Thank you to City of Saskatoon and Mosaic for their support
Sat Sept 17 at 2:00 iNaturalist Biodiversity Challenge and Sun Sept 18 at 6:00 Easy as 1-2-3 Find It, Snap It, Share It, on the free iNaturalist app
Sun Sept 18 Wildwoods of Saskatoon Film Remai Modern at 2:00 Register Now! Seating is limited.
Commemorate #NationalForestWeek with a theme in 2022 “Canada’s Forests: Solutions for a Changing Climate.”
2022 is the 30th anniversary of “Maple Leaf Day” or National Tree Day in Canada
😃🍁🍄🥀🌼🌞🌷🌾🎋🌳🌲🐾🐀🐿🐁🐇🐇🕷🐛🦋🐞🐜🐌🐛🕷🦗🐢🐍🦇🐦🦉🦅🦆🐥🐣🐦🦇🐌🦋🦋🦄
National Forest Week brings attention to our forests and trees from coast to coast across Canada. Maple Leaf Day (or National Forest Day) takes place the third Wednesday of September, which in 2022 is September 21. National Forest Week are the days around Maple Leaf Day.
Richard St. Barbe Baker said it this way, “If a person loses one third of his or her skin, the person will die; if a tree loses a third of its bark, the tree will die, and if the world loses a third of its trees, the world will die.
We live less that five minutes without air and the trees give us air we breathe. We live less than five days without water, and trees are absolutely essential in the water cycle. We live less than five weeks without food, and without the trees we could not grow food.” (Filson, Bruce K. October 7, 1982, Western People, p. 5)
Celebrate #nationalForestWeek Sept 18-24! Special events and incredible opportunities await you! Visit http://www.friendsareas.ca to get involved today. 😄👍👨👩👧👩👩👦👦🌳🌲🌲🌳🌳🌲👨👨👧👦👩👩👦👦🙂😃👍
#NationalForestWeek commences Sept 18, 2022. Join us for a week of festivities as we discover trees, culture and explore the biodiversity forests around us support. Save the date to explore nature around you. www.friendsareas.ca @friendsareas 😄👍👨👩👧👩👩👦👦🌳🌲🌲🌳🌳🌲👨👨👧👦👩👩👦👦🙂😃👍
Do you have a great forest trail, a unique and special tree friend, a beautiful spot to meditate amidst the rustling of leaves in the forest? Post a selfie with a story telling everyone about your tree or forest space with the hashtag #NationalForestWeek. 😄👍👨👩👧👩👩👦👦🌳🌲🌲🌳🌳🌲👨👨👧👦👩👩👦👦🙂😃👍
Wildwoods of Saskatoon launches #NationalForestWeek at the Remai Modern Film Sept 18 at 2:00 ushering in a cavalcade of virtual and in-person events Take part in the photo extravaganza. Plant a tree, sing with a chickadee, protect a tree and support biodiversity. www.friendsareas.ca @friendsareas 😄👍👨👩👧👩👩👦👦🌳🌲🌲🌳🌳🌲👨👨👧👦👩👩👦👦🙂😃👍
Find your forest and share the story about your tree friend
In the days leading up to #NationalForestWeek
Let people know about a forest you like to visit
Share the location of a unique tree
Tell a story about your favourite native tree
Create a post on social media letting everyone know what event you have to offer about your favourite tree or forest
Get together with other environmental groups to promote your forest or tree places by a networking event
There is no mood or passion that the forest cannot give us, and those of us who have discovered her secret can settle beforehand what our experiences are going to be. We can choose our day and select our hour. And lo! the dawn finds us in the obscure wood. Together witnessing the film expose the afforestation secrets, we pass through into the realm of legend. With pity or with joy, the secrets revealed, behold the stories and tales of another world, another time. Let us at least suppose so for the moment—that at the film -we settle down to discovering the real intention and the stories of the afforestation areas. Those stories which etch and mould the form of the afforestation areas.
