Arbor Week is now over. The last event was today Sunday April 29- a B.I.N.G.O. The prize winners were a couple, John and Jodi.
Binoculars were the prize for the B.I.N.G.O.
These water-proof binoculars provided 12X power magnification with a 42mm objective lens and roof prism providing 114 meters / 374 feet / 1000 Yards are also fog-proof making them excellent bird or animal watching binoculars winter or summer in any outdoor environment. For the citizen scientist, the prize package included binoculars, neck strap, lens cover, carrying bag, user instructions, cleaning cloth and a smartphone adapter. The smart phone adapter was compatible with all brands of smart phones making it an ideal choice to capture the amazing long distance organism for iNaturalist to help with global conservation efforts.
The Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas are proud supporters of environmental education, and promote the use of documenting wildlife with the free iNaturalist app, and via eBird. These binoculars promoted and further encouraged these ideals. John and Jodi sound like they have an amazing environment at their home where they encourage native flora, enticing many kinds of birds and animals and along with this great biodiversity of nature at home they also frequent the afforestation areas.
The Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc. are very proud to have received recognition from RCE Saskatchewan for our hard work and commitment to the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area and George Genereux Urban Regional Park in Saskatoon. The award honours “innovative achievements in education that builds capacity for sustainable development in Saskatchewan and that help contribute to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030). ”
It was an honour to have the opportunity to share our story among these amazing organisations leading the way to make a difference in sustainability, thank you to RCE Saskatchewan Education for Sustainable Development and congratulations to all of the award recipients for inspiring others through your work.
Thank you to Robert White, ecologist for the time and knowledge in tweaking and preparing the speech, and offering to present on behalf of the board of directors at the ceremony. Thank you also to Beth Adamson, meteorolgist, for being on board and offering support should it be needed.
Whooping crane
Small Yellow Lady’s Slipper – Cypripedium parviflorum Courtesy James St. John cc2-0
Figure 10 Item: B.T. Chappell dressed as Chief Iron Horse City of Vancouver Archives CVA 371-1363 Major Matthews Collection Item CVA 371-1363 – BT Chappell dressed as Chief Iron Horse
Horse Drawn Wagon, bone wagon, Red River Cart, Pioneer, Ancestors, Old Bone Trail
Richard St. Barbe Baker L.L.D, O.B.E. photo credit University of Saskatchewan. University Archives and Special Collections. Richard St. Barbe Baker Fonds MG71.
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 SW 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
Please help protect / enhance /commemorate your afforestation areas, please contact the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc. (e-mail / e-transfers)
Have you ever pondered how your favourite book came about? Do books come from personal experiences, random things, real life issues, a dream, or inspiration from another author? Paul Hanley will share his latest inspiration for his latest book on Sunday September 16, 2018. “Paul Hanley is a writer with a special interest in the natural environment, agriculture, and the future of civilization.” This event is of particular significance to the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area and its namesake, Richard St. Barbe Baker OBE, Hon. LL.D. F.I.A.L., For.Dip.Cantab., ACF (9 October 1889 – 9 June 1982) . Come find out what Hanley has to say.
This book will bring joy and inspiration to many. …We honour the Grand Old Man of the Trees for his extraordinary life achievement.~Sir George Trevelyan, Bt. M.A. introduction to Richard St. Barbe Baker’s book ‘My Health My Wealth’
This introduction to one of St. Barbe’s books, could equally apply to the newest publication put out by Paul Hanley who has emerged as environmental champion. Hanley, environment awareness promoter, activist, free lance writer, speaker, and author introduces his latest book, Man of the Trees. Richard St. Barbe Baker, the First Global Conservationist, Foreword by HRH The Prince of Wales Introduction by Jane Goodall, at The Word on the Street. Hanley has published four other books and over 1,600 environmental articles.
Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area in the fog
Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. Saskatoon, SK, CA Winter.
Hanley wrote the book Eleven, as “UN projections show global population reaching 11 billion – and the world economy growing 500 percent – by the end of the twenty first century – Can the planet accommodate 4 billion more people when our current ecological footpring already exceeds Earth’s biocapacity by 60 percent.”
Paul Hanley also was author and editor of Earthcare: Ecological Agriculture in Saskatchewan, The Spirit of Agriculture and wrote 25 Years in the Life of a River Valley.
