vegetation and promoting biodiversity.

In the words of the City of Saskatoon, Rosewood has been meticulously designed to maintain its natural conservation areas, ensuring that green corridors connect residents to the breathtaking landscapes that surround them. This holistic approach to community planning not only fosters a deeper connection with nature but also promotes the health and well-being of its residents.

At its core, the goal of Rosewood is simple yet profound—to conserve and integrate a large wetland complex, allowing residents to immerse themselves in the wonders of the natural world. Whether it’s a leisurely stroll along the wetland banks or a moment of quiet reflection amidst the greenery, Rosewood offers a sanctuary where residents can reconnect with the beauty of the earth.

As we celebrate the collaborative spirit of the Rosewood Community Association and its partnership with the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas, we are reminded of the profound impact that community stewardship can have on our environment. Together, we can continue to preserve and protect the natural treasures that enrich our lives and sustain our planet for generations to come.

It is here in Rosewood that residents are invited to explore their neighborhoods, parks, bus stops, school yards, sidewalks, yards, and green spaces, capturing photos and observations of plants, animals, insects, fungi, and signs of life. In addition to exploring close to home, everyone is cordially invited to join any of the four free planned events in the southwest area of Saskatoon at the two afforestation areas, hosted by the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas.

With thanks to our sponsors and supporters SaskPower, SaskTel, Saskatoon Nature Society, Wild About Saskatoon, Caswell Hill Community Association, SOS Trees Inc., Rosewood Varsity View Community Association, Nutana Varsity View Community Association, Montgomery Place Varsity View Community Association. City Nature Challenge Saskatoon CNC YXE 2024 led by Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas. Reach if you would like to sponsor the City Nature Challenge, or share the City Nature Challenge information as a collaborator!

Saskatoon and area will compete for the title of the most Biodiverse City. We need your help. The goals are to engage the public in the collection of biodiversity data, with three awards each year for the cities and areas that 1/ makes the most observations, 2/ find the most species, and 3/ engage the most people. We’re so excited to have this fun friendly competition with a chance to place Saskatoon and Area on the World Stage for the City Nature Challenge 2024! Find out more friendsareas.ca

For directions as to how to drive to “George Genereux” Urban Regional Park

For directions on how to drive to Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

For more information:

Blairmore Sector Plan Report; planning for the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, George Genereux Urban Regional Park and West Swale and areas around them inside of Saskatoon city limits

NEW P4G District Official Community Plan

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area is located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada north of Cedar Villa Road, within city limits, in the furthest south west area of the city. 52° 06′ 106° 45′

Addresses:

Part SE 23-36-6 – Afforestation Area – 241 Township Road 362-A

Part SE 23-36-6 – SW Off-Leash Recreation Area (Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area ) – 355 Township Road 362-A

S ½ 22-36-6 Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area (West of SW OLRA) – 467 Township Road 362-A

NE 21-36-6 “George Genereux” Afforestation Area – 133 Range Road 3063

Wikimapia Map: type in Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

Google Maps South West Off Leash area location pin at parking lot

Web page: https://stbarbebaker.wordpress.com

Where is the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area? with map

Where is the George Genereux Urban Regional Park (Afforestation Area)?with map

Pinterest richardstbarbeb

Blogger: FriendsAfforestation

Tumblr friendsafforestation.tumblr.comFacebook Group Page: Users of the George Genereux Urban Regional Park

Facebook: StBarbeBaker Afforestation Area

Facebook for the non profit Charity Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc. FriendsAreas

Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

Facebook: South West OLRA

Reddit: FriendsAfforestation

Twitter: St Barbe Baker Charity Twitter:FriendsAreas

Mix: friendsareas

YouTube

Please help protect / enhance your afforestation areas, please contact the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc. (e-mail / e-transfers )

Donate your old vehicle, here’s how!  

Support using Canada Helps

Support via a recycling bottle donation

United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration

• Use the UN Decade’s Visual Identity 
• Make it your own
• Spread the word about the UN Decade 
• Let’s Bring Back Forests
• Let’s Green Our Cities

““Be like a tree in pursuit of your cause. Stand firm, grip hard, thrust upward. Bend to the winds of heaven..”

Richard St. Barbe Baker

Walk the Walk

Two issues have recently resurfaced.

