Two great events to celebrate the environment, nature and the ecosystem.
June 5
You are cordially invited to special tree planting ceremony by the University of Saskatchewan collaborating with the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas on World Environment Day, June 5, 2022 taking place at 2:00 pm on the University of Saskatchewan campus near the Diefenbaker Centre.🌳🌲🌳🌲
This ceremony echoes a tree planting ceremony 40 years ago to the day of the last tree planted by the Richard St. Barbe Baker in union with the University of Saskatchewan on World Environment Day, June 5, 1982 near the Diefenbaker Centre. This collaboration between the U of S and Richard St. Barbe Baker on his visit here from New Zealand, honoured him as a former graduate (1913), and recipient of an honorary doctorate in 1971. This tree was the last tree this extraordinary champion of trees and forests planted as he died in Saskatoon four days later. In 2014, the Meewasin Valley Authority placed a marker on the MVA trail near the tree he planted.😃😃😃🌳🌲😃😃😃🌳🌲🌳🌲😃😃😃
The 50th anniversary of World Environment Day June 5, 2022 Only One Earth!
The celebration continues into Canada Environment Week with the two local Northern Prairie City challenge.
BioDiverCity Challenge Saskatoon area and in Saskatchewan. Thursday June 9 to Sunday June 12 Northern Prairies Challenge Sign up for BioBlitzes at the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas! Explore nature anywhere in Saskatoon and Area or in Saskatchewan with the free iNaturalist app. Explore Nature with a purpose! Support Global Conservation during Canada Environment Week
During Canada Environment Week
In love with Saskatoon and area’s incredible nature?
In love with the province’s ecosystems?
Download the free iNaturalist app
Find it
Snap it
Share it
What will you discover?
Thursday June 9 to Sunday June 12
BioDiverCity Challenge a challenge between Northern Prairie Cities!
June 5 World Environment Day You are cordially invited to special tree planting ceremony by the University of Saskatchewan collaborating with the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas on World Environment Day
BioDiverCityChallenge Thursday June 9 to Sunday June 12 Four Days to help shape conservation efforts, assist with scientific studies and land management in our local area! City of Saskatoon and Province of Saskatchewan
Many people have heard of David Suzuki, David Attenborough, or Greta Thunberg. Richard St. Barbe Baker was the first global conservationist and humanitarian. This is our way to remember his international legacy. International Online Premiere: The Legacy of Saskatoon’s Secret Forest Saturday November 6, 2021 at 1:00 pm CST (UTC-6)
Richard St. Barbe Baker was an enigma within an enigma. He had a belief system he held onto and followed his dreams unfailingly. It always seemed to Baker that all of his dreams came true.
Richard St. Barbe Baker travelled to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to take the first steps in founding a new school of Deep Ecology at the University of Saskatchewan. Robert White had written a thesis on Deep Ecology. Upon reading said thesis, Richard St. Barbe Baker desired to have as a seat at the University of Saskatchewan.
“I picture village communities of the future living in valleys protected by sheltering trees on the high ground. They will have fruit and nut orchards and live free from disease and enjoy leisure, liberty and justice for all, living with a sense of their one-ness with the earth and with all living things.”~Richard St. Barbe Baker
Baker found that through his work with the Children of the Green Earth, that the tree planting involving children is a most excellent medium for peacemaking. “My father was born here and died here, and so did his father, and they saw many hard things…But they did not have to see the end of the forest, as I do, the dispersal of our companions. This task has fallen on me and it is hard, very hard.”1
Richard St. Barbe Baker believed in the founding of the Children of the Green Earth as a means to heal the earth – for every child a tree. What has happened to Children of the Green Earth international organization?
Richard St. Barbe Baker believed that their should be an International Tree Foundation branch in the City of Saskatoon. This is where he had roots, and this was one of his prime imperatives.
Sadly, therefore, we see that some dreams have not heretofore come to fruition – yet. There are areas where we can still prevail and succeed to follow on in the path, footsteps and vision of Richard St. Barbe Baker.
Will the School of Deep Ecology at the University of Saskatchewan start up to fulfill Richard St. Barbe Baker’s Dreams?
Will there be an International Tree Foundation branch started in the City of Saskatoon?
As people move forward to live in oneness with the earth and all living beings, will the campaign to plant one tree for every child on the earth resume, and move forward with great gusto?
Will the mystery behind Richard St. Barbe Baker be resolved? All of his dreams do come true.
“Who plants a tree loves others than himself” Richard St. Barbe Baker. For the love of trees.
Children enjoying their time collecting leaves in the autumn forest.
Perara, Victor, Last Lands of Palenque, Little Brown and Company
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
Ryan Brook has access to Saskatoon’s real night life. His Wildlife Ecology and Community Engagement (WECE) lab at the University of Saskatchewan uses 30 trail cameras strapped to trees to photograph the different animals that are coming and going in the city and on its fringes. Approximately 85% of the photographs in the first four months were of animals active at night. Our river corridor is a living habitat that’s home to a lot species including coyotes, skunks, foxes, moose, deer, rabbits, porcupines, beavers, and muskrats, but there have been cougar and bear sightings.
