henry david thoreau – Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. George Genereux Urban Regional Park.

A Greater Miracle

“Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eye for an instant?”
Henry David Thoreau

What nature and biodiversity is around you today? As science teaches about various plants, and animals, wildlife and nature, awareness increases that Elephants exist in Africa, Kangaroos in Australia, Koala Bears in China. What insects thrive in Saskatoon? What songbirds remain in Saskatoon? Are there any animals that can be seen in Saskatoon? How many did you come up with?

“If our hopes of building a better and safer world are to become more than wishful thinking, we will need the engagement of volunteers more than ever.”
Kofi Annan

Join the #CityNatureChallenge from April 29–May 2! Document Saskatoon’s nature in the free @iNaturalist app by taking photos of wild plants and animals—and help contribute to the world’s largest citizen science event. More at FriendsAreas.ca

Celebrate National Volunteer Week which has a theme ‘Volunteering is Empathy in Action.’

Check out these upcoming events

CITY NATURE CHALLENGE Connect with Nature

Fri, Apr 29, 7:00 PM

George Genereux Urban Regional Park • Saskatoon, SK

CITY NATURE CHALLENGE Connecting to Nature. Calling all Nature Lovers

Sat, Apr 30, 2:00 PM

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area •

CITY NATURE CHALLENGE Nature Lover Observation Party

Sun, May 1, 2:00 PM

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area •

CITY NATURE CHALLENGE George Genereux Nature Canvass

Mon, May 2, 7:00 PM

George Genereux Urban Regional Park • Saskatoon, SK

City Nature Challenge ID Party – Insects! Help for insect IDs/questions

Tue, May 3, 2022 7:00 PM CST

City Nature Challenge ID Party FOCUS ON PLANTS!

Wed, May 4, 2022 7:00 PM CST

City Nature Challenge I.D. Party Fungi and LIchen

Thu, May 5, 2022 7:00 PM CST

City Nature Challenge CNCYXE Saskatoon area versus YQRCNC Regina and area in a mini SK challenge — Lichen

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!

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

Global Conservation Efforts

Earth Day. April 22. Earth Day, what does it mean to you?

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed
Mahatma Gandhi

Did you know that the City Nature Challenge is 4 days April 29 – May 2 to be inspired for nature – for biodiversity around the world?

A great Nature Watch

Download iNaturalist today

Find it

Snap it

Share it

Be the Voice For Nature

April 29 – May 2

Search snap share for the Earth, and Global Conservation Efforts.

Planet Earth, the World, is in our Hands

Business, Technology, 21st Century Culture, Planet Earth — Planet Earth, the World, is in our Hands

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!

YouTube

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

SaskPower_PoweringOurFuture_Colour_Orange and Gray_CMYK — SaskEnergy sponsor and supporter

Look Up at the Sky

What will you find, today, April 14, Look Up at the Sky Day? Take a break, and discover a whole new experience! While you are outside have a great time experiencing our Land of Living Skies in Saskatchewan, take some pictures of the geese flying overhead. Download the free iNaturalist app, and share the migratory birds you see with everyone!

Remember, also to look up at the sky between April 29 to May 2 and wonder at the songbirds, and butterflies you may see overhead. What do you think of the population count of these high fliers? This is what the City Nature Challenge will help specialist scientists around the world discover. April 29 is 16 days away, are you ready? Do you know where you are going to explore?

Are butterflies and their morphological changes on cue for the passing of the seasons? Are birds migrating at the same time as last year? Is the range of various species of songbirds shrinking or expanding? Is the number of bird species and butterfly species shrinking or expanding.

Your input to iNaturalist is important! Taking action locally can make a difference for a specialist scientist using iNaturalist to track trends and changes in our biodiversity. Become a citizen scientist helper for specialist scientists the world over.

Species at risk: Mormon Metalmark (Apodemia mormo) butterfly depends on buckwheat host plant.

Birds learn how to fly, never knowing where the flight will take them.
Mark Nepo

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!

YouTube

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

International Plant Appreciation Day

April 13 is a marvellous day! A day to appreciate plants, and what a better time to appreciate plants than when spring comes, and the Prairie Crocus pops up, and the Spring Avens also blesses our meadows and grasslands in Saskatoon and area.

