blackbirds – Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. George Genereux Urban Regional Park.

Help show the world what Saskatoon’s biodiversity looks like – and sounds like—grab your smartphone, the free @inaturalistorg app, & join this year’s #CityNatureChallenge from April 29–May 2! Great for all ages; find details at FriendsAreas.ca #CNCYXE

Baby American Robin (Turdus migratorius) — American Robin., Turdus migratorius

Celebrate 50 years! Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area and George Genereux Urban Regional park were planted to trees in 1972, 50 years ago. Come out and say Happy Birthday!

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Please help protect / enhance your afforestation areas, please contact the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc. (e-mail / e-transfers )Support the afforestation areas with your donation or membership ($20.00/year). Please donate by paypal 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!

Donations can be made through Paypal, Canada Helps, Contact Donate A Car Canada, SARCAN Drop & Go 106100594 for the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc.

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

The Afforestation Areas are ready to Welcome You!

The best things about eating cattails. Do you need to eat Cattails?

Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus), wetlands mammal enjoys the emergent vegetation around Chappell Marsh such as cattails

Drawing a Cattail Plant emerging from the Chappell Marsh Wetlands in Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area — Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus), wetlands mammal enjoys the emergent vegetation around Chappell Marsh such as cattails

Beyond the tangible benefits, the experience of wild edibles connects you to nature in a very powerful way. It asks you to slow down from the rushed pace of the modern world and step into timelessness.
Jeannine Tidwell

Cattail shoots are very delicious harvested in the spring. So, today, during Tourism Week, forage some cattail shoots, rinse, then soak in vinegar rinse and use in your favourite recipe. Today, tour the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, rather than the supermarket, find your ingredient for this recipe. This time we share Cattail Shoots in Cream Sauce.

Cattails “have vitamins A, B, and C, potassium and phosphorus.” Scalloped Cattails, are another tasty treat to try, as are Cattail Pollen Biscuits. 3

The white inner centers of the young stems, which can be eaten raw or cooked, are considered a delicacy by both human foragers and aquatic mammals such as muskrats. For muskrats, cattails have the added advantage of supplying the tough leaves used for building their lodges. And for red-winged blackbirds—among the earliest migrants returning to our region—stands of cattails provide the perfect nesting place.
Catherine Tudish

Please, when foraging for your cattails, go alone, and leave puppy dog with another caretaker. There are many animals and waterfowl who may be nesting and depending on the cattails.

Please be careful around the water and consider safety when on an outing near the wetlands.

Send in a comment on how you succeed with your foraging adventure! Stay tuned throughout tourism week for more Cattail recipes for your outdoor foraging forayouTube

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.com Facebook 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

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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

Artificial stabilization of water levels in the marsh and lake by damming and water diversion has resulted in significant hydrological changes to the marsh and may be enhancing the spread of an exotic hybrid cattail (Typha x glauca) Hybrid cattails are replacing native shoreline vegetation, particularly hard-stem bulrush an important component of Western Grebe nesting habitat.
Nicholas La Porte et al

As the human footprint expands, ecologists and resource managers are increasingly challenged to explain and manage abrupt ecosystem transformations …Our results quantify how, in a cultural landscape where the historical disturbance regime has been altered and diversity has declined, a mechanical disturbance in combination with seasonal drought and flooding has been used to locally restrict a clonal monodominant plant expansion, create habitat heterogeneity, and maintain plant diversity.
Michael J. Osland et al

Little Known Facts About Edible Cattails – And Why They Matter

So, cattails and you, and why all parts of the cattail plant are amazing for a wild spring, summer or fall harvest. “The shoots or hearts, also known as “Cossack asparagaus,” are best harvested in spring or early summer, prior to the devlopment of the flower stalk” source So after harvesting the shoots, just rinse, soak in vinegar for 15-20 minutes and then rinse. <a href="http://<!– wp:paragraph –> <p>So, cattails and you, and why all parts of the cattail plant are amazing for a wild spring, summer or fall harvest. "The shoots or hearts, also known as "Cossack asparagaus," are best harvested in spring or early summer, prior to the devlopment of the flower stalk"<a href="https://wildfoodgirl.com/2013/cold-hearted-cattail-salads/"> source</a> So after harvesting the shoots, just rinse, soak in vinegar for 15-20 minutes and then rinse. </p> Cold Cattail and Tomato Salad is a great way to start out enjoying your Cattail harvest.

Remember to harvest your cattails alone, and without your puppy dog with you, as spring is nesting time for many waterfowl and animals. Humans are not the only animals who forage on cattails. “Wherever there are cattails, there’s food. The seeds, roots and shoots attract plant-eating animals, and predators that eat the cattail’s visitors. Ducks and Canada geese sometimes eat the tiny seeds, and geese dine on the plant’s new shoots and underwater roots…. Muskrats gnaw on the roots, and use the leaves to build a shelter, called a lodge, to keep themselves safe. It’s common to see red-winged blackbirds hanging around cattails. After the male finds a mate the birds use plants including cattail leaves to build their nest.” source

As you embark on the Cold Cattail and Tomato Salad, consider the nutritional benefits from Cattails, such as Manganese, Vitamin K, Magnesium, Iron, Vitamin B6 and Sodium. According to Health Benefits of Cattail, Uses And Its Side Effects, Cattails, help with mitigation of Anaemia, preventing cancer, controlling hypertension, reducing atherosclerosis risks, controlling diabetes, and is also a natural antiseptic.

Nature is the source of human subsistence but the transformation of nature into food is a cultural process that is not independent of power relations. The colonization of America comprised the systematic repression of indigenous ways of knowing and even after the elimination of political colonialism the relationship between European cultures and the others is still one of colonial domination. The colonial repression of different knowledges also affects the culinary epistemology that informs food preparation and consumption.
Xilkia Janer

Muskrat West Swale Wetlands. Chappell Marsh. Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. Saskatoon, SK, CA

Chappell Marsh. West Swale Wetlands. Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. Saskatoon, SK, CA — Muskrat West Swale Wetlands. Chappell Marsh. Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. Saskatoon, SK, CA

Always be careful about safety when around water . So today, is another momentous day to celebrate Tourism Week In Canada. Pop out for a visit to the afforestation areas, enjoy the delightful spring weather, and enjoy this man-made forest on the prairies.

Send in a comment on how you succeed with your foraging adventure! Stay tuned throughout tourism week for more Cattail recipes for your outdoor foraging foray.

“All of these things are food for insects, for birds, for bears, deer, elk and moose, and if we compromise that by our foraging … it won’t be long before these things are no longer here,” … Julie Walker recommends people plant some of these species in their backyard gardens — or at least stop the war on weeds and let and nature take its course. Many native species have qualities that can benefit a home garden, like requiring little to no maintenance and being drought-resistant, she added. People can also forage on public lands, as long as they learn to recognize healthy populations of wild plant species.
Jessica Barrett. Edible Forest: Guided Walks teach which weeds and wild greens you can eat.

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

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

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