The U of S project is part of the Urban Wildlife Information Network (UWIN), which has dozens of cities compiling and sharing similar data with each other. Saskatoon is one of the first Canadian cities involved in this alliance of urban wildlife scientists committed to doing the research necessary to enhance the ability for people and wildlife to coexist in cities. The WECE lab data will be invaluable to better understanding animal patterns in Saskatoon and could be used to shape wildlife policy and land use planning. The Saskatoon metropolitan area is anticipated to grow to ½ million people and there are important Green Network Study Areas in the works which are vital for ecological connections along the river and the associated northeast swale, small swale, Hudson Bay Swale and west swale which are all part of the South Saskatchewan watershed.
This program for National Forest Week is brought to you by the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas an environmental non-profit charity that was created to preserve and restore the 326-acre Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area and the 148-acre George Genereux Urban Regional Park. Our work reinforces the 1979 City Council decision designating these afforestation areas on the western fringe of Saskatoon to “be preserved in perpetuity.” They are important habitat for wildlife as well as semi-wild public spaces for recreation and nature immersion. The larger of these two areas is named after Richard St. Barbe Baker (1889-1982), who has been called the “first global conservationist” and in recognition of this he was made the first Honorary Life Member of the World Wildlife Fund in 1969. A British forester who also homesteaded and studied in Saskatoon, he dedicated his entire life unfailingly to the preservation and planting of trees and forests.
National Forest Week The last full week of September. Maple Leaf Day the Wednesday of that week.
As a member of the Indigenous Land Management Institute in the College of Agriculture and Bioresources, Brook combines traditional knowledge, wildlife ecology, ecosystem monitoring science and a wealth of data about wildlife movement and activities in Saskatoon. Join us on Saturday Sept. 18 at 7:00 pm as we discover what Brook’s lab has discovered and how we can better understand urban wildlife and the ecology around us. It is a great opportunity to increase our capacity to connect with and co-exist with our urban wildlife.
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
Photo of Richard St. Barbe Baker Courtesy: University of Saskatchewan, University Archives & Special Collections, Richard St. Barbe Baker fonds, MG 71
Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, SK, CA
Trembling Aspen grove Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, CA
Photo of Richard St. Barbe Baker
Courtesy: University of Saskatchewan,
University Archives & Special Collections,
Richard St. Barbe Baker fonds, MG 71
“How did Richard St. Barbe Baker, first called the “man of the Trees” by Lowell Thomas, actually acquire this title? Where did he come from? What did he do throughout the ninety-two years of his life?
These questions are properly answer by Paul Hanley – a farmer and writer who lives in Saskatchewan-in the Structurist, an annual edited by Eli Bornstein of the University of Saskatchewan, for 1983-1984 (a double issue). Hanley, who met St. Barbe in 1975 in a tree nursery, tells his story.”
Read more:Frontiers. An Epic Life. Manas Journal. Volume XXXVII 1985 page 14 April 3, 1985 [pdf] Reprint from The Structurist. University of Saskatchewan. 1983-1984 double issue.
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
“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.
“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
Rime Ice at George Genereux Urban Regional Park, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. NE 21-36-6 W 3 “George Genereux” Afforestation Area – 133 Range Road 3063 NE 21-36-6
Sunrise at George Genereux Urban Regional Park, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. NE 21-36-6 W 3 “George Genereux” Afforestation Area – 133 Range Road 3063 NE 21-36-6
George Genereux Urban Regional Park, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. NE 21-36-6 W3 “George Genereux” Afforestation Area – 133 Range Road 3063 NE 21-36-6
History of “George Genereux” Urban Regional Park
133 Range Road 3063, Saskatoon, SK ( NE 21-36-6 W3)
Greenbelts were the brainchild of Ebenezer Howard, Rexford Tugwell and Benton McKaye. These greenbelts were pioneered to control urban growth.
Saskatoon had its own green belt envisioned by Bert Wellman, Saskatoon Planning Department, who literally got out of his office, and walked around Saskatoon’s perimeter in 1960 choosing high spots of land for scenic beauty according to Bill Delainey Saskatoon Historian and local history room librarian.Together with City Planner, Bill Graham, Wellman worked on parkways and planted trees for the Circle Drive Parkway at these sites purchased in 1960. The afforestation areas -Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area and George Genereux Urban Regional Park as well as several green spaces are a part of this concept, and have been incorporated into the Circle Drive plan as is evident around Gordie Howe Bridge completing the southern portion of Circle Drive in Saskatoon.
The City of Saskatoon Parks and Recreation Board planted 200,000 trees on 600 acres of land as a tree nursery program in 1972 as part of the Green Survival Program sponsored in North America by the Canadian Nursery Trades Association and the American Association of Nurserymen. In total 355 acres of afforestation areas were planted that year. In 1973, 355 additional acres are planted. Originally 2,300 acres were envisioned. Though, originally established as a tree nursery, George Genereux Urban Regional Park has trees too large to transplant at the current moment of time.