1. 1. Today, January 25 2018, is female blackout from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. It’s a movement to show what the world might be like without women. Your facebook photo should just be a black square so that men wonder where the women are. Pass it only to women. It’s for a project against domestic abuse, It’s no joke. Share it on your facebook page.
   2. A reminder came forward that the Jane’s Walk believes in walkable cities in honour of journalist Jane Jacobs OC OOnt (May 4, 1916 – April 25, 2006).  Jane’s Walks are one way to get people out into nature, into their cities, and in touch with the people of their community.  And as the Saskatoon Jane’s Walk representative states; Jane’s Walks “support ensuring [that] the Afforestation area remains a walkable safe location for all to enjoy”

Have you walked the afforestation areas?  Have you really walked these urban regional park to be able to discover and respond to the complexities which exist through observation?  Here is a photo album of images photographed since the community volunteer clean ups.   [October 2016 1,500 kilograms (3,300 pounds) ~ July 2016 8,300 kg (18,300 pounds or 9 tons) ~  June 2015 3,300 kilograms (7,275 Pounds) of trash, chesterfields, construction materials with nails, shingles, and tires were removed.] And this is a map [west portion of afforestation area only] exploring the complexities which have been observed since the cleanups.  Who has walked George Genereux Urban Regional Park?

How can the Afforestation areas be a “walkable safe location for all to enjoy”?  And today, January 25, 2018 ~ female black out day, would women feel comfortable walking in the city, in all urban regional parks, and in the afforestation areas?

Walk the walk
AND
Talk the talk

Female Black Out Day: what the world might be like without women

Very wonderfully, full city addresses have been enabled for all city parks, and for the afforestation areas.  An address very wonderfully aids in the safety process in cities, as addresses enable a call for help to friends or family and to emergency support.

Fires have sprung up in the afforestation area such as in the spring of 2016. Besides fires in the Afforestation areas, in both 2011 and 2016 huge grass fires broke out near the afforestation areas.  The afforestation area is adjacent to the Canadian National Railway ‘CN Chappell Yards.’  A railway yard, is a complex series of railroad tracks for storing, sorting, or loading/unloading, railroad cars and/or locomotives which may carry flammable contents.  The afforestation area is within the City of Saskatoon city limits, adjacent to the neighbourhoods such as Montgomery Place, and also adjacent to the homes of Cedar Villa Estates of the Rural Municipality of Corman Park 344. Thankfully there are no more tires in the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area which may fuel such fires should they become out of control. And of course, the afforestation areas are home to diverse biodiversity, woodlands, wetlands and grassland flora and fauna as well as host to many and several visitors from the city exploring nature on bicycle, walking, or with their dogs.  The visitors include men, women and children.

“Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.”  J.R.R. Tolkein Gandalf character

“A city street equipped to handle strangers, and to make a safety asset, in itself, our of the presence of strangers, as the streets of successful city neighborhoods always do, must have three main qualities:

First, there must be a clear demarcation between what is public space and what is private space. Public and private spaces cannot ooze into each other as they do typically in suburban settings or in projects.

Second, there must be eyes upon the street, eyes belonging to those we might call the natural proprietors of the street. The buildings on a street equipped to handle strangers and to insure the safety of both residents and strangers, must be oriented to the street. They cannot turn their backs or blank sides on it and leave it blind.

And third, the sidewalk must have users on it fairly continuously, both to add to the number of effective eyes on the street and to induce the people in buildings along the street to watch the sidewalks in sufficient numbers. Nobody enjoys sitting on a stoop or looking out a window at an empty street. Almost nobody does such a thing. Large numbers of people entertain themselves, off and on, by watching street activity.”
― Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities

At the afforestation areas there are no real demarcations of space, except at the South West off leash recreation area and the east side.  What happened in this areas? What was the result?  Illegal trespass has declined to nil.  Illegal activity [i.e. trash in the park] has declined to nil. Woo Hoo!!!!!!! These portions of the afforestation areas are most definitely showing the progress in tune with the philosophy of Jane Jacobs ~ activist best known for her influence on urban studies [city planning] which introduced sociological concepts such as “eyes on the street”.  Nature enthusiasts, dog walkers, bicyclists, photographers are coming out to these areas …. and …. really enjoying it.  There is safety!  This is wonderful progress!

