MVA Leadership Role

National Non-Profit Day
August 17, 2017

What becomes possible because of the work of the non-profit organisation ~ the Meewasin Valley Authority (MVA)?

West Swale and Richard St. Barbe Baker AFforestation Area wildlife Urban Forest Semi-Wilderness Area. Mountain Bluebird, White Tailed Deer Fawn. Barred Tiger Salamander or western tiger salamander. American Pelican, Mallard Duckling

Are you aware of the impact that the MVA has on Saskatoon, in Saskatchewan, and worldwide?

We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize. Thich Nhat Hanh

On Thursday August 17, 2017, pause and take some time to learn more about the MVA. The MVA provides stewardship along the South Saskatchewan River.

“When you open your mind, you open new doors to new possibilities for yourself and new opportunities to help others.” ― Roy T. Bennett

Richard Moriyama, architect and planner, of the 100 Year Conceptual Master Plan of the South Saskatchewan River Environment in the Rural Municipality of Corman Park and the City of Saskatoon, stated that the “first elements of that concept are a unique land and a unique people. The objective is balance. The umbrella idea, the broad concept, is health…the continuing health of the river and all its connected parts creek, coulee, ravine, slough, aquifer, land and air.”

“We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat. They do not exist.” Queen Victoria

“Meewasin is recognized world-wide for its leadership in conserving the natural resources of the 6,700 hectares of the Meewasin Valley.”^source

If you go out and partake of activities at the Beaver Creek Conservation Area, the South Saskatchewan River Meewasin Trail, the Meewasin Northeast Swale, the Saskatoon Natural Grasslands, Cranberry Flats Conservation Area, Wanuskewin Heritage Park, Cameco Meewasin Skating Rink, the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, and the associated afforestation areas in the West Swale, you are appreciating the efforts of the Meewasin Valley Authority.

“It’s not only moving that creates new starting points. Sometimes all it takes is a subtle shift in perspective, an opening of the mind, an intentional pause and reset, or a new route to start to see new options and new possibilities.” Kristin Armstrong

Though times have been hard, and the budget restraints imposed upon the MVA have seen a cutting of programs, it is only the interpretive centre which closed. The MVA staff and directors are still hard at work conserving sensitive environmental sites, preserving water quality in the South Saskatchewan River, linking and balancing human activity, recreation and enjoyment with a healthy eco-system.

“Take your mind off the problems for a moment, and focus on the positive possibilities. Consider how very much you are able to do.” Ralph Marston

If you like what you see, and have enjoyed the breathtaking aesthetics inherent in the river valley, consider making a donation to the Meewasin Valley Authority Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area Trust Fund (MVA RSBBAA Trust Fund). Your donations will help to protect and monitor the West Swale wetlands affording a safe environment for the endangered Northern Leopard Frog. The West Swale is a unique wetlands system, following the pleistocene Yorath Island Spillway from the North Saskatchewan River valley to the South Saskatchewan River valley confluence. iThe afforestation area provides the growing city of Saskatoon the opportunity to walk in a mixed woodlands featuring deciduous and evergreen trees. Mixed forests are generally found at higher elevations, and in a parkland ecoregion, the afforestation area provides a unique setting. The afforestation area encompasses native prairie wild life, native flowers and a plethora of waterfowl and amphibians. The Saskatoon Nature Society has been actively engaged in ringing and studying birds in the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, and has included the site in their new book “Nature Viewing Sites in and around Saskatoon“. The West Swale and the associated afforestation areas embrace both multifacted nature viewing opportunities, as well as an amazing geological adventure into time.

“Who you are tomorrow begins with what you do today.”― Tim Fargo

Find out more about the Meewasin Valley Authority. Take some time and explore the “George Genereux” afforestation area, Richard St. Barbe Baker afforestation area, the southwest off leash recreation area, and the woodlands east of the off leash dog park this summer, then you will realize how your donation to the Meewasin Valley Authority Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area Trust Fund (MVA RSBBAA Trust Fund) can truly make a difference!

“I believed that God has lent us the Earth. It belongs as much to those who come after us as to us, and it ill behooves us by anything we do or neglect, to deprive them of benefits which are in our power to bequeath.” Richard St. Barbe Baker

Yorath Island Channel, Moon Lake Channel, Sutherland Channel and Cory Plain Channel Pleistocene Era South Sk River Valley 2588000 to 117000 years ago Adapted from Larry Edwin Hodges

1924 Rand McNally Map close up of Tsp 36 Rge 6 W3 shewing afforestation areas overlay

Shoreline of the West Swale Wetlands and the Riparian Woodlands Edge at the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, SK, CA

Rana_pipiens Northern Leopard Frog

For more information:

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′
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
Facebook: StBarbeBaker
Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area
Facebook: South West OLRA
Contact the Meewasin Valley Authority in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The MVA has begun a Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area trust fund. If you wish to support the afforestation area with your donation, write a cheque to the “Meewasin Valley Authority Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area trust fund (MVA RSBBAA trust fund)”. Please and thank you!
Twitter: StBarbeBaker

An Ent. Treebeard artwork by Ttthom Tom Loback CC b SA3.0 cc by 2.5

Downy Wwoodpecker Ddryobates pubescens

Photo of Richard St. Barbe Baker Courtesy: University of Saskatchewan, University Archives & Special Collections, Richard St. Barbe Baker fonds, MG 71

Hyaenodon was an extinct genus of Hyaenodonts

Yorkshire Terrier

Images of St. Barbe, credit
University of Saskatchewan,
University Archives & Special Collections,
Richard St. Barbe Baker fonds, MG 71

“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 nations 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.