Future residential areas were examined, and the areas for public reserve allocated. The intent was to plant these future areas of open space so that when the subdivision was developed, the Blairmore Suburban Development Area (SDA), there would be mature trees already established.
In 1972, A. L. Ligtemoet, Assistant Parks Superintendent sets before council that these
afforestation areas be kept in perpetuity ~ this is approved by city council.
George Genereux Urban Regional Park, Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, and the third afforestation area south of Diefenbaker Park received plantings of drought resistant trees; black or balsam poplar also known as the balm of Gilead (Populus balsamifera), American Elm (Ulmus americana), Colorado blue spruce ( Picea pungens), Sibernain Elm (Ulmus pumila), Scotch Pine or Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris), Willow, Manitoba Maple (Acer negundo), Green Ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica), and the Siberian peashrub or caragana (Caragana arborescens) Tree planting selections recommended by the P.F.R.A. Tree nursery at Indian Head, SK
The rows were planted by weaving in and out, deviating from the centre line by as much as forty feet, producing a natural forest effect. “We’re stabilizing the sand with a series of spiral shelters – rows of trees planted in semicircles to catch the winds and create vortices of air,” explains Richard St. Barbe Baker. “The same thing would be valuable on the Canadian prairies where straight shelter belts cause snow to accumulate.” Star Weekly Toronto, On January 15 1972
In 1979, the parcel of land at NE 21-36-6 was named “George Genereux” Urban Regional Park – 133 Range Road 3063 and is now part of the Blairmore Suburban Development Area
The George Genereux Afforestation Area, besides providing flood mitigation control, and being an amazing carbon sink for the rising greenhouse gases, features an amazing geological history. The West Swale, is an amazing geological remnant of the Pleistocene Yorath Island Spillway. The West Swale is a low-lying depression created by repeated glaciations and the melting of the last bit of glacial ice. When the glacial lake dam failed, a huge outburst flood (GLOF) occured The dam can consist of glacier ice or a terminal moraine. Failure can happen due to erosion, a buildup of water pressure, an avalanche of rock or heavy snow, an earthquake or cryoseism, volcanic eruptions under the ice, or if a large enough portion of a glacier breaks off and massively displaces the waters in a glacial lake at its base. Peak flows as high as 15,000 cubic metres per second. The northern flow of water in the Glacial North Saskatchewan River Valley was halted by ice, creating Glacial Rice Lake settling into the lowlands west of Grandora. Glacial Rice Lake drained by channels into the South Saskatchewan Valley According to Larry Edwin Hodgins, “The Moon Lake Channel, a major spillway connecting the North Saskatchewan River basin with the South Saskatchewan, and a smaller parallel channel, Yorath Island Channel, also cross the Cory plain….but they are clearly not South Saskatchewan channels.” and the area of the South Saskatchewan may have increased by 140% and 194%
George Genereux (March 1 1935- April 10, 1989) was a seventeen year old high school student in 1952 when he won the Olympic Games Gold Medal for trap-shooting at the Summer Olympc Games held in Helsinki, Finland with 192 out of 200. This was Canada’s first gold medal at the olympics since 1932. Further to this honour, Genereux was bestowed the Lou Marsh Trophy for being Canada’s outstanding amateur athlete of the year, making him the youngest person in history to receive this honour. The City of Saskatoon declared Genereux “Citizen of the Year” in 1952. Canada honoured him as male athlete of 1952. Genereux was installed in the Canada Sports Hall of Fame (1955), Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame on October 31 of 1966, inducted into the Saskatoon Sports Hall of Fame 1986 and the Trapshooting Hall of Fame (1986).
Genereux went on to trap shooting events across Canada and the United States. At the age of 13 Genereux won the Midwestern International Handicap Honours, then he acquired 3 successive Manitoba – Saskatchewan junior titles. (source) Genereux won the Junior Championship of North America at the Grand American Handicap, held in Vandalia, Ohio in 1951. During this event, Genereux broke 199 clay pigeons out of 200. Genereux also placed second in the Oslo, Norway World Championships, 1952.
Genereux, attended the University of Saskatchewan to earn his Arts and Sciences degree, then he went on the McGill University to study Medicine graduated 1960. Dr. George Genereux was for years a Professor of Radiology at the Royal University Hospital, Saskatoon.
The biography submitted to City Council stated that “It is considered appropriate to select in his honour this particular tract of semi-wilderness with its favorable habitat for wildlife of many kinds.” “If you can’t help yourself, you should use your God-given talents to help others,’ spoke George Genereux
Plans Around George Genereux Urban Regional Park Area
At the current moment, plans are made for the area surrounding George Genereux Urban Regional Park. Check out the maps on these three proposals. The Saskatoon Provincial Freeway is being designed in the area west of Saskatchewan Highway 7. The city of Saskatoon long range planners are designing the Blairmore Sector within city limits to the north of George Genereux Urban Regional Park. The P4G planners are allocating land use outside city limits in the immediate vicinity of George Genereux Urban Regional Park.
Click here to see maps of the freeway route at the bottom of this story. On mobile? Click here.
