Little Known Facts About Edible Cattails – And Why They Matter

So, cattails and you, and why all parts of the cattail plant are amazing for a wild spring, summer or fall harvest. “The shoots or hearts, also known as “Cossack asparagaus,” are best harvested in spring or early summer, prior to the devlopment of the flower stalk” source So after harvesting the shoots, just rinse, soak in vinegar for 15-20 minutes and then rinse. <a href="http://<!– wp:paragraph –> <p>So, cattails and you, and why all parts of the cattail plant are amazing for a wild spring, summer or fall harvest. "The shoots or hearts, also known as "Cossack asparagaus," are best harvested in spring or early summer, prior to the devlopment of the flower stalk"<a href="https://wildfoodgirl.com/2013/cold-hearted-cattail-salads/"> source</a> So after harvesting the shoots, just rinse, soak in vinegar for 15-20 minutes and then rinse. </p> Cold Cattail and Tomato Salad is a great way to start out enjoying your Cattail harvest.

Remember to harvest your cattails alone, and without your puppy dog with you, as spring is nesting time for many waterfowl and animals. Humans are not the only animals who forage on cattails. “Wherever there are cattails, there’s food. The seeds, roots and shoots attract plant-eating animals, and predators that eat the cattail’s visitors. Ducks and Canada geese sometimes eat the tiny seeds, and geese dine on the plant’s new shoots and underwater roots…. Muskrats gnaw on the roots, and use the leaves to build a shelter, called a lodge, to keep themselves safe. It’s common to see red-winged blackbirds hanging around cattails. After the male finds a mate the birds use plants including cattail leaves to build their nest.” source

As you embark on the Cold Cattail and Tomato Salad, consider the nutritional benefits from Cattails, such as Manganese, Vitamin K, Magnesium, Iron, Vitamin B6 and Sodium. According to Health Benefits of Cattail, Uses And Its Side Effects, Cattails, help with mitigation of Anaemia, preventing cancer, controlling hypertension, reducing atherosclerosis risks, controlling diabetes, and is also a natural antiseptic.

Nature is the source of human subsistence but the transformation of nature into food is a cultural process that is not independent of power relations. The colonization of America comprised the systematic repression of indigenous ways of knowing and even after the elimination of political colonialism the relationship between European cultures and the others is still one of colonial domination. The colonial repression of different knowledges also affects the culinary epistemology that informs food preparation and consumption.
Xilkia Janer

Muskrat West Swale Wetlands. Chappell Marsh. Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. Saskatoon, SK, CA

Chappell Marsh. West Swale Wetlands. Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. Saskatoon, SK, CA — Muskrat West Swale Wetlands. Chappell Marsh. Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. Saskatoon, SK, CA

Always be careful about safety when around water . So today, is another momentous day to celebrate Tourism Week In Canada. Pop out for a visit to the afforestation areas, enjoy the delightful spring weather, and enjoy this man-made forest on the prairies.

Send in a comment on how you succeed with your foraging adventure! Stay tuned throughout tourism week for more Cattail recipes for your outdoor foraging foray.

“All of these things are food for insects, for birds, for bears, deer, elk and moose, and if we compromise that by our foraging … it won’t be long before these things are no longer here,” … Julie Walker recommends people plant some of these species in their backyard gardens — or at least stop the war on weeds and let and nature take its course. Many native species have qualities that can benefit a home garden, like requiring little to no maintenance and being drought-resistant, she added. People can also forage on public lands, as long as they learn to recognize healthy populations of wild plant species.
Jessica Barrett. Edible Forest: Guided Walks teach which weeds and wild greens you can eat.

YouTube

Please help protect / enhance your afforestation areas, please contact the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc. (e-mail / e-transfers )Support the afforestation areas with your donation or membership ($20.00/year). Please donate by paypal 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! Canada Helps

United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration

Use the UN Decade’s Visual Identity
Make it your own
Spread the word about the UN Decade
Let’s Bring Back Forests
Let’s Green Our Cities

““Be like a tree in pursuit of your cause. Stand firm, grip hard, thrust upward. Bend to the winds of heaven..”
Richard St. Barbe Baker

What is Cattail Foraging?

This Tourism Week across Canada we are running a series on cattail foraging! We agree with the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC), that “We encourage all Canadians this #TourismWeek, to take the pledge, and when you are able, plan and travel in Canada this year!“

Enjoy this Fermented Cattail Heart recipe, the little cattail shoots taste so much like cucumbers, and with a bit of radishes and garlic added to the brine, they come out amazing!

If you cut your newly harvested spring cattail shoot recipes into 1/2 inch rounds, then you can cook them up like shallots to enjoy! Here is an amazing Shallot and Garlic butter recipe that converts to nicely to cattails from Epicurus.

This Tourism Week we encourage you to have a “staycation” at Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area or George Genereux Urban Regional Park in Saskatoon! In 326 acres, and 147.8 acres, there is lots of room to socially distance, and enjoy the