The Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area has as its namesake, Dr. Lt. Richard Edward St. Barbe Baker, O.B.E., Hon. LL.D. (Sask), F.I.A.L., For.Dip.Cantab., ACF
National Archives [Kew] does state that “senior” or first lieutenant [Lt] Richard Edward St. Barbe Baker, serving in the Royal Horse and Field Artillery did receive the Military Cross [M.C.] for service in World War I, and that St. Barbe also served as “junior” or second lieutenant [2LT].
Photo of Richard St. Barbe Baker Courtesy: University of Saskatchewan, University Archives & Special Collections, Richard St. Barbe Baker fonds, MG 71
Following service in the war, Colonial Office appointed Baker Assistant Conservator of Forests in 1920 with a post in Kenya. This was followed with a posting as Assistant Conservator of Forests [ACF] in Nigeria.
In 1971, the University of Saskatchewan bestowed upon Richard St. Barbe Baker, LL.D. an honorary Doctorate of Laws.
Richard St. Barbe Baker, O.B.E. also received the Order of the British Empire from Queen Elizabeth in 1977.
The puzzle which evokes curiosity is this ~ what does the acronym F.A.I.L. stand for? [Note should be F.I.A.L.]
The second puzzle of Richard St. Barbe’s legacy is what do the abbreviations For.Dip.Cantab. mean?
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
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!
“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
“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 the words of Henry van Dyke, America’s greatest tree poet,
‘He that planteth a tree is a servant of God;
He provideth a kindness for many generations
And faces that he hath not seen shall bless him.’ ”
Richard St. Barbe Baker
“The point I’m making with John Lennon is: a man could look at anything, and make something out of it.”Frank Costello
The study of life, like the study of a forest or a landscape, should begin with the most conspicuous features. Not until these have been fixed in memory will the lesser features fall into their appropriate places and assume their right proportions.
Richard St. Barbe Baker travelled the world collaborating with world leaders to plant trees. He wrote of a few of the few tall trees or great persons he met along the journey. St. Barbe Baker’s international organization, the Men of the Trees, is now known as the International Tree Foundation (ITF). ITF has branches in over 100 countries. Looking at the statistics behind the organizations St. Barbe founded or assisted have been responsible for planting at least 26 billion trees around the world according to the The International Journal of Environmental Studies, Volume 14, 1979.
“Good design begins with honesty, asks tough questions, comes from collaboration and from trusting your intuition.” —Freeman Thomas
There is no doubt that Dr. Richard St. Barbe Baker, L.L.D, O.B.E. had endless energy, and was carried along by an internal conviction of a world made green again. His spiritual vision, experiences, and awakening to trees has inspired millions around the world to plant trees and forests, which changed climate and reclaimed deserts.
St. Barbe Baker sent out an appeal for a “Green Front against the desert.” This environmental collaboration resulted in Africa’s Great Green Wall, a 4,000 mile (6,450 km) long, nine mile (15 km) deep forest of trees across eleven African countries. ” Countries of the Sahara collaborating for a common cause will provide a model for better understanding between man and man, nation and nation. Reclamation of the Sahara became his obsession.Mehta” Even now, about 70 years later, “the paradox of the wall means that it will serve to unite countries, not divide them. At the border regions of Mali and Niger, many of the local communities have ignored national boundaries in order to collaborate with each other on plant propagation and water conservation schemes.Laorden”
St. Barbe collaborated with President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the environment programme to plant three million trees across the United States under the Civilian Conservation Corps New Deal Initiative. This environmental undertaking developed parks, conservation efforts, and prevented the erosion of soil during the “dirty thirties.”
Viktor Schauberger to whom, “water, forests and natural energies and their generation were ever his passionate concernSchauberger“. This passion of Schauberger’s is echoed in the speeches and writings of his friend, St. Barbe Baker. Viktor Schauberger was an Austrian forest caretaker, naturalist, philosopher, inventor and biomimicry experimenter.
If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” —Isaac Newton
Who is Richard St. Barbe Baker collaborating with today? Today St. Barbe Baker is reaching out to everyone of us, “to plant trees, to plant trees for our lives”.
“The great Empires of Assyria, Babylon, Carthage and Persia were destroyed by floods and deserts let loose in the wake of forest destruction. Erosion following forest destruction and soil depletion has been one of the most powerfully destructive forces in bringing about the downfall of civilizations and wiping out human existence from large tracts of the earth’s surface. Erosion does not march with a blast of trumpets or the beating of drums, but its tactics are more subtle, more sinister.” ~ Richard St. Barbe Baker
“Until the 19th century most believed that ecosystems would always be able to recover from the pressure humanity has put on them. [7] ”
“Finally it will be Man’s turn. We forget that we owe our existence to the presence of trees and 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 for our lives.” ~Richard St. Barbe Baker
[4] Momen, Wendi and Voykovic, Anthony A. Richard Edward St. Barbe Baker “Richard Edward St. Barbe Baker” Bahá’í Encyclopedia Project, bahai-encyclopedia-project.org
[5] Schauberger, Viktor. Living Energies. Publisher Рипол Классик. ISBN 5882222885, 9785882222887.