Saskatoon Freeway Presentation When fully developed, the Saskatoon Freeway will provide a high speed, free flow bypass route around Saskatoon for provincial traffic, as well as allowing for another commuter route for the growing city. The key benefits of the freeway include improved safety, improved traffic flow and reduced travel times.
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!
“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.
“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
His honour, W. Thomas (Tom) Molloy, O.C., S.O.M., Q.C., LL.B, LL.D. Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan and Paul Hanley, author Man of the Trees. Richard St. Barbe Baker, the First Global Conservationist. By Paul Hanley Foreword by HRH The Prince of Wales Introduction by Jane Goodall,
His honour, W. Thomas (Tom) Molloy, O.C., S.O.M., Q.C., LL.B, LL.D. Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan hosted at Top of the Inn Ballroom, Sheraton Cavalier Hotel the Saskatoon Book Launch November 20 of Paul Hanley’s Biographical book, Man of the Trees. Richard St. Barbe Baker, the First Global Conservationist. By Paul Hanley Foreword by HRH The Prince of Wales Introduction by Jane Goodall.
His honour was the 12th Chancellor of the University of Saskatchewan in 2006 – 2007 and is now Chancellor Emeritus, as well he was on the board of the Meewasin Valley Foundation where he first heard of Richard St. Barbe Baker. Molloy’s book, The World Is Our Witness: The Historic Journey of The Nisga’a Into Canada, written in 2006 has achieved two distinguished non-fiction book awards.
“I am very pleased to join with the University of Regina Press in launching this exciting new book about an extraordinary man. I want to thank Paul Hanley for writing about Richard St. Barbe Baker…Although he was a pioneering environmentalist who’s helped to save billions of trees, not many people have heard of him before. This book is a welcome tribute to an internationally important figure who has very strong ties to our province…As you know Prince Charles has been a life long proponent of conservation and was such a big fan of St Barbe, he planted an avenue of Lime Trees at High Grove in his memory.” His honour, W. Thomas (Tom) Molloy
“Baker inspired many outstanding figures in the forest conservation and reforestation movement, including Felix Finkbeiner (Founder, Plant-for-the-Planet), Scott Poynton (Founder,The Forest Trust), Sunderlal Bahuguna (Founder, Chipko), Tony Rinaudo (Founder, Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration), Vance Martin (President, WILD Foundation), and Hugh Locke (President, Smallholder Farmers Alliance). Through the ripple effect of his indefatigable efforts to promote conservation and reforestation, billions of trees have been planted. He has been recognized as one of the outstanding figures of the conservation movement by environmental leaders such as Prince Charles, Jane Goodall, Wanjira Maathai (Green Belt Movement), Philippe Cousteau (EarthEcho International), Richard Leaky (International Centre for Research in Agroforestry), Sir Ghillian Prance (International Tree Foundation), Elizabeth Dowdeswell (Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, UN Under Secretary General, UNEP), and Peter Wohlleben (forester, author The Hidden Life of Trees). In 1969, The World Wildlife Fund appointed Baker its first Member of Honour.” Office of His honour, W. Thomas (Tom) Molloy
Just days before his death Richard St. Barbe Baker planted his last tree on the grounds of the University of Saskatchewan near the gravesite of his friend, The Right Honourable John George Diefenbaker PC CH QC who was the 13th Prime Minister of Canada. At the time Richard St. Barbe Baker was working on his thirty-first book. This last tree can be seen from the window of the Top of the Inn at the Sheraton Cavalier when you look towards the University of Saskatchewan. A memorial marker dedicated by Meewasin Valley Authority and the Saskatoon Baha’i community honours Baker’s last tree planting which took place on World Environment Day June 5, 1982 and the interpretive sign pays tribute to the legacy of tree planting initiated internationally by Richard St. Barbe Baker. Saskatoon City Council in 1979 celebrated the achievement and distinction of Baker naming the afforestation area preserved in perpetuity in Saskatoon [south of the CNR station] in his honour ~ the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. Richard St. Barbe Baker’s papers, manuscripts, personal correspondence, forestry and conservation activities, photographs and fonds are preserved at the University of Saskatchewan Archives and Special Collections room. Baker Road in the Rural Municipality of Corman Park No. 344 is located near the two homestead lands of Richard St. Barbe Baker and his brother James Scott St. Barbe Baker. St. Barbe Baker died on 9 June 1982 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan where he is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery.*
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!
“I believe in the Oneness of Mankind and all living things and the interdependence of each and all.” Richard St. Barbe Baker
“On asked if he would become a patron of the United Nations Year of the Tree, he replied, “I will accept only on condition that it becomes the first year of a Decade of the Tree. You’ve got to have ten years of urgent tree planning to become effective. Our felling has been ruthless over the past 50 years – as we have felled, so we must plant.” ~Richard St. Barbe Baker
Photo of Richard St. Barbe Baker Courtesy: University of Saskatchewan, University Archives & Special Collections, Richard St. Barbe Baker fonds, MG 71
Parent and Child in Nature
Photo of Richard St. Barbe Baker Courtesy: University of Saskatchewan, University Archives & Special Collections, Richard St. Barbe Baker fonds, MG 71
At the last tree planting ceremony attended by Richard St. Barbe Baker, he said the Children of the Green Earth Motto; ”
From our hearts
With our hands
For the earth
All the world together”
Richard St. Barbe Baker planted his last tree on the University of Saskatchewan grounds, in a ceremony celebrating World Environment Day, June 5. He died shortly thereafter, June 9, 1982.