Working for the Saskatoon Star Phoenix 1989-2016 he contributed articles about the environment, agriculture, and sustainable development.
As an Environment Awareness Promoter, Hanley is engaged as speaker for a plethora of events, including TED talks, and many more
Hanley was honoured with the Canadian Environment Award from the Royal Canadian Geographical Society in 2006 and the Saskatchewan Sustainability Award from the Regional Centre of Excellence for Education on Sustainable Development. In 2006, Paul Hanley was the recipient of the Organic Connections Pioneer Organic Communicators Award. The Meewasin Valley Authority bestowed upon Paul Hanley the 2014 Meewasin Conservation Award. This award is given to those who make outstanding contributions to the Meewasin Valley natural heritage resources. Not only was Hanley a winner of the Saskatchewan Book Award for Non-Fiction from the University of Saskatchewan President’s Office in 2015 he also won that same year the North American Award for Distinguished Scholarship from the Association for Bahai Studies
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
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!
“Has any one of us ever really seen a Tree? When we become aware of trees we may catch glimpses of them in moments of spiritual vision and, identifying ourselves with the trees, become conscious of the rising of the sap; the upward thrust of life; leaf burgeoning, their consciousness of the changing seasons; we may share their passionately boisterous exuberance of life in the height of a storm, and their tranquility when at rest; with them we will enjoy the glad murmur of the ripening seed clusters when after weeks of drought the steady warm rain brings relief to thirst; and we will know that these creatures, our elder brethern, are intimately related to us in their love and hunger for life. We may even catch their enthusiasm and aspire heavenwards while still rooted in our Mother Earth and in communion with our fellow men and, tree-wise, strive to make the Earth more fruitful again.” ~Richard St. Barbe Baker
What was Richard St. Barbe Baker’s mission, that he imparted to the Watu Wa Miti, the very first forest scouts or forest guides? To protect the native forest, plant ten native trees each year, and take care of trees everywhere.
A transformational model that will help individuals, institutions, and communities make an eleven-billion world work for everyone—and the planet.
Ideas Transform the World.
Planet Earth, the World, is in our Hands
Ideas Matter.
Eleven Billion facebook and the book “Eleven” are written by Paul Hanley, winner of the Canadian Environment award and the University of Saskatchewan President’s Award for Non-Fiction 2015, via Saskatchewan Book Awards, for Eleven. Hanley has definitely compiled a timely book which faces the paradigm facing all of us individually as the global population reaches 11 billion by the end of this century.
Hanley reclaims the future, sows seeds for a new culture, and provides a model for positive change. What do greenhouse gases, climate change, health, 21st century culture, agriculture, environment conservation and protection have in common? “We are going to change so completely that future civilization will be barely recognizable. We are going to change because, faced with extinction, ‘our better angels’ will prevail.”P3. Eleven
One of the many, diverse stories in Eleven is about Sawadogo, The Man Who Stopped the Desert. This farmer, without any training at all, began pioneering farming techniques for agriculture, increasing farm productivity. Amazingly Sawadogo also created 20 hectares of forest…in a desert. These innovative techniques of “restoring vegetation has been shown to create climatic feedback loops that increase rainfall.” p.162 Eleven. Think of that ~ a desert with rain!!!
These concepts were also seen by Richard St. Barbe Baker. After completing his silviculture course in forestry at Cambridge University, St. Barbe was posted to Kenya, Africa. While there, he witnessed the devastation which agricultural methods were creating on the land. It was here that the first forest scouts “Watu Wa Miti” {Men of the Trees} were assembled and encouraged to make a solemn promise to do one good deed each day, plant ten trees, seedlings or seeds each year, and take care of Trees everywhere.”*
Just as Sawadogo recognized the effects of erosion, St. Barbe, also only turned around farming practices in Kenya with the Watu Wa Miti initiating the International Trees Foundation (formerly Men of the Trees) St Barbe says; “The great Empires of Assyria, Babylon, Carthage and Persia were destroyed by floods and deserts let loose in the wake of forest destruction. Erosion following forest destruction and soil depletion has been one of the most powerfully destructive forces in bringing about the downfall of civilizations and wiping out human existence from large tracts of the earth’s surface. Erosion does not march with a blast of trumpets or the beating of drums, but its tactics are more subtle, more sinister.”