It is now 15 days from the City Nature Challenge, a fantastic 4 day International Bio Blitz to take action for global biodiversity between April 29 to May 2. Today, download the iNaturalist app, and wander outside locally and take some glorious pictures of plants as you are celebrating the outdoors. By sharing them on the free iNaturalist app, the world will know the beauty you have found in our area of the universe.

No other life is as pure as the plants. It is no wonder we cannot understand them.
Robert Black

Yellow Sunflower Moth Stiria rugifrons on top of Curlycup Gumweed Grindelia squarrosa — City Nature Challenge CNCYXE Saskatoon area versus YQRCNC Regina and area in a mini SK challenge

The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.
John Muir.

YouTube

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

Big Wind Day

National Big Wind Day is observed each year on April 12. The speediest natural wind speed was recorded by Mount Washington Observatory on April 12, 1934. The winds were blowing at 3735 km per hour (231 miles per hour)!

While talking about wind, do you know about susurration? Susurration is the absolutely beautiful sound of leaves in the wind. Many people have listened to the sound of our Trembling Aspens across the prairies. Poplars which are also native trees have their own distinct song.

Thomas Hardy wrote in his book “Under the Greenwood Tree” about the various sounds made by each individual type of tree.

To dwellers in a wood almost every species of tree has its voice as well as its feature. At the passing of the breeze the fir-trees sob and moan no less distinctly than they rock; the holly whistles as it battles with itself; the ash hisses amid its quiverings; the beech rustles while its flat boughs rise and fall.
Thomas Hardy

The Irish Times writes about Hardy’s Singing Shrubs and Trees.

The Daily Mail expounds upon How to talk to a tree: Phrase book reveals the different noises trees make from Poplars that shiver to Elms that sing melancholy melodies.

BBC Radio tells How trees are talking to you and how to listen to them.

During the City Nature Challenge between April 29 to May 2, come out to the afforestation areas, and hear the Trembling Aspen. Be one of the people to support and listen to the Green Ash and American Elm now on the The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN)Red List of Threatened Species. Find out how the Spruce and Pine sing in the wind. Discover the sound of the tall Poplars, the tallest deciduous trees of the afforestation areas. It is truly a magical experience. Just download the free iNaturalist app, find it, snap it, share it.

The trees would love to meet you. Come to a group meet up at the afforestation areas during the City Nature Challenge.

CITY NATURE CHALLENGE Connect with Nature Fri., 29 April 2022 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm Central Standard Time

CITY NATURE CHALLENGE Connecting to Nature. Calling all Nature Lovers Sat, 30 April 2022 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM CST

CITY NATURE CHALLENGE Nature Lover Observation Party Sun, 1 May 2022 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM CST

CITY NATURE CHALLENGE George Genereux Nature Canvass Mon., 2 May 2022 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm Central Standard Time

Today Tue, April 12, 2022 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM CST is the history or backgrounder for the City Nature Challenge Webinar followed by the Citizen Science Event Planning webinar Tue, April 12, 2022 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM CST

Fraxinus_pennsylvanica Green Ash Opposite leaves which are pinnately compound with 7 to 9 serrate leaflets that are elliptical to lanceolate to elliptical in shape, entire leaf is 6 to 9 inches long, green on the top of the leaflets and silky smooth to silky-pubescent and paler below. Margins of the leaflets are either smooth or coarsely saw-toothed. Each leaflet has a short stalk or may be sessile and the leaf has a much longer stem. The little leaflets at the base are the teensiest of the leaflets

Elm Leaves — Fraxinus_pennsylvanica Green Ash Opposite leaves which are pinnately compound with 7 to 9 serrate leaflets that are elliptical to lanceolate to elliptical in shape, entire leaf is 6 to 9 inches long, green on the top of the leaflets and silky smooth to silky-pubescent and paler below. Margins of the leaflets are either smooth or coarsely saw-toothed. Each leaflet has a short stalk or may be sessile and the leaf has a much longer stem. The little leaflets at the base are the teensiest of the leaflets

YouTube

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

iNaturalist Citizen Science New Species Discovery.