Richard St. Barbe Baker had a dream, a dream that the children of the world would carry on his vision, and plant trees. In his last few years, Richard St. Barbe Baker concentrated his efforts on forming the International “Children of the Green Earth” organisation.
“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
” 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
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!
Introducing Vertical Forests and Façade Greenscapes
So recently discussing the nestling of naturalized settings in an urban setting such as the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, and the George Genereux Urban Regional Park of the city of Saskatoon a question came up regarding the long range planning of areas in the city. The question was; what exactly is a vertical forest?
Green roofs, façades, and walls, are amazing, aesthetically pleasing, and have a huge positive impact on the environment and your pocket book. A stunning and exquisite living roof or ecowall is nothing but a dynamic expression of health, well-being, life, and movement. Texture, pattern, and fragrance with eco-architecture unite and network businesses and customers, inspire families, and network neighbourhoods. The University of Saskatchewan is implementing a number of green roofs, starting with the College of Law, and residential property owners are initiating their own practices of green roofing.
musée du quai Branly y Paris Courtesy Jean-Pierre Dalbéra
Living walls and roofs definitely contribute to environment quality and ensure that the home or building owner plays a key part in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). It is without doubt an unequivocal, and irrefutable the wonderful environmental footprint when an eco wall or roof makes an impact on energy efficiency.
Zachary Smith says, “Living walls are visually stunning, yes, but there is much more than meets the eye…[they] promote the positive effects that plants have on individuals’ mental and physical wellness, a key benefit in and of itself.”
These green spaces implemented on buildings such as shopping centres, civic architecture, and private homes provide real, definitive health and well-being benefits. Green buildings add value to the property as well as providing environmental benefits.
A green roof can be an “Ecoroof” requiring minimal maintenance, or it may be a “roof garden” or “podium roof” offering higher variety, and access to people. Can you imagine being a restaurant or lounge owner, and bringing in customers to experience your podium roof? This unique setting could provide recreation, or an amazing amenity featuring additional space for bars, restaurants or cafés. What a drawing card. Can you imagine being The Premier Venue folks choose for graduation and wedding parties, as your living wall becomes the backdrop for the wedding photographs, and reception.
Ronald Lu & Partners Green Wall, Hong Kong 2010
Living walls help nurture the patient in health care or the employee in a business setting. Nature is known for its positive effects on creativity, performance and productivity in the work place. Similarly eco walls foster a healing environment reducing time spent in hospitals, and reducing the patients reliance on pain medications. Hospitals, and care homes both have greater well-being among their residents and patients, staff have a reduced workload and higher capacity to provide satisfying care.
A home owner can establish another garden upon the roof growing edibles or just have an amazing private get away for a relaxing “Staycation”.
Green walls, living walls or vertical gardens on the other hand, increase the buildings insulation creating their own micro-climate, and improving the air quality around the building. The amazing thing to consider is that living walls can be established inside or outside. Another one of a kind concepts for skyscraper developers is integrating “Vertical farming” into their design. This feature would provide residents with salad greens, herbs, and fruit, while landlords would realize reduced energy costs. It would be a “win-win” situation.
Kitchener Ontario Children’s Museum courtesy M. Rehemtulla
A Vertical Greenery System (VGS) is mostly developed for aesthetic, environmental and economic benefit regardless for commercial groups or public individual. The foremost benefit of VGS based on last five years studies are thermal reduction, shading and cooling effects, energy efficiency and saving electricity cost Apart of that, VGS acts as acoustic insulation, air filtration, carbon sequestration, biodiversity preservation and increasing property values. (Source) This scientific study has delved into the impact of Vertical vegetation, and the carbon sequestration potential for climate change mitigation.
“Urbanization has led to many environmental issues such as climate change, global warming, urban heat island effect, air pollution, soil and water contamination, floods and acid rain. The contribution of cities and buildings to greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions and energy consumption accumulates over their lifecycle from conception (material collection, transportation, soil excavation, site clearing, etc) to construction (production, transport, distribution, etc), through usage (waste, electricity, energy consumption, maintenance, refurbishment) and finally demolition (disposal, waste). The construction industry has a vital role in creating a more sustainable built environment, and emerging from this realization are niches categorized as sustainable architecture, ecological architecture, climatic design , energy-efficient buildings, green architecture, green building, and sustainable property development” (Source)
A separate method of greening a residence or building is via green façades. Many people may think of a green façade as a partition proferring shade from the sun or as a privacy screen. This may be the simplest, incorporating climbing vines or hanging gardens.
Hybrid living walls incorporate ideas and systems from both green walls and from green façades, a merger of the two, if you will.
Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana Mexico Courtesy Thelmadatter
Are there cost savings and financial benefits? $$$ Business owners can be assured of an increase in customer traffic, as their building is a point of interest and a landmark for people to come and see. Home owners also see a savings to their finances as a green roof will last between 30 – 50 years. (Source) A typical asphalt roof in comparison will last only 15 years in our arid climate with temperature swings between +40 to -40 Celsius. (Source) A green roof or a green wall, reduces the impact of temperature fluctuations on the building due to its unique micro-climate.
“Garden walls contribute to healthy communities, and can serve to introduce green space where ground level landscaping is hard to come by. Plants in communities are linked to a number of benefits, including reduced crime rates and increased civic participation.” (Source)
University of Ottawa Social Sciences Building courtesy Jon Kolbert
“As the vertical assemblages of plants found on living walls are not commonly found in nature, this gives the opportunity to create a complete new ecosystem able to thrive and develop in cities. Recreating and supplementing threatened habitats within a city setting offers new avenues for conservation. Working on green walls in urban settings is an emerging area of ecology; exploring the functionalities and the possibilities of green walls, and especially living walls, should not be constrained by conventional conservation paradigms. “Source
Rainwater is absorbed by all green spaces, managing the stormwater run off. To help manage the bio-roof, the addition of a cistern would aid the vegetation. (Source)
Both the heating and cooling bills are reduced for the store or home owner. Air conditioning bills reduce in the summer, and the wear and tear on the heating system is also reduced during the winter months. The savings in both climate extremes are amazing when comparing green roofs and green walls to conventional building systems.
“When the trees go, the rain goes, the climate deteriorates, the water table sinks, the land erodes and desert conditions soon appear”.~Richard St. Barbe Baker
In addition to the texture, vegetation can be selected and planted in patterns, pictures and murals to “Transform your building wall into a living canvas with a broad palette of plants.” Source
Noise reduction is an amazing feature for residents, developers and architects proposing construction near railway tracks, in a down town area, or near a busy highway or arterial road. Green walls, with their layers of plant material serve to reduce sound carrying into the living space remarkably. Source
A green wall or a living roof will do its part in mitigating climate change. Hard surfaces such as asphalt shingles, brick walls, harness the sun’s heat in the summer months, radiating this heat. Vegetation provides relief from heat islands created by homes and buildings.
Green walls serve to mitigate bird deaths from “Bird strike” on buildings incorporating a large amount of glass windows, a common contemporary architectural feature. Vegetation contributes to our biodiversity, offering homes for bird nests, and assisting in their migration. Naturalists could combine this technology, and those concerned about our dwindling song bird species, and pollinators could select appropriate food sources, and species. In conclusion, green walls or eco roofs both increase biodiversity in urban areas. In neighbourhoods with limited green spaces, perhaps these sources of vegetations are the only space for food, shelter or nesting for the migrating or indigenous animal species.
Bosco Verticale towers in Milan, Italy
“Animal groups respond differently to the characteristics of green walls and the surrounding features. Importantly, the design and the maintenance interventions of green walls influence their use by animals and, as such, it is possible to modify these environments to make them more attractive to certain animal communities. Whether growing on independent self-supporting structures, or directly on or in buildings, plants can use largely under-exploited vertical space allowing an additional type of ecosystem to be incorporated into the urban environment.”Source
The higher the green environment around a building or home, the cleaner the air. Vegetation reduces pollution, and clean fresh oxygen is available in return.
So comment if you have considered developing an amazing restaurant with a green wall, or if your city features a children’s museum with a living vertical forest. Perhaps you are a home owner contemplating an eco-roof, or maybe you are an architect wishing to bring into play an apartment or condominium as a vertical forest. Have you actually done the construction, and comment about how it went. What do you think? Do you think it would be delightful to be sitting in a living wall restaurant sipping a cappuccino overlooking the wetlands of Saskatchewan? The possibilities are endless for developers, contractors, and owners. Conversely, wouldn’t it be so delightful if the greenscape of the naturalized area was extended in a larger point of view, encompassing both the natural green space, and extending upward into a green wall rather than a greyscape? What a photograph! Are vertical forests, eco-roofs, and green façades a wonderful way to enhance naturalized reserves in cities such as the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, the George Genereux Urban Regional Park and the each and several multitudes of natural parks and green spaces across the city of Saskatoon.
“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
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!
“The future of the planet concerns all of us, and all of us should do what we can to protect it. ” Wangari Maathai.
“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
Who would know Richard St. Barbe Baker better than someone who actually met him?
Richard St. Barbe Baker OBE, Hon. LL.D. F.I.A.L., For.Dip.Cantab., ACF (9 October 1889 – 9 June 1982)
Richard St. Barbe Baker OBE, Hon. LL.D. F.I.A.L., For.Dip.Cantab., ACF (9 October 1889 – 9 June 1982)
The long needles of the Scots Pine
Paul Hanley personally knew Richard St Barbe Baker, OBE, Hon. LL.D. F.I.A.L., For.Dip.Cantab., ACF (9 October 1889 – 9 June 1982)
Paul Hanley, environment awareness promoter, activist, free lance writer, speaker, and author introduces Richard St. Barbe Baker. Paul’s biography Man of the Trees: Richard St. Barbe Baker, the First Global Conservationist, features a foreword by HRH Prince Charles and an introduction by Jane Goodall.
