The Secret of Richard St. Barbe Baker

Many people have heard of David Suzuki, David Attenborough, or Greta Thunberg.  Richard St. Barbe Baker was the first global conservationist and humanitarian.  This is our way to remember his international legacy.  International Online Premiere:  The Legacy of Saskatoon’s Secret Forest Saturday November 6, 2021 at 1:00 pm CST (UTC-6) 

What was the secret of Richard St. Barbe Baker?

Well, he formed the Men of the Trees from the very first Dance of the Trees July 22, 1922, and not this organisation is known as the International Tree Foundation. This part is known, and not a secret.

We know that he encouraged all who joined the International Tree Foundation – who were called [from the Kikuyu of Africa] the Watu Wa Miti or forest guides to make a promise. The forest scouts, all took a solemn oath to “promise to plant ten trees a year, take care of trees everywhere, and do one good deed every day!“

We know that he knew Wangaari Mathai, nobel prize laureate, and that they spoke often about the Sahara Desert reclamation. Baker took a trip in the Sahara desert, and realized that it once was a lush verdant forest. So just as in the final scene of the Planet of the Apes, it was ARRRGGGHHH! what has happened to the earth? The difference is the Planet of the Apes was a futuristic movie scenario and the Sahara Desert is a testament of the past and present.

Tree planting, nay, not just tree planting but forest planting was an imperative message from Richard St. Barbe Baker as he travelled the globe. This is not a secret, and an amazing feat of accomplishing the planting of billions and trillions of trees worldwide.

What many people don’t realize that his mission, his imperative, his modus operandi was that everyone should develop a “tree sense.” This “tree sense” is what shouldn’t be Richard St. Barbe Baker’s secret. Just as he travelled the world speaking and writing books about developing a “tree sense” so should we all today, in this era.

So, to honour the Legacy of Richard St. Barbe Baker, can you today, foster your own “tree sense?”

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  Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

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  Hoar Frost and Rime Ice covering the trees at the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon , SK , in the bright morning sunlight

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  Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area Forest

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  Caraganavan trail in the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area inspired by the Navarac Caravan Co. started by Baker

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  Photo of Richard St. Barbe Baker Courtesy: University of Saskatchewan, University Archives & Special Collections,

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 )

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Support using Canada Helps

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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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SDG 13 Climate Change

Go for the goals! (Sustainable Development Goals) International Development Week, February 7-13 2021 Canada

Today, February 13, is the last day of International Development Week February 7-13 2021 theme Go for the Goals – the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Get involved! 

Goal 13 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals addresses Climate Action. There area amazing nature-based solutions to climate change. Richard St. Barbe Baker (1889-1992) was a visionary. By some estimates, organisations Richard St. Barbe Baker founded, assisted and inspired were responsible for planting at least 26 billion trees, internationally, even during his lifetime.

“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

As part of the Take It Outside challenge, come out to the afforestation area for a walk. Determine which trees are native, and which ones were planted during the 1972 afforestation under the Green Survival Program. Add an observation to the iNaturalist app about the trees, and send an email friendsafforestation@gmail.com with a photo of a tree you believe is native, and a photo of a tree you think has been planted. The email will allow you to be entered into the draw for a prize for completing this challenge.

Richard St. Barbe Baker founded the International Tree Foundation which started as the Watu Wya Miti. This phrase from the country of Kenya, and the Kiyuyu peoples roughly translates as Men of the Trees, Forest Scout or Forest Guide. As a forest guide, a solemn pledge was taken to plant at least ten trees every year, take care of trees everywhere, and do a good deed every day.

By coming out to the afforestation area, and making identifications and photographs, it is a great first step to taking care of trees everywhere.

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
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

“To be standing together in a frosty field, looking up into the sky, marvelling at birds and revelling in the natural world around us, was a simple miracle. And I wondered why we were so rarely able to appreciate it.”

Lynn Thomson

“Creative expression, whether that means writing, dancing, bird-watching, or cooking, can give a person almost everything that he or she has been searching for: enlivenment, peace, meaning, and the incalculable wealth of time spent quietly in beauty.”
-Anne Lamott

A New Age

Those of us who consider ourselves to be somehow involved in the birthing of a new age, should discover Gaia as well. The idea of Gaia may facilitate the task of converting destructive human activities to constructive and cooperative behavior. It is an idea which deeply startles us, and in the process, may help us as a species to make the necessary jump to planetary awareness.
James Lovelock

World Environment Day

is celebrated June 5.

 

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Heart health outdoor forest walking. Heart Cloud

Business, Technology, 21st Century Culture, Planet Earth

Planet Earth, the World, is in our Hands

“World Environment Day reminds us that we have a global responsibility to safeguard our environment – and that each of us has a role to play to preserve and protect it.”

Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister

 “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 1922, Richard St. Barbe Baker began the International Tree Foundation with Forest Guides, or Forest Scouts, called the Watu wa Miti, or Men of the Trees who… “promised before N’gai, the High God, that they would protect the native forest, plant ten native trees each year, and take care of trees everywhere.”

“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

You Tube Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

You Tube George Genereux Urban Regional Park

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!

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

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“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.

“There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.” ~ Will Rogers