The Journal of Orthoptera Research published an article recently: Discovering insect species based on photographs only: The case of a nameless species of the genus Scaria (Orthoptera: Tetrigidae) submitted by University of Croatia students and their professor including Niko Kasalo, Maks Deranja, Karmela Adžić, Roberto Sindaco, Josip Skejo. They were looking at iNaturalist photos, and discovered a very beautiful observation of a pygmy grasshopper (family Tetrigidae) posted near Yambrasbamba a district of Bongará Province in Peru. Where the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) does allow naming from photographs should there be sufficient reason to persude this course, in this case, the pygmy grasshopper remains as “Nameless Scaria” because it is a symbol of all those species worldwide that have not been named and discovered, and perhaps have gone extinct without even being known. By publishing this article on this new species not only delved into the problem and the usual modus operandi, but also enabled inspiration into further research. In the same area, a search was made for the genus Scaria, and three new species were found, albeit not another matching “Nameless Scaria.”

The find went viral in the scientific community. Robert Sindaco, a naturalist has interests in biogeography, and sytematics of the Palearctic reptiles and lizards of Eastern Africa has published scientific papers as a specialist scientist. It was Sindaco or @sindic who uploaded this Peruvian observation to iNaturalist.

From iNaturalist came a great discussion, and interest in the genus Scaria, and attention for the students and their professor out of the University of Croatia.

The City Nature Challenge happens April 29 to May 2 in Saskatoon. What will you discover? Download the free iNaturalist app, find a wild organism of nature, find it, snap it, share it. It is easy to take part.

There are a couple of entomology or insect discussions coming up virtually

City Nature Challenge Insect Hints and Tips Tue April 26, 2022 at 7:00 PM CST

City Nature Challenge ID Party – Insects! Help for insect IDs/questions Tue, May 3, 2022 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM CST

"Nameless Scaria" Observer Roberto Sindaco Curator. Family Tetrigidae Pygmy Grasshopper. Citizen Science discovery and naming in Journal of Orthoptera Research — “Nameless Scaria” Observer Roberto Sindaco iNaturalist Curator. Family Tetrigidae Pygmy Grasshopper. Citizen Science discovery and naming in Journal of Orthoptera Research

My dear young fellow,’ the Old-Green-Grasshopper said gently, ‘there are a whole lot of things in this world of ours you haven’t started wondering about yet.
Roald Dahl

YouTube

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

Name Yourself Day

Today is a fun day – it is “Name Yourself Day!” Doesn’t that sound like a great spot of fun as you introduce your name to friends and families!

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
William Shakespeare

Finding out the name of things is very rewarding. “What is it?” YouTube Video delves into how to find out the name of all the various organisms of nature around you by using iNaturalist.

From today, “Name Yourself Day!” there are 19 days from April 9 until the Saskatoon City Nature Challenge when you can dive into the names of plants, animals, insects and mushrooms between April 29 to May 2. For more information about the City Nature Challenge Saskatoon and Area.

Enjoy the outdoors whilst supporting vital conservation research by making observations April 29 to May 2 on the iNaturalist app during the City Nature Challenge

BE THE REASON NATURE BELIEVES IN HUMANITY

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.
Henry David Thoreau

YouTube

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 loving concern for the environment

International Poetry Month

NATURE

O Nature! I do not aspire
To be the highest in thy quire,—
To be a meteor in the sky,
Or comet that may range on high;
Only a zephyr that may blow
Among the reeds by the river low;
Give me thy most privy place
Where to run my airy race.

In some withdrawn, unpublic mead
Let me sigh upon a reed,
Or in the woods, with leafy din,
Whisper the still evening in:
Some still work give me to do,—
Only—be it near to you!

For I’d rather be thy child
And pupil, in the forest wild,
Than be the king of men elsewhere,
And most sovereign slave of care:
To have one moment of thy dawn,
Than share the city’s year forlorn.

~Henry David Thoreau

Tree Sparrow Spizelloides arborea

Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) Photo credit Paul Stein

Great Blue Heron Montage.