10702 Diefenbaker Dr, North Battleford, SK S9A 4A8
“You might call Richard St. Barbe Baker an expatriate Canadian with roots in New Zealand, and the whole earth as his baliwick An ecology worrier years before his time, Baker left his Saskatchewan homestead early in the century to study forestry at Cambridge University. Since then he has spent a lifetime in the woods of the world.” Star Weekly, Toronto, Ontario, January 15, 1972
Richard St. Barbe Baker received an honourary Doctor of Laws degree from his old alma mater, the University of Saskatchewan, and who should bestow it upon St. Barbe, but the Rt. Hon. John Diefenbaker, a fellow student of Richard St. Barbe Baker.
“The average citizen has yet to learn the importance of Forestry…the man in the street does not know that the presence of Forests, in reasonably proportionate areas, is vital to human health and in order to stay the process of the disintegration of the surface of the land….Happily the solution of the Problem is at hand.” ~University of Saskatchewan,University Archives & Special Collections,Richard St. Barbe Baker fonds, MG 71
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!
Chaque fois que je fais les courses, je vote résolument “Oui aux aliments en vrac!” et “Oui aux produits biologiques!” Pour mes enfants, je rêve d’un avenir plus sain et sans déchet: je suis heureuse d’y investir mon argent chaque semaine.”
― Bea Johnson
“Has any one of us ever really seen a Tree? When we become aware of trees we may catch glimpses of them in moments of spiritual vision and, identifying ourselves with the trees, become conscious of the rising of the sap; the upward thrust of life; leaf burgeoning, their consciousness of the changing seasons; we may share their passionately boisterous exuberance of life in the height of a storm, and their tranquility when at rest; with them we will enjoy the glad murmur of the ripening seed clusters when after weeks of drought the steady warm rain brings relief to thirst; and we will know that these creatures, our elder brethern, are intimately related to us in their love and hunger for life. We may even catch their enthusiasm and aspire heavenwards while still rooted in our Mother Earth and in communion with our fellow men and, tree-wise, strive to make the Earth more fruitful again.” ~Richard St. Barbe Baker
A transformational model that will help individuals, institutions, and communities make an eleven-billion world work for everyone—and the planet.
Ideas Transform the World.
Planet Earth, the World, is in our Hands
Ideas Matter.
Eleven Billion facebook and the book “Eleven” are written by Paul Hanley, winner of the Canadian Environment award and the University of Saskatchewan President’s Award for Non-Fiction 2015, via Saskatchewan Book Awards, for Eleven. Hanley has definitely compiled a timely book which faces the paradigm facing all of us individually as the global population reaches 11 billion by the end of this century.
Hanley reclaims the future, sows seeds for a new culture, and provides a model for positive change. What do greenhouse gases, climate change, health, 21st century culture, agriculture, environment conservation and protection have in common? “We are going to change so completely that future civilization will be barely recognizable. We are going to change because, faced with extinction, ‘our better angels’ will prevail.”P3. Eleven
One of the many, diverse stories in Eleven is about Sawadogo, The Man Who Stopped the Desert. This farmer, without any training at all, began pioneering farming techniques for agriculture, increasing farm productivity. Amazingly Sawadogo also created 20 hectares of forest…in a desert. These innovative techniques of “restoring vegetation has been shown to create climatic feedback loops that increase rainfall.” p.162 Eleven. Think of that ~ a desert with rain!!!
These concepts were also seen by Richard St. Barbe Baker. After completing his silviculture course in forestry at Cambridge University, St. Barbe was posted to Kenya, Africa. While there, he witnessed the devastation which agricultural methods were creating on the land. It was here that the first forest scouts “Watu Wa Miti” {Men of the Trees} were assembled and encouraged to make a solemn promise to do one good deed each day, plant ten trees, seedlings or seeds each year, and take care of Trees everywhere.”*
Just as Sawadogo recognized the effects of erosion, St. Barbe, also only turned around farming practices in Kenya with the Watu Wa Miti initiating the International Trees Foundation (formerly Men of the Trees) St Barbe says; “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.”
St Barbe Baker wrote in Green Glory: The Forests of the World that “We advocate that all standing armies everywhere be used for the work of essential reafforestation . .. in the countries to which they belong, and that each country . . . shall provide expeditionary forces to cooperate in the greater tasks of land reclamation in the Sahara and other deserts.”
Hanley explains that “deforestation and forest degradation, through agricultural expansion, conversion to pastureland, infrastructure development, destructive logging, and fires accounts for nearly 20 percent of global [Greenhouse Gas] GHG emissions, second only to the energy sector, and more than the entire global transportation sector.” p. 168 Eleven.