“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”― Jane Jacobs

The question is asked again, would you, lady, gentleman or child, feel safe today, January 25, 2018 ~  female black out day ~ or any day in the City of Saskatoon, in its urban regional parks, and in the Afforestation Areas? It is hoped that the answer to this question is a resounding “yes!”, if not why not?

Observe, Experience, Do Something.

In honour of female blackout day ~  a movement to show what the world might be like without women ~ perhaps a statue should be erected in the City of Saskatoon afforestation areas.

Why?

“I believe with Ruskin, that I must be just to the Earth beneath my feet, to the neighbour by my side and to the Light that comes from above and within that this wonderful world of ours may be a little more beautiful and happy from my having lived in it. “Richard St. Barbe Baker.

“When the trees go, the rain goes, the climate deteriorates, the water table sinks, the land erodes and desert conditions soon appear”.~Richard St. Barbe Baker

For directions as to how to drive to “George Genereux” Urban Regional Park

For directions on how to drive to Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

For more information:

Blairmore Sector Plan Report; planning for the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area,  George Genereux Urban Regional Park and West Swale and areas around them inside of Saskatoon city limits

P4G Saskatoon North Partnership for Growth The P4G consists of the Cities of Saskatoon, Warman, and Martensville, the Town of Osler and the Rural Municipality of Corman Park; planning for areas around the afforestation area and West Swale outside of Saskatoon city limits

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area is located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada north of Cedar Villa Road, within city limits, in the furthest south west area of the city. 52° 06′ 106° 45′
Addresses:
Part SE 23-36-6 – Afforestation Area – 241 Township Road 362-A
Part SE 23-36-6 – SW Off-Leash Recreation Area (Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area ) – 355 Township Road 362-A
S ½ 22-36-6 Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area (West of SW OLRA) – 467 Township Road 362-A
NE 21-36-6 “George Genereux” Afforestation Area – 133 Range Road 3063
Wikimapia Map: type in Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area
Google Maps South West Off Leash area location pin at parking lot
Web page: https://stbarbebaker.wordpress.com
Where is the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area? with map
Where is the George Genereux Urban Regional Park (Afforestation Area)? with map

Pinterest richardstbarbeb

Facebook Group Page: Users of the George Genereux Urban Regional Park

Facebook: StBarbeBaker

Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

Facebook: South West OLRA

Twitter: StBarbeBaker

Please help protect / enhance your afforestation areas, please contact the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc. (e-mail)

Support the afforestation areas with your donation or membership ($20.00/year).  Please donate by paypal using the e-mail friendsafforestation AT gmail.com, or by using e-transfers  Please and thank you!  Your donation and membership is greatly appreciated.  Members e-mail your contact information to be kept up to date!

Paypal

Payment Options

Membership : $20.00 CAD – yearly Membership with donation : $50.00 CAD Membership with donation : $100.00 CAD

1./ Learn.

2./ Experience

3./ Do Something: ^***

 

“St. Barbe’s unique capacity to pass on his enthusiasm to others. . . Many foresters all over the world found their vocations as a result of hearing ‘The Man of the Trees’ speak. I certainly did, but his impact has been much wider than that. Through his global lecture tours, St. Barbe has made millions of people aware of the importance of trees and forests to our planet.” Allan Grainger

“We forget that we owe our existence to the presence of Trees. As far as forest cover goes, we have never been in such a vulnerable position as we are today. The only answer is to plant more Trees – to Plant Trees for Our Lives.” ~ Richard St. Barbe Baker

“In the words of Henry van Dyke, America’s greatest tree poet,
‘He that planteth a tree is a servant of God;
He provideth a kindness for many generations
And faces that he hath not seen shall bless him.’ ”

Richard St. Barbe Baker

“The robin flew from his swinging spray of ivy on to the top of the wall and he opened his beak and sang a loud, lovely trill, merely to show off. Nothing in the world is quite as adorably lovely as a robin…” Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

 

At the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, SK Construction Discards and Hazardous Waste. Before the 2016 Community Clean Up

At the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, SK One of the many piles of Construction Discards and Roofing Shignles Before the 2016 Community Clean Up

Wildlife Montage. Red Winged Blackbird, White Tailed Deer Fawn, Garter Snake, JackRabbit, Mallard Ducklings, Black Crowned Night Heron

Fire. File Photo. 2016 Spring Fire Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. Saskatoon, SK CA