Trembling Aspen grove Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, CA

Thoreau wrote his poem for nature. Can you create an earth month poetry video for those at home and self-isolating for COVID-19? Would your poem combine nature and action on climate change? Can you celebrate both the 22nd National Poetry Month and the 50th anniversary of Earth Month as we come up to April 22? Can you write a poem for every day of the year from today onwards? How can you paint a picture with words through your poetry imagery of your local environment? Can you incorporate the three R’s – Reuse, Reduce, recycle?

“Through time, poets and artists of all kinds have held a mirror up to society, to help us reflect and engage with some of the fundamental questions we face. Energy cannot be considered from an entirely intellectual perspective; energy generation is the unrecognized beating heart of our culture, the invisible ingredient in our diets, the unseen web that binds us to each other, to our places of work and our places of fun, and to strange people in strange lands. We cannot hope to grasp the magnificent complexity of this without art.”
Jonathan Porritt

Here are some great ways to get involved with poetry, if you have nothing to do, and are totally bored counting how many spaghetti noodles there are left in your spaghetti box. And if your kids, home from school, are finished their online lessons, here some innovative ideas to get your children involved with poetry, too. Find your inspiration by looking out your window, and celebrate spring in your poetry. Take some time to enjoy the ever changing presence in the phenological moment through the written word. Best wishes to everyone. It is time to band together!

“The science of climate change is unequivocal. Its negative social and financial consequences are clear, dire, and exponential…. And yet we have been unable to effect change at the necessary scale. We have failed, somehow, to humanize this issue…. A good poem reminds us of our shared humanity. A good poem will string words together like pearls and connect us, shock us out of our usual tropes. A good poem reminds us of everything we share and everything we put at risk.” —Treehouse Investments, in a Q&A about the Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize

April 21-27 is Earth Week! On Tuesday April 21, there is one more sleep before the April 22 50th birthday Earth Day celebration! This year’s Earth Day 2020 theme is Climate Action, which will be explored during Earth Month.

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

Canada Helps

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)

1./ Learn.

2./ Experience

3./ Do Something: ^***

Canada Helps

– Seth Speaks…
If you do not have a loving concern for the environment… it will no longer sustain you – you will not be worthy of it. You will not be destroying the planet, you see. You will not be destroying the birds, or the flowers, or the grain, or the animals… they will be destroying you. ~ Seth

Unlike the urban development that I see taking over and swallowing up our precious soil, when we interact with our environment in a way that allows for regeneration and natural spaces, the outcome can be beautiful. Cory Trepanier

For… first artists, the native people, art was not only of a functional nature, but also linked to their concepts of religion and the relationship of man to his environment. ~ James J. Kurtz.

Walk in nature

July 27 Take Your Pants for a Walk Day

Take your pants for a walk day! Richard St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada — In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. John Muir

Take your pants for a walk day!
Richard St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area,
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks—who had a genius, so to speak, for SAUNTERING, which word is beautifully derived “from idle people who roved about the country, in the Middle Ages, and asked charity, under pretense of going a la Sainte Terre,” to the Holy Land, till the children exclaimed, “There goes a Sainte-Terrer,” a Saunterer, a Holy-Lander. They who never go to the Holy Land in their walks, as they pretend, are indeed mere idlers and vagabonds; but they who do go there are saunterers in the good sense, such as I mean.~ Henry David Thoreau

“Hear and attend and listen; for this befell and behappened and became and was, O my Best Beloved, when the Tame animals were wild. The Dog was wild, and the Horse was wild, and the Cow was wild, and the Sheep was wild, and the Pig was wild—as wild as wild could be—and they walked in the Wet Wild Woods by their wild lones. But the wildest of all the wild animals was the Cat. He walked by himself, and all places were alike to him.” ~Rudyard Kipling

For it matters not how you walk, by your self, with your dog at the South West Off Leash Recreation Area, or as a saunterer like Henry David Thoreau. Come out today, and do, take your pants for a walk!

Photo by Sebastian Voortman on Pexels.com

Photo by Mustafa ezz on Pexels.com

Photo by Brynna Spencer on Pexels.com

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

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!

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 : $50.00 CAD
Membership with donation : $100.00 CAD

1./ Learn.

2./ Experience

3./ Do Something: ^***

“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.