However, just as St. Barbe and Sawadogo saw and recognized poor agricultural practices and put into practice innovative techniques to reclaim the environment, and bringing hope to people and communities, so too, does Hanley offer a way for us to wake up with innovative ideas. Paul Hanley knew Richard St. Barbe Baker personally. Hanley suggests, that, “This awakening world would necessarily lead to an ethical revolution that will help emerging generations build a new social-ecological order on a sustainable foundation.” P. 337 Eleven. How can we wake up, how can we change the world? Hanley offers hope, but not only hope, Hanley offers a well-researched model for progress, a methodology for all of us to get started to change the world outlined in his book Eleven.
Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi says “Every concerned citizen of this planet needs to read this book.” However, it may be best to go one step further, and say everybody, every citizen will gain insight and incredible opportunities to transform the world by reading Eleven. Hanley, environmental columnist for the Saskatoon Star Phoenix since 1989 has delved into global and environmental concerns, and in Eleven, Hanley provides more than hope. Eleven is an innovative solution and recipe for an enlightened social-ecological system for personal, local and global worldviews to survive. Not only to survive, but to live sustainably and well.
“You may ask, ‘…Why do I have to be at all concerned with those circumstances that have existed before I was born, and will most certainly continue to exist after I have taken myself out of this rather soiled and seedy world and have moved to other areas of consciousness?’
The only answer that can be given to such a question is that the world is a mirror and the more one polishes and cleans the mirror, the better one can see one’s reflection. …Does it not stand to reason that the elements that are used in this magnificent venture need to be kept in tip-top condition?” ~Emmanuel
“Trees worked for millions of years to make it possible for man to come on this planet. Yet man, who owns his presence on this Earth to trees, has been cutting, burning, greedily and recklessly. He has turned the forest into desert, until today we are faced not only with a timber famine, but with a food famine.” ~Richard St. Barbe Baker
Business, Technology, 21st Century Culture, Planet Earth
Let us turn back the clock…to the great wars, World War I and World War II. Outside of combat, war efforts had other ecological impacts. “Twentieth Century technology made forest destruction much easier than in Caesar’s (or William Tecumseh Sherman’s day)… European wheat demand in World War I led to the plowing up of about 6 million hectares of grasslands on the American High plains and in Canada’s prairie provinces. This helped prepare the way for the dust bowl of the 1930s. The British war effort in World War II consumed about half of Britain’s forests. McNeill.” How have we corrected and ameliorated these environmental changes and damages? What can we possibly do now? Hanley has an answer for ecological, environmental and agriculture futures in Eleven.
“The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.”~ James Allen
Is it true what Vaclav Havel says that “Modern man must descend the spiral of his own absurdity to the lowest point; only then can he look beyond it. It is obviously impossible to get around it, jump over it, or simply avoid it.” Or is it more probable as Rene Daumal says, “You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place ? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know.” A glimpse into Eleven will surely allow everyone to know. To know a healthier world, a “united, just and sustainable civilization that encompasses everyone, including our extended human body ecosphere. P.372 Eleven.”
“ELEVEN is a call to consciousness. Only an ‘ethical revolution’ will allow us to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization. Paul Hanley proposes a transformational model that will help individuals, institutions, and communities make an eleven-billion world work for everyone—and the planet.” *
Emmanuel’s Book. A Manual for living comfortably in the cosmos. Compiled by Pat Rodegast and Judith Stanton. ISBN 0-553-34387-4. Bantam Books. New York. 1987.
Hanley, Paul. Eleven “eleven billion people will share this planet by century’s end. Adding 4 billion to an already overburdened world will force everyone to change everything.” Friesen Press. Victoria BC. ISBN 978-1-4602-5045-7 (Hardcover) ISBN 978-1-4602-5046-4 (Paperback) ISBN 978-1-462-5047-1 (ebook). 2014.
MacNeil,J.R. Ideas Matter: A Political History of the Twentieth Century Environment. “The grand social, and ideological systems that people construct for themselves invariably carry large consequences, for the environment no less than for more strictly human affairs. Among the swirl of ideas, policies and political structures of the twentieth century, the most ecologically influential were the growth imperative and the (not related) security anxiety that dominated policy around the world…By 1970, however something new was afoot.” From Current History November 2000, PP 371-382. originally excerpted from “An Environmental HIstory of the Twentieth Century World” New York. Norton 2000) by Current History Inc. reprinted with permission: Environment 2002/2003. Annual Editions. 21st Edition. Editor John L. Allen. McGraw-Hill Dushkin. ISBN 0-07-250682-2.
Van, Leon C. Le. Poems from Swedenborg Swedenborg Foundation Inc. New York. ISBN 0-87785-134-4. 1987.
Wildlife Montage. Red Winged Blackbird, White Tailed Deer Fawn, Garter Snake, JackRabbit, Mallard Ducklings, Black Crowned Night Heron
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!
“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.
“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
“We feel that our greatest victory remains to be won when man will realize his oneness with the trees, the creatures and with all living things, not ours to destroy, but to be handed on for the enjoyment of future generations.” – Richard St. Barbe Baker
Spring Trees Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area
The angels,
Who are principled
In the science
Of all knowledges,
And that in such a manner
That scarce a thousandth part
Can be unfolded
To man’s apprehension,
Yet esteem knowledges
As nothing
In comparison to use.~Swedenborg
Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. George Genereux Urban Regional Park. 