Discover the Wildwoods of Saskatoon Sunday September 18 at 2:00 pm at the Remai Modern. Register Now
50th anniversary of World Environment Day, 50th Birthday for Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area and George Genereux Urban Regional Park in Saskatoon
Richard St. Barbe Baker said it this way, “If a person loses one third of his or her skin, the person will die; if a tree loses a third of its bark, the tree will die, and if the world loses a third of its trees, the world will die. We live less that five minutes without air and the trees give us air we breathe. We live less than five days without water, and trees are absolutely essential in the water cycle. We live less than five weeks without food, and without the trees we could not grow food.” (Filson, Bruce K. October 7, 1982, Western People, p. 5)
A virtual zoom webinar today Wednesday June 1 takes place Right Away with hints and tips for using iNaturalist to identify Fungi at 7:00 pm CST Did you know that Fungi in Saskatchewan need you?Find out why! Specialist presentations
This presentation is just in time for World Environment Week and the BioDiverCity Challenge. Practice taking iNaturalist photos of fungi and mushrooms when out and about. The BioDiverCity challenge is for the City of Saskatoon, and the Province of Saskatchewan! It is a Northern Latitudes Great Plains of North America Challenge originating in Edmonton and Calgary, and now taking place across the Great Northern Plains! Download iNaturalist and Sign in.
Find it
Snap it
Share it
What will you discover?
Explore nature with a purpose! Support Global Conservation during Canada Environment Week. Sign up for BioBlitzes!
There is no doubt about it, the people who took part did take action towards global conservation efforts. It was Great to Be the Reason Nature Believes in Humanity. Thank you one and all for taking part for Saskatoon and Area!
The Saskatoon Nature Society came on board, and really pulled through! The City of Saskatoon entomologist, Sydney Worthy, was host at an insect workshop which helped the CNC and this workshop is still having ripple effects through the school system. The Saskatchewan Mycological Working Group were host to a Fungi and Lichen Workshop which likewise is having amazing spin-offs! Appreciation is extended to the Prairie Conservation Action Plan for hosting a City Nature Challenge presentation for the Native Prairie Speakers Series. For these and other City Nature Challenge virtual webinars and workshops, see YouTube. Thanks to the University of Saskatchewan environment and sustainability classes for their contributions. The classrooms of students from the Saskatoon Public School Board and the Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools were wonderful to see the student enthusiasm at both Brightwater at the afforestation areas, and around Saskatoon. Thanks to the Meewasin staff at Beaver Creek for helping out! Thank you to the Canadian Wildlife Federation WILD group for their assistance. Appreciations and rounds of applause to @lysandra, @MaryKrieger, @sarasims, Jacey Bell, Donovan Thiessen, andall the iNaturalist Observers and Identifiers. Thanks to the City of Saskatoon, Saskatoon Nature Society, SaskTel, SaskPower, SaskEnergy, Mosaic, EcoFriendly West were super to help with the logistics for the planning this event. Thanks to everyone in the area around Saskatoon. Check out “explore” on iNat or go to BioSmart. Hats off to Wild About Saskatoon, Cpaws and Nature Conservancy of Canada for helping to make the event happen, indeed. We wish to say thank you kindly to the Saskatoon Media Group for their radio announcements also, that was wonderful to get the word out! Thanks to everyone who shared the social media assets as well. It was wonderful to meet the organizing crew of the Canadian Wildlife Federation, California Academy of Sciences, Natural History Museum Los Angeles County. In the words of Richard St. Barbe Baker, Twihamwe or pull together echoes the Province of Saskatchewan Motto, Multis e gentibus vires (From Many Peoples Strength). This pulling together happened during the first ever Saskatoon City Nature Challenge and our statistics show we had the second highest results for the prairie provinces in Canada – imagine that! What a show of support for wildlife and conservation! If we have inadvertently missed any group or contributing organization, please email, and we apologize most humbly – it has been a most busy week. And, of course, thank you to all the individuals who are passionate about nature and who helped out just because they like to be out in nature, and taking observations, or helping with identifications, it was an amazing four day bio-blitz cram session.
The Global City Nature Challenge Statistics show an amazing result: 1,570,392 Observations worldwide. 50,270 Total Species were observed Globally. 64,238 People around the World took part.
In Saskatoon and area, in this very early springtime, there were 14 species at risk sighted.
It is the end of May 1, the third day of the Saskatoon City Nature Challenge April 29 to May 2. Thanks to everyone who has added observations on iNaturalist! Come out on Monday May 2, and make a difference!
It was an interesting day to follow through on the Insect Workshop. So, when you take a peek into pond water of marshes like the Chappell Marsh at Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, there are bugs in the water swimming around! Here is a Pond Life video of the Caddisfly larva which was found! And following up on the Fungi including Lichen Workshop, 60 different observations have taken place for Lichen and shelf fungi are being noted at this time of the year.
And, now just a bit of a word about our Saskatoon and Area Species at Risk which were found so far…By randomly taking pictures across Saskatoon and area, it is fantastic what was discovered!
Goldenrod Gall Fly Eurosta solidaginis
Togwoteeus biceps
Green Ash Fraxinus pennsylvanica
American White Pelican Pelecanus erythrorhynchos
Blackbottle Protophormia terraenovae
Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura
Louisiana Broomrape Aphyllon ludovicianum
Prairie Violet Viola pedatifida
Early Blue Violet Viola palmata
So, now is the time to get involved
Observe April 29-May 2
Countdown has begun!
How many birds, bugs, feathers, lichen, plants, animals, etc can you find?
Are you coming?
Three easy steps
Find it
Snap it
Share it
Enjoy the outdoors whilst supporting vital conservation research by making observations April 29 to May
City Nature Challenge CNCYXE Saskatoon area versus YQRCNC Regina and area in a mini SK challengeCity Nature Challenge CNCYXE Saskatoon area versus YQRCNC Regina and area in a mini SK challengeiNaturalist Observation with smart phone connecting with nature, supporting vital conservation research worldwide.City Nature Challenge CNCYXE Saskatoon area versus YQRCNC Regina and area in a mini SK challenge
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!
Help to place Saskatoon and Area on the World Nature Stage!
This is an amazing virtual ID session to flip unknowns on iNaturalist! Have you never come across an unknown on iNaturalist? Well here is a wonderful evening of fun!
Anyone at all can help with identifications, and help flip unknowns! You don’t even have to know anything about the species. Teams of experts will be reviewing and updating the information that’s submitted, so you can log back in later and learn more about what you’ve been working on. You get out of iNaturalist what you put into it!
So it is just fine if you just stay with the larger taxon unit, and suggest that the observation looks like an elephant, deer, rhinoceros, butterfly, flowering plant, ant, spider, and just let the specialist scientists do the rest. There are extra points in Saskatchewan for anyone who discovers the elephant and rhinoceros in the Saskatchewan observations though 😉
We look forward to you coming on by! The City Nature Challenge runs between April 29 to May 2 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 2022! #CNCYXE People going out during their baseball games, and finding ladybugs on their iNaturalist app, or taking photos through iNaturlist of ants while watching soccer games is wonderful! What about the dog walk, what plants and animals will FIDO sniff at? With iNaturalist loaded onto your smart phone, you can find the names of these plants and animals, insects and mushrooms. Help your students and sons, and daughters discover the names of What is it?
These identification parties are wonderful tools to “find the most species.” So thanks for coming along.
iNaturalist Connect with nature for the City Nature Challenge Saskatoon and Area Défi nature urbaine hosted by the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc.Camera, Photgraph your story in the forestRichard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area Spring timeRichard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, SK, CA Spring time
In love with Saskatoon and Area’s incredible nature? You can help observe on iNat & protect it by joining this year’s #CityNatureChallenge, April 29–May 2! All you need to join is a smartphone and the free @inaturalist app. Learn more at FriendsAreas.ca Explore back yards, the afforestation areas, along the boulevards of our city streets, in the nooks and crannys of fences and trees. Participating is easy: just make observations of wild plants, animals, and fungi, anywhere in the Saskatoon and Area with the free @inaturalist app April 29 – May 2, and they’ll automatically be added to this project.
The CNC was organized by citizen science staff at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (Lila Higgins) and California Academy of Sciences (Alison Young). The City Nature Challenge has become a global effort for people to find and document plants and wildlife in cities across the globe in support of world conservation efforts. It’s a fun citizen science event with a challenge where cities are in a contest against each other to see who can make the most observations of nature, who can find the most species, and who can engage the most people.
Being involved is super easy!
connect with nature- fungi, insects, Plants and Wildlife
From the CNC FAQ page; Take photos, or sound recordings of “any observations of WILD plants, animals, fungi, seaweed, bacteria, lichen, etc. you find in and around your city! Observations of living or dead organisms, or evidence of those organisms, like shells, seeds, tracks, scat, pinecones, feathers, etc., are fine. Remember to make sure you’re taking good photos of the organisms!”
Take a Picture
Take a picture of what you discover in nature. The iNaturalist app records the GPS location of the critter or plant – and you can set it to obscured or leave it as publicly known. (Don’t change location to private or it won’t be part of the City Nature Challenge)
There is nature all around us, even in our cities! As the urban footprint and the human monoculture keeps expanding, nature is often overlooked in our cities, which has become a safe haven for many wild animals who no longer have a wild habitat. You cannot protect what you don’t know, and all of us – citizen scientists, scientists, land managers, and the community – come together in Twihamwe “working together as one” to find and document the nature in our area. The Saskatchewan Motto strengthens the volunteer spirit of the City Nature Challenge’ Multis e Gentibus Vires (Latin) (“From Many Peoples Strength!”) By participating in the City Nature Challenge, you can learn more about your local nature, and at the same time you can also make your city a better place – for you and nature!
For the COVID-19 pandemic, some modifications were implemented into the City Nature Challenge 2020 and 2021 to help keep both organizers and participants safe. It is way more important to focus on collaboration rather than competition. And we want to know about and embrace the healing power of nature and encourage the sharing of unique stories, species, habitat ranges found during the CNC. Look inside your own homes, in your own yard, in your local bus stop, along your boulevard or local park. Keep safe, follow all health guidelines for COVID, follow all health guidelines for nature as well! This year’s City Nature Challenge is a hybrid between collaboration and competition.
Check back later to see the conversation about your observation!
Qualifications
iNaturalist is an free observation platform that uses both computer recognition vision technology alongside crowd sourced corroboration that acts as a place for people to record biodiversity observations, interact with other enthusiasts, and learn about organisms. Observations from iNaturalist also enrich biodiversity science within open science projects such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL). Scientists (and anyone) can freely access and use these data to address their research questions. iNaturalist is as easy to use as 1-2-3!
Find It
Snap It
Share It
This guide, along with YouTube Videos, and planned Virtual events for volunteers who wish to take part will walk you through recommendations for the best ways to use iNaturalist with students in formal or informal settings so they learn from the experience and contribute high-quality observations to the iNaturalist community.
What kinds of observations of nature should I make during the CNC?
Any observations of WILD plants, animals, fungi, seaweed, bacteria, lichen, etc. you find in and around your city! Remember to check under the leaves of your cultivated plants. Observations of living or dead organisms, or evidence of those organisms, like shells, tracks, scat, feathers, etc., are fine. Remember to make sure you’re taking good photos of the organisms!
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!
City Nature Challenge CNCYXE Saskatoon area versus YQRCNC Regina and area in a mini SK challenge Regina YQRCNC vs Saskatoon CNCYXE SK mini Challenge for the City Nature Challenge City Nature Challenge CNCYXE Saskatoon area versus YQRCNC Regina and area in a mini SK challengeCity Nature Challenge CNCYXE Saskatoon area versus YQRCNC Regina and area in a mini SK challenge
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
– Gandhi
During this National Volunteer Week, April 24 – 30 celebrate the theme; ‘Volunteering is Empathy in Action.’
Have empathy for the very last time you may see a species at risk if action is not taken. Have empathy for the declining songbird population. Have empathy for the many organisms in the insect and fungi taxons which have not even been named yet, and which may go extinct before people pay attention to them.
Your contributions as an observer during the City Nature Challenge taking place April 29 to May 2 does take action to support global conservation efforts! Just download the free iNaturalist app and sign in, then;
Find it!
Snap it!
Share it!
“You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give.”
Winston Churchill
What can you give to protect Mother Earth? The City Nature Challenge is your way to take action, so that you can answer I took action!
Taking a photo of mushrooms (fungi) with a smart phoneMushrooms, Grasshopper, Caterpillar, FungiCity Nature Challenge City Nature Challenge CNCYXE Saskatoon
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!
We’ll start off with an introduction on how to make identifications using iNaturalist and will go through some observations together, so join in if you’d like to learn more about how to help with IDs! After that, folks can jump off if they’d like to work on IDs on their own, but we’ll stick around if people would like to share some of the observations they’re coming across or just want to chat more about the City Nature Challenge, fungi, lichen, conks in general. Maybe you have a poser, or a puzzler and you would like some help with something you saw when you were outside.
Did you know that…
“iNaturalist began in 2008 as a UC Berkeley School of Information Master’s final project of Nate Agrin, Jessica Kline, and Ken-ichi Ueda. Nate Agrin and Ken-ichi Ueda continued work on the site with Sean McGregor, a web developer. In 2011, Ueda began collaboration with Scott Loarie, a research fellow at Stanford University and lecturer at UC Berkeley. Ueda and Loarie are the current co-directors of iNaturalist.org.The organization merged with the California Academy of Sciences on April 24, 2014. In 2017, iNaturalist became a joint initiative between the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society.
Since 2012, the number of participants and observations has roughly doubled each year.In 2014, iNaturalist reached 1 million observations and as of December 2021 there were 99 million observations.”
So here we are, now in Saskatoon, adding our plants, fungi, conks, lichen, animals, insects to iNaturalist so specialist scientists can look at our local data to make decisions to save species at risk, and to control invasive species, and to see how climate change is affecting the planet with range expansions and contractions. Thanks for taking part in the City Nature Challenge April 29 – May 2 by downloading iNaturalist, and taking picture of wildlife!
LIchenLichenLichenImage taken by Shweetha Gopinath, eco-photographerHeart health outdoor forest walking. Heart Cloud
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!
What a great time of year to go out and about as spring is in the air, and the birds are migrating into the willows, and the meadow grass is sweet.
Did you know that….
“iNaturalist is a social network of naturalists, citizen scientists, and biologists built on the concept of mapping and sharing observations of biodiversity across the globe. iNaturalist may be accessed via its website or from its mobile applications. As of February 2021, iNaturalist users had contributed approximately 66 million observations of plants, animals, fungi, and other organisms worldwide, and around 130,000 users were active in the previous 30 days.
iNaturalist describes itself as “an online social network of people sharing biodiversity information to help each other learn about nature”, with its primary goal being to connect people to nature. Although it is not a science project itself, iNaturalist is a platform for science and conservation efforts, providing valuable open data to research projects, land managers, other organizations, and the public. It is the primary application for crowd-sourced biodiversity data in places such as Mexico, southern Africa, and Australia,and the project has been called “a standard-bearer for natural history mobile applications.””[source]
It will be a pleasure to meet you, and the willows would love to meet you. There are no river willows in George Genereux park, they are full sized tree willows.
Caragana Flower Blooom Saskatoon, SK CAThermopsis rhombifolia flowers – Buffalo Bean Nadiatalent CCx4Saskatoon, SK, CA Spring timeThe magic of George Genereux Park, City of Saskatoon at RM of Corman Park 344 boundaryPollinator on dandelion
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!
Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. George Genereux Urban Regional Park. 