“To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter… to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird’s nest or a wildflower in spring — these are some of the rewards of the simple life.”
― John Burroughs

A walk with Henry David Thoreau

Take A Walk Day

December 30

National Sweater Day First Thursday of February

Fresh Snow in the Sun

Parent and Child in Nature

Extreme winter weather

Cold Weather Dress Warmly

Happy Girl

Colorado Blue Spruce Winter Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. Saskatoon, SK, CA

About Henry David Thoreau.
“It was a pleasure and a privilege to walk with him. He knew the country like a fox or a bird, and passed through it as freely by paths of his own. He knew every track in the snow or on the ground, and what creature had taken this path before him. One must submit abjectly to such a guide, and the reward was great. Under his arm he carried an old music-book to press plants; in his pocket, his diary and pencil, a spy-glass for birds, microscope, jack-knife, and twine. He wore straw hat, stout shoes, strong gray trousers, to brave shrub-oaks and smilax, and to climb a tree for a hawk’s or a squirrel’s nest. He waded into the pool for the water-plants, and his strong legs were no insignificant part of his armor. “~Emerson

“His interest in the flower or the bird lay very deep in his mind, was connected with Nature,—and the meaning of Nature was never attempted to be defined by him. He would not offer a memoir of his observations to the Natural History Society. “Why should I? To detach the description from its connections in my mind would make it no longer true or valuable to me: and they do not wish what belongs to it.” His power of observation seemed to indicate additional senses. He saw as with microscope, heard as with ear-trumpet, and his memory was a photographic register of all he saw and heard. And yet none knew better than he that it is not the fact that imports, but the impression or effect of the fact on your mind. Every fact lay in glory in his mind, a type of the order and beauty of the whole. His determination on Natural History was organic….. Our naturalist had perfect magnanimity; he had no secrets: he would carry you to the heron’s haunt, or even to his most prized botanical swamp,—possibly knowing that you could never find it again, yet willing to take his risks.”~Emerson

“No college ever offered him a diploma, or a professor’s chair; no academy made him its corresponding secretary, its discoverer, or even its member. Whether these learned bodies feared the satire of his presence. Yet so much knowledge of Nature’s secret and genius few others possessed, none in a more large and religious synthesis. For not a particle of respect had he to the opinions of any man or body of men, but homage solely to the truth itself; and as he discovered everywhere among doctors some leaning of courtesy, it discredited them. He grew to be revered and admired by his townsmen, who had at first known him only as an oddity. The farmers who employed him as a surveyor soon discovered his rare accuracy and skill, his knowledge of their lands, of trees, of birds, of Indian remains, and the like, which enabled him to tell every farmer more than he knew before of his own farm; so that he began to feel as if Mr. Thoreau had better rights in his land than he. They felt, too, the superiority of character which addressed all men with a native authority.”~Emerson

“He was equally interested in every natural fact. The depth of his perception found likeness of law throughout Nature, and I know not any genius who so swiftly inferred universal law from the single fact. He was no pedant of a department. His eye was open to beauty, and his ear to music. “~Emerson

“His poetry might be bad or good; he no doubt wanted a lyric facility and technical skill; but he had the source of poetry in his spiritual perception. He was a good reader and critic, and his judgment on poetry was to the ground of it. … He knew the worth of the Imagination for the uplifting and consolation of human life, and liked to throw every thought into a symbol. The fact you tell is of no value, but only the impression. For this reason his presence was poetic, always piqued the curiosity to know more deeply the secrets of his mind.” ~Emerson

Now per’aps ’tis time for a walk in the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, or the George Genereux Urban Regional Park
Bibliography
~Biographical Sketch, HENRY DAVID THOREAU by R. W. Emerson. From Excursions Author: Henry D. Thoreau

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

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)

Payment Options

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

1./ Learn.

2./ Experience

3./ Do Something: ^***

The simple act of planting a tree, which is in itself a practical deed, is also the symbol of a far reaching ideal, which is creative in the realm of the Spirit, and in turn reacts upon society, encouraging all to work for the future well being of humanity rather than for immediate gain. Richard St. Barbe Baker

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NATURE

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July 27 Take Your Pants for a Walk Day

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