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

Celebrate the Green Marvels on International Plant Appreciation Day!

April 13 marks a day dedicated to the silent superheroes of our planet – plants. These green wonders not only provide us with the air we breathe and the food we eat but also contribute to the vibrant landscapes we love. International Plant Appreciation Day is a reminder to honor the unsung heroes of our ecosystem.

One extraordinary figure who understood the significance of plants was Richard St. Barbe Baker, a global conservationist and humanitarian founder of the Children of the Green Earth and the International Tree Foundation. In 1969, he earned the title of the first Honorary Life Member of the World Wildlife Fund, a testament to his dedication to the environment. Through international organizations inspired by Baker’s teachings, billions of trees have been planted worldwide, safeguarding trillions more.

Trees and forests serve as natural havens for a diverse array of life, including birds, fungi, insects, and animals. The alarming decline in insect populations, entering the sixth silent mass extinction, underscores the urgency of addressing biodiversity crises. Reports, like BirdLife’s State of the World’s Birds 2022, reveal that 49% of the world’s bird species are in decline. Earth’s wildlife populations have plummeted by an average of 69% in less than 50 years, emphasizing the critical need for conservation efforts.

As we celebrate International Plant Appreciation Day on April 13, let’s embrace the opportunity to document plant biodiversity during the City Nature Challenge in the City of Saskatoon by using the free iNaturalist app on your smartphone. The City Nature Challenge unfolding from April 26 to May 5, 2024. Capture snapshots of wild plants, insects, birds, mushrooms, and animals, as well as signs of life like roadkill, scat, owl pellets, tracks, feathers, seashells, and skeletons.

Join us in the two-stage challenge:

April 26 – April 29, 2024: Snap pictures or record sounds of the diverse flora and fauna anywhere in Saskatoon and area. Check out the scheduled events.
April 30 – May 5, 2024: Identify the discovered species.

The results will be unveiled on Monday, May 6, 2024, contributing to the collective understanding of species, detecting invasive threats for early detection and rapid response, those species of concern and tracking changes in species range. Your assistance is crucial. With thanks to our sponsors and supporters SaskPower, SaskTel, Saskatoon Nature Society, Wild About Saskatoon, Varsity View Community Association, 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.

Yellow-headed Blackbird (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus)

On this day, International Plant Appreciation Day on April 13, let’s appreciate and safeguard the green guardians of our planet, recognizing the interconnected web of life that depends on the health and vitality of our plant kingdom.

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

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

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

Questions For You! The time is NOW!

City of Saskatoon Public Engagement Survey on the Blaimore Sector Plan Amendment

The 132 hectare (326 acre) Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area (within which is the South West Off Leash Recreation Area and the 60 hectare (148 acre) George Genereux Urban Regional Park might become part of the Blairmore Sector Plan. Find out what that means for these areas! What are the implications?

With your input into the questionnaire the afforestation areas could be added into the Blairmore Sector – hence the name Blairmore Sector Plan Amendment.

The City of Saskatoon has released the Blairmore Sector Plan Amendment with NEW boundaries containing four reports, two videos and a questionnaire survey online.

This City of Saskatoon webpage link will only by online until Friday July 8.

Included in the Natural Areas Screening reporting section is a Natural Area Screening report which gives a report- a real time snapshot in time- on the plants, the animals, as well as insects of woodlands and wetlands. There are photos, and information about what makes the natural area of the forest function, along with suggestions and recommendations from EDI Environmental Dynamics Inc. who have a specialist team that focus on the living things around us and their habitat.

There is information about the background of sector plans looking at neighbourhoods and where 70,000 people can live in new areas of Saskatoon.

Also included is the Official Community Plan Sector Plan, The Blairmore Sector Plan, Southwest Sector Area Map, video presentation about the Blairmore Sector Plan Amendment Project and another video presentation about the Natural Area Screening Study.

In the engage section there is the opportunity for you to write out what you think about Blairmore Sector Plan Amendment. NOTE and REMEMBER This webpage link will only by online until Friday July 8, so the time is now to check it out!

NOTE: There is a short amount of time to engage and complete the online survey to provide concerns and suggestions to the City of Saskatoon Blairmore Sector Plan Amendment! The deadline is Friday July 8. Remember, this is your opportunity to make your voice count to add the afforestation areas to the Blairmore Sector Plan. When you take the time to provide feedback then there may be additional opportunities for another time to provide concerns and suggestions. The City of Saskatoon may consider the opportunity to continue the dialogue with the general public and make another public engagement offer after the summer.

What is your level of interest in two urban regional parks as the City of Saskatoon expands opening its doors to another 70,000 residents? What do you think about the expansion of the Blairmore Sector Plan? What is your level of interest in two semi-wilderness areas homes to species at risk? What do you think about Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area and George Genereux Urban Regional Park? Do you think that these two afforestation areas should be added to the Blaimore Sector? Do you like the recommendations? Do you have more suggestions? What do you see for opportunities and potential?

What is your level of interest as the deadline is Friday July 8?

SmartPhone nature Photo using the free iNaturalist app

Loving Winter Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area in Saskatoon Another exploration opportunity exists at George Genereux Urban Regional Park in Saskatoon — SmartPhone nature Photo using the free iNaturalist app

YouTube

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

A Tree-mendous Result!

The challenges looming on the horizon appear to be both awesome and formidable. …But, hey! What do we have to loose?

The changes taking place in Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area and the consequent erection of barriers to forestall illegal dumping and mitigate such trespass is beginning at the Urban Regional Park. Along with this spirit of defending the urban regional park, with physical, concrete Jersey Barriers, education is a vital link.