[6] St. Barbe Baker, R. (1944) I Planted Trees, Lutterworth Press, London and RedHill.
[7] What is Systems Engineering? – The Natural Edge Project Whole System Design Suite Taking a whole system approach to achieving sustainable design outcomes Unit 2: The Fundamentals of Systems Engineering to Inform a Whole System Approach. July 2007. Australian Government. Department of the Environment and Water Resources.
“The fate of an individual or a nation will always be determined by the degree of his or its harmony with the forces and laws of Nature and the universe. Man is not alone in the universe but is surrounded by sources of power, harmony and knowledge. The fullness of life depends upon man’s harmony with the totality of the natural cosmic laws. Our individual evolution is a job that has to be carried on day by day by each individual himself. It is a livelong task.” ~Richard St. Barbe Baker.
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 SW 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
Please help protect / enhance /commemorate 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!
The trees and vegetation, which cover the land surface of the Earth and delight the eye, are performing vital tasks incumbent upon the vegetable world in nature. Its presence is essential to earth as an organism. It is the first condition of all life; it it the ‘skin’ of the earth, for without it there can be no water, and therefore, no life.~Richard St. Barbe Baker
It is not a farce.…”To be whole. To be complete. Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from.” ~Terry Tempest Williams
forestry is among the oldest and most honorable of the peaceful arts of men, and in its practice is unselfish and constructive service.
Richard St. Barbe Baker Biographical Highlights
Richard St. Barbe Baker (1889-1982) Founder of Men of the Trees (MoTT) world renown horticulturist, and silviculturist ( a person who tends to trees) received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws on 6 November 1971from the University of Saskatchewan. This honour was followed by an appointment bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II as Officer of the Order of the British Empire OBE in 1978. Baker attended Emmanuel College at the University of Saskatchewan as one of its first students in 1910. He first began working on his divinity degree and changed to the study of forestry after the Great War.
Images of St. Barbe, credit
University of Saskatchewan,
University Archives & Special Collections,
Richard St. Barbe Baker fonds, MG 71
In 1922 Baker took the post of, Assistant Conservator of Forests in Kenya and while in Africa embraced the “Boy Scout Good-deed-a-day idea” (Oldfield. 1979) He called for volunteers, Watu wa Miti (Men of the Trees) to plant trees to restore the ravaged forests, and thus the international organisation, Men of the Trees was born. The group founded by Richard St. Barbe Baker, “Men of the Trees”, has as its slogan, TWAHMWE, meaning “All as one” or Pull together. Those candidates chosen to become members in Kenya were to “repeat solemnly the three-fold promise, “I promise before N’gai to do at least one good deed each day, to plant 10 trees each year, and take care of trees everywhere”. (The Sunday Morning Star 1930) Baker founded “ the ‘Children of the Green Earth’ movement, encouraging youngsters to seed and nurture baby trees. “Sullivan, 1981. P. 55
Baker headed to his alma-mater, the University of Saskatchewan where he hoped to found the first Canadian branch of “The Men of the Trees. “ (Spokane, 1932) “Forestry arose from a recognition of a universal need. It embodied the spirit of service to mankind in attempting to provide a means of supplying forever a necessity of life, and in addition ministering to his aesthetic tastes and recreational interest. The man who planted trees and created forests was rendering one of the greatest of services to his country. “This real life tree hero attended the U of S from 1909-1913 and his life’s work brought him back to receive an honorary doctorate in 1971. At the age of 91, while visiting Saskatoon in 1982, St. Barbe, as his friends called him, planted a tree near the Diefenbaker Canada Centre. He died three days later, and his body was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.
He is an example of what one person can achieve in a lifetime and to this end the Baha’i Community of Saskatoon is planning an historical marker at the site.” White, 2002). “…The aim of the Men of the Trees is briefly ‘to develop a tree sense in every citizen, and to encourage all to plant, protect and love their native trees; for forestry is among the oldest and most honorable of the peaceful arts of men, and in its practice is unselfish and constructive service.” (The Sunday Morning Star 1930)
On June 9, 1982, Baker passed away aged 93 during a visit to Saskatoon. He is buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery, Saskatoon.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Oldfield, Barrie (1979) Interview between Barrie Oldfield, Man of the Trees in Perth and Richard St. Barbe Baker
Spokane Daily Chronicle. (1932) Works To Guard Forest Friends. June 10, 1932. Digitized online by Google news. Date accessed April 12, 2016.
Sullivan, Jane. (1981) The Man of the Trees and his magnificent obsession. The Age. Sept. 10, 1981. Digitized online by Google news. Date accessed April 12, 2016.
The Sunday Morning Star (1930) Found Tree-saving colony in Africa. Richard St. Barbe Baker, who will lecture here, writes of his adventures. . January 26, 1930. Page 5. Date accessed April 12, 2016.
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
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!
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
“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.
Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. George Genereux Urban Regional Park. 