St Barbe Baker wrote in Green Glory: The Forests of the World that “We advocate that all standing armies everywhere be used for the work of essential reafforestation . .. in the countries to which they belong, and that each country . . . shall provide expeditionary forces to cooperate in the greater tasks of land reclamation in the Sahara and other deserts.”
Hanley explains that “deforestation and forest degradation, through agricultural expansion, conversion to pastureland, infrastructure development, destructive logging, and fires accounts for nearly 20 percent of global [Greenhouse Gas] GHG emissions, second only to the energy sector, and more than the entire global transportation sector.” p. 168 Eleven.
However, just as St. Barbe and Sawadogo saw and recognized poor agricultural practices and put into practice innovative techniques to reclaim the environment, and bringing hope to people and communities, so too, does Hanley offer a way for us to wake up with innovative ideas. Paul Hanley knew Richard St. Barbe Baker personally. Hanley suggests, that, “This awakening world would necessarily lead to an ethical revolution that will help emerging generations build a new social-ecological order on a sustainable foundation.” P. 337 Eleven. How can we wake up, how can we change the world? Hanley offers hope, but not only hope, Hanley offers a well-researched model for progress, a methodology for all of us to get started to change the world outlined in his book Eleven.
Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi says “Every concerned citizen of this planet needs to read this book.” However, it may be best to go one step further, and say everybody, every citizen will gain insight and incredible opportunities to transform the world by reading Eleven. Hanley, environmental columnist for the Saskatoon Star Phoenix since 1989 has delved into global and environmental concerns, and in Eleven, Hanley provides more than hope. Eleven is an innovative solution and recipe for an enlightened social-ecological system for personal, local and global worldviews to survive. Not only to survive, but to live sustainably and well.
“You may ask, ‘…Why do I have to be at all concerned with those circumstances that have existed before I was born, and will most certainly continue to exist after I have taken myself out of this rather soiled and seedy world and have moved to other areas of consciousness?’
The only answer that can be given to such a question is that the world is a mirror and the more one polishes and cleans the mirror, the better one can see one’s reflection. …Does it not stand to reason that the elements that are used in this magnificent venture need to be kept in tip-top condition?” ~Emmanuel
“Trees worked for millions of years to make it possible for man to come on this planet. Yet man, who owns his presence on this Earth to trees, has been cutting, burning, greedily and recklessly. He has turned the forest into desert, until today we are faced not only with a timber famine, but with a food famine.” ~Richard St. Barbe Baker
Business, Technology, 21st Century Culture, Planet Earth
Let us turn back the clock…to the great wars, World War I and World War II. Outside of combat, war efforts had other ecological impacts. “Twentieth Century technology made forest destruction much easier than in Caesar’s (or William Tecumseh Sherman’s day)… European wheat demand in World War I led to the plowing up of about 6 million hectares of grasslands on the American High plains and in Canada’s prairie provinces. This helped prepare the way for the dust bowl of the 1930s. The British war effort in World War II consumed about half of Britain’s forests. McNeill.” How have we corrected and ameliorated these environmental changes and damages? What can we possibly do now? Hanley has an answer for ecological, environmental and agriculture futures in Eleven.
“The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.”~ James Allen
Is it true what Vaclav Havel says that “Modern man must descend the spiral of his own absurdity to the lowest point; only then can he look beyond it. It is obviously impossible to get around it, jump over it, or simply avoid it.” Or is it more probable as Rene Daumal says, “You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place ? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know.” A glimpse into Eleven will surely allow everyone to know. To know a healthier world, a “united, just and sustainable civilization that encompasses everyone, including our extended human body ecosphere. P.372 Eleven.”
“ELEVEN is a call to consciousness. Only an ‘ethical revolution’ will allow us to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization. Paul Hanley proposes a transformational model that will help individuals, institutions, and communities make an eleven-billion world work for everyone—and the planet.” *
Emmanuel’s Book. A Manual for living comfortably in the cosmos. Compiled by Pat Rodegast and Judith Stanton. ISBN 0-553-34387-4. Bantam Books. New York. 1987.
Hanley, Paul. Eleven “eleven billion people will share this planet by century’s end. Adding 4 billion to an already overburdened world will force everyone to change everything.” Friesen Press. Victoria BC. ISBN 978-1-4602-5045-7 (Hardcover) ISBN 978-1-4602-5046-4 (Paperback) ISBN 978-1-462-5047-1 (ebook). 2014.