How will Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area find its place in Saskatoon? At the centre of the transition are great questions. How to appease a variety of contemporary stakeholders, how to honour City of Saskatoon wetlands policy and open space bylaws, and how to coalesce with the intent of the history and the city visionaries of 1960 who bought this piece of land as a “green belt” for Saskatoon, and the parks department personnel who went before city council to preserve the afforestation area in perpetuity in 1972. At the heart of the debate is succinctly this: “How will Saskatoon answer these great challenges?”

In the age of climate change and nature-deficit disorder, such experiences underscore this truth: Our relationship with nature is not only about preserving land and water, but also about preserving and growing the bonds between us. ” ~ ^{Louv. 2011. p. 139.}

This is definitely an area where Saskatoon could shine. As Maude Barlow states, ” The most important step is to be clear about the nature of the problem.”^{Barlow. 2005. p.271} This is an opportunity for Saskatoon to take a stand. How the civic government of Saskatoon and the parks department answer these great questions of this Afforestation Area in this time, depends on whose counsel it seeks.

If anything is going to limit the supposedly infinite possibilities of economic globalization, it will be the earth itself. Humanity has destroyed more forests, wetlands, and wild spaces in the last hundred years than in all of history. The highly regarded journal <Science reports that recent extinction rates are one hundred to one thousand times higher than before humans existed. Moreover, it says, with the exponential extinction rate now being experienced, that number could increase to between one thousand and ten thousand times by the end of the century….what is clearly needed is “Plan Rejuvenation”^{Barlow. 2015. p 279. 283.}

The afforestation area and the West Swale wetlands, indeed has some serious problems that need to be addressed. The community and several stakeholders will take note of what the City of Saskatoon decides. “Opportunities to find the natural world are all around us, even in the densest cities. But, unless we act quickly to conserve and restore these places, and create new ones, then nearby nature will become a quaint artifact of another time.”^{Louv. 2011. p. 199} “But the task is not as straightforward as might first appear.” ^{Barlow. Clarke. 2001. p. 168} “The challenges looming on the horizon appear to be both awesome and formidable.” ^{Barlow. Clarke. 2001. p.225}

A Tree-mendous achievement to placing barriers to mitigate trash dumping and illegal trespass has made taken a step forward. The project cannot begin by barricading the trash in. Or, if a farmer erects a fence to keep the fox out of the chicken yard, erects the fence, and turns around and sees the fox in the chicken yard, the fence defeats its purpose. So, as a good example going forward, a group of environmentally conscious volunteers from a diverse array of stakeholder backgrounds came together on Saturday, October 29, 2016, for a mini-clean up. This mini clean up lasted two hours; entailed three pick up trucks, a trailer, and eight volunteers. resulting in the removal of approximately 1,500 kilograms (3,300 pounds) of trash that was missed in the previous clean ups of June 2015 and July 2016. To echo the words of Elizabeth Barrett Browning; Deep thanks to all. How that great work of Love enhances Nature and thus shines Nature’s lamp in each.

“Above all, it is important to recall that the real strength and power of civil society, as distinct from governments and corporations, lies in the passion of people ~ the capacity to feel, touch, and relate to one another and thereby bring life back into this world” Maude. Clarke. 2001 p. 225

Black Capped Chickadee. Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. SAskatoon, Sk, CA

Chipping Soarrow. Spizella passerina. Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, SK, CA

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, SK, CA

Living fences made of dense, thorny, and sometimes poisonous bushes are used by farmers who cannot afford barbed wire. Living fences provide mulch, erosion control, land stabilization, fuel, and food;…What if, in our human habitats, we strove for biodiversity, for living fences and natural music? ^{Louv. 2011.p. 101}

“Given current corporate practices, not one wildlife reserve, wilderness or Indigenous culture will survive the global economy. We know that every natural system on the planet is disintegrating. The land, water, air, and sea have been functionally transformed from life-supporting systems into repositories for waste. There is no polite way to say that business is destroying the world.” ~ Paul Hawken, The Ecology of Commerce,: A Declaration of Sustainability ^{Barlow, Clarke, 2001. p. 81}

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Barlow, Maude. too close for comfort. Canada’s future with Fortress North America 2005. McClelland & Stewart Ltd. The Canadian Publishers. Toronto, ON. ISBN 0-7710-1088-5.

Barlow, Maude and Tony Clarke. Global Showdown How the new activists are fighting global corporate rule. 2001. Stoddart Publishing Co. Limited. Toronto, ON. ISBN 0-7737-3264-0.

Louv, Richard. Last Child in the woods. Saving our children from nature deficit disorder. 2005. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. ISBN 13: 978-1-56512-391-5. ISBN 10: 1-56512-391-3.

Louv, Richard. The Nature Principle. Human Restoration and the end of nature-deficit disorder 2011. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. North Carolina. ISBN 987-1-56512-581-0.

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!

QR Code FOR PAYPAL DONATIONS to the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc. — Paypal

Payment Options

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

1./ Learn.

2./ Experience

3./ Do Something: ^***

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.

“We stand in awe and wonder at the beauty of a single tree. Tall and graceful it stands, yet robust and sinewy with spreading arms decked with foliage that changes through the seasons, hour by hour, moment by moment as shadows pass or sunshine dapples the leaves. How much more deeply are we moved as we begin to appreciate the combined operations of the assembly of trees we call a forest.”~Richard St. Barbe Baker

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