Power of Repose

August 15, 2017 Relaxation Day

Spring Sunset Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

It is nice finding that place where you can just go and relax. Moises Arias

Do you ever pop out and just relax? Do you ever just wander by the wetlands and ponder on the baby ducks? Do you ever saunter down the woodlands path listening to the red squirrel making their way up and down the trees? Do you ever take time to stop and smell the amazing woodland roses?

If you never wholly give yourself up to the chair you sit in, but always keep your leg- and body-muscles half contracted for a rise; if you breathe eighteen or nineteen instead of sixteen times a minute, and never quite breathe out at that,—what mental mood can you be in but one of inner panting and expectancy, and how can the future and its worries possibly forsake your mind? On the other hand, how can they gain admission to your mind if your brow be unruffled, your respiration calm and complete, and your muscles all relaxed? William James

Do you ever stop by the afforestation area and watch the buttefly flit to and fro? Do you ever stop silently in the woodlands and watch the deer go by? Do you ever take the time in mid footstep and contemplate the rabbit bounding away?

Stop every now and then. Just stop and enjoy. Take a deep
breath. Relax and take in the abundance of life.~Anonymous

Tuesday August 15 is your day to relax! Enjoy, and wind down, don’t worry about a thing on relaxation day. Take a spin out to the afforestation area in Saskatoon, and relax.

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

For more information:

“Always the more beautiful answers, who ask the more difficult questions.” e.e. cummings.

Pack up your troubles.

Smile Week => Second Week of August.

August 13-+19 2017

“Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile”~George Henry Powell

What better way to smile, than to get out and harmonize with nature!

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area in the fog

“There is something in natale solum which charms the soul after a period of absence, and operates so powerfully, as to fill it with indescribable sensations and delight. Every object and scene appeals so forcibly to the senses, enraptures the eye, and so sweetly attunes the mind, as to place this feeling among even the extacies of our nature, and; the most refined we are capable of enjoying.” ~Joseph Corry

Boxer Dog

Nature never did betray The heart that loved her; ’tis her privilege, Through all the years of this our life, to lead From joy to joy: for she can so inform The mind that is within us, so impress With quietness and beauty, and so feed With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues, Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men, Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all The dreary intercourse of daily life, Shall e’er prevail against us, or disturb Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold Is full of blessings.~ Wordsworth

Clean Up Volunteers at the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, SK 2016 Community Clean Up

Meewasin Valley Authority. Presentation at the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, Sk, CA 2016 Community Clean Up

Colors are the smiles of nature. Leigh Hunt

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

White-Tailed Deer Fawn

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Mule Deer West Swale Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. Saskatoon, SK, CA Winter

Photo of Richard St. Barbe Baker Courtesy: University of Saskatchewan, University Archives & Special Collections, Richard St. Barbe Baker fonds, MG 71

Images of Richard St. Barbe Baker credit
University of Saskatchewan,
University Archives & Special Collections,
Richard St. Barbe Baker fonds, MG 71

For more information:

Municipal Reserve

Notice of Meeting –

RE: Inquiry Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

Richard St. Barbe Baker AFforestation Area, Saskatoon, SK

Pelican Preenning

American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) Courtesy D. Gordon E. Robertson

White-Tailed Deer Fawn

There are two kinds of light – the glow that illumines, and the glare that obscures. ~James Thurber

Standing Policy Committee on Planning, Development and Community Services meeting:

Re: Inquiry – Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area (File No. CK. 4000-1)

Monday, August 14, 2017

TIME: 9:00 a.m.

PLACE: City of Saskatoon Council Chamber

Main Floor, City Hall

There is a muscular energy in sunlight corresponding to the spiritual energy of wind. ~Annie Dillard

If you wish to speak to the Committee or provide comments regarding this matter, you are required to submit a letter to the City Clerks Office. Letters must be received online at Write letter to committees by 8:00 a.m. on the day of the meeting, or delivered in writing to the City Clerk’s Office no later than 5:00 p.m. of the business day preceding the meeting. You are asked to limit your comments to five minutes. Please include your mailing address in your submission.