MacNeil,J.R. Ideas Matter: A Political History of the Twentieth Century Environment. “The grand social, and ideological systems that people construct for themselves invariably carry large consequences, for the environment no less than for more strictly human affairs. Among the swirl of ideas, policies and political structures of the twentieth century, the most ecologically influential were the growth imperative and the (not related) security anxiety that dominated policy around the world…By 1970, however something new was afoot.” From Current History November 2000, PP 371-382. originally excerpted from “An Environmental HIstory of the Twentieth Century World” New York. Norton 2000) by Current History Inc. reprinted with permission: Environment 2002/2003. Annual Editions. 21st Edition. Editor John L. Allen. McGraw-Hill Dushkin. ISBN 0-07-250682-2.
Van, Leon C. Le. Poems from Swedenborg Swedenborg Foundation Inc. New York. ISBN 0-87785-134-4. 1987.
Wildlife Montage. Red Winged Blackbird, White Tailed Deer Fawn, Garter Snake, JackRabbit, Mallard Ducklings, Black Crowned Night Heron
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 SW 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
Please help protect / enhance /commemorate 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!
“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
“The science of forestry arose from the recognition of a universal need. It embodies the spirit of service to mankind in attempting to provide a means of supplying forever a necessity of life and, in addition, ministering to man’s aesthetic tastes and recreational interests. Besides, the spiritual side of human nature needs the refreshing inspiration which comes from trees and woodlands. If a nation saves its trees, the trees will save the nation. And nations as well as tribes may be brought together in this great movement, based on the ideal of beautifying the world by the cultivation of one of God’s loveliest creatures – the tree.” ~ Richard St. Barbe Baker.
“I believed that God has lent us the Earth. It belongs as much to those who come after us as to us, and it ill behooves us by anything we do or neglect, to deprive them of benefits which are in our power to bequeath.” Richard St. Barbe Baker
“We feel that our greatest victory remains to be won when man will realize his oneness with the trees, the creatures and with all living things, not ours to destroy, but to be handed on for the enjoyment of future generations.” – Richard St. Barbe Baker
Spring Trees Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area
The angels,
Who are principled
In the science
Of all knowledges,
And that in such a manner
That scarce a thousandth part
Can be unfolded
To man’s apprehension,
Yet esteem knowledges
As nothing
In comparison to use.~Swedenborg
So this award works like this…
1. Put the award logo on your blog.
(As above)
2. Answer 7 questions asked by the person who nominated you.
(As below at the foot of this post)My 7 questions for those I have nominated are;
1. What is your favourite colour?
2. Who has made the most profound influence upon you ~ real or fictional person?
3. What is your favourite place you have ever visited?
4. What has been the most captivating animal you have ever seen?
5. What is your favourite plant, flower, fauna ever?
6. What is the name of your favourite movie or TV show?
7. Name your favourite song.
5. Let them know you nominated them (by commenting on their blog etc.)
So the comment appears as…
Congratulations!
I have nominated your blog for the Real Neat Blog Award. More about this nomination is at A bit of fun
My seven questions which I answered are:
1. Where do most visits to your blog come from?
Answer: From North America.
2. What is your favourite sport?
Answer: Yoga.
3. What has been a special moment for you so far in 2017?
Answer: A mystical foggy morning taking photographs.
4. What is your favourite quote?
Answer:
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I,
-I took the one less travelled by
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost (1874–1963) from The Road Not Taken”
5. What was your favourite class when still at school?
Answer: Music.
6. Anything you had wished to have learned earlier?
Answer: No.
7. What musical instrument have you tried to play?
Answer: Tuba, baritone, organ, clarinet, trumpet, flute, E-flat horn, and autoharp.
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 SW 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
Please help protect / enhance /commemorate 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!
“In the wealth of the woods since the world began The trees have offered their gifts to man.” – Henry van Dyke
The greatest gift of all is life. For millions of years the trees were paving the way for life on this planet, absorbing impurities, clearing up the foetid atmosphere and the swamp breath, absorbing carbon dioxide and giving off the life giving oxygen that
we breathe.” ~Richard St. Barbe Baker
Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. George Genereux Urban Regional Park. 