In the first flush of youth our imaginative faculties are very active. In childhood we rove through Fairyland and play with the little elves; in youth the tiny elves have grown up to be nymphs of our own size and age, and from the summer moonlight we step into the rosy dawn, all fragrant and lightsome, with a glamour over everything which is delicious to our senses. By-and-by, as youth falls from us, we step out from the glades and meadows into the dry and dusty highway of life.” ~ Hume Nisbet

For more information:

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area is located in Saskatoon, SK, CA north of Cedar Villa Road, within city limits, in the furthest south west area of the city.
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
Facebook: StBarbeBaker
Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area
Facebook: South West OLRA
Contact the Meewasin Valley Authority as the MVA has begun a Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area trust fund. If you wish to support the afforestation area with your donation, write a cheque to the “Meewasin Valley Authority Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area trust fund (MVA RSBBAA trust fund)” .
Twitter: St Barbe Baker

“Man must resuscitate his planet with trees, his heart with faith.”~Richard St. Barbe Baker

Puppy dog paw prints

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

Happiness Happens

Happiness Happens Day
August 8, 2017

Happy Girl

Happy dog frolicking in the grass off leash at SW off leash recreation area

Happy woman in winter

So here is a question. Do you have a point of view which sees the glass as half full or half empty? Do you commonly say “S&*% Happens” or do you embrace whole heartedly “Happiness Happens”?

“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As longs as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.”
― Anne Frank

What is possible on Happiness Happens Day? Perhaps it will be testing Ann Frank’s hypothesis about being happy while immersed in nature while out and about at the afforestation areas of Saskatoon.

“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, ‘This is what it is to be happy.'”

—Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath felt it, the happiness in nature. At the afforestation areas, there is scenery, fresh woodlands air, trees, wetlands, and if your timing is right deer, squirrels, birds, and a plethora of waterfowl.

Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine. Anthony J. D’Angelo

Where will you find joy and happiness? Are you content to wander down a winding woodland trail? Or do you prefer taking your puppy out between the trembling aspen at the South West off leash recreation area?

Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift. Albert Einstein

Wildlife Montage. Red Winged Blackbird, White Tailed Deer Fawn, Garter Snake, JackRabbit, Mallard Ducklings, Black Crowned Night Heron

For more information:

“I believe with Ruskin, that I must be just to the Earth beneath my feet, to the neighbour by my side and to the Light that comes from above and within that this wonderful world of ours may be a little more beautiful and happy form my having lived in it. “Richard St. Barbe Baker.

Dear Friend –

Friendship Day ~ First Sunday in August.

August 6, 2017

“Yesterday was the happiest day of my life. Every new day that follows the previous day is happier and what better than this I can wish for my friend.” ~Richard St.
Barbe Baker

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

Richard St. Barbe Baker L.L.D, O.B.E. photo credit University of Saskatchewan. University Archives and Special Collections. Richard St. Barbe Baker Fonds MG71.

Images of St. Barbe, credit
University of Saskatchewan,
University Archives & Special Collections,
Richard St. Barbe Baker fonds, MG 71

“Every friend whom not thy fantastic will but the great and tender heart in thee craveth, shall lock thee in his embrace. And this because the heart in thee is the heart of all; not a valve, not a wall, not an intersection is there anywhere in nature, but one blood rolls uninterruptedly in endless circulation through all men, as the water of the globe is all one sea, and, truly seen, its tide is one.”Ralph Waldo Emerson

Business, Technology, 21st Century Culture, Planet Earth

“I want to help disabled children to have tree friends to whom they can go for healing. They have got to choose their own trees and love them. Trees don’t disappoint; I know from experience, if a child makes friends with a tree, it can be so wonderful.” Richard St. Barbe Baker

Richard St. Barbe Baker founder of the international organization Children of the Green Earth.

For more information:

K.I.S.S. keep it so simple

Simplify your Life Week => First week of August

August 6-12, 2017

Richard St. Barbe Baker AFforestation Area, Saskatoon, SK

Spring Sunset Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

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

Canada Goose Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area and West Swale Wetlands, Saskatoon, Sk, CA

West Swale Wetlands (Chappel Marsh) Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, SK, CA

To me, as a lover of Nature, the waving of a tree conveys thoughts which are never conveyed to me except by seeing a tree wave. Stephen Leacock

“This increasing feeling culminated in the resolve which becomes the subject of this narrative. The thought came to me suddenly one night. I woke from my sleep with a plan fully matured in my mind. It was this: I would, …cast off all the travail and cares of civilized life and become again the wild man of the woods that Nature made me. … To a trained woodsman and crawler like myself the thing was simplicity itself. For food I knew that I could rely on berries, roots, shoots, mosses, mushrooms, fungi, bungi—in fact the whole of Nature’s ample storehouse; for my drink, the running brook and the quiet pool; and for my companions the twittering chipmunk, the chickadee, the chocktaw, the choo-choo, the chow-chow, and the hundred and one inhabitants of the forgotten glade and the tangled thicket.” ~Stephen Leacock

Is this simplicity to you? Try a visit to the afforestation areas in Saskatoon.

“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, Leaf and Tendril

For more information:

National Non-Profit Day August 17, 2017

August 15, 2017 Relaxation Day

Smile Week => Second Week of August.

August 13-+19 2017

Notice of Meeting –

RE: Inquiry Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

Happiness Happens Day August 8, 2017

Simplify your Life Week => First week of August

August 6-12, 2017

National Non-Profit Day
August 17, 2017

Happiness Happens Day
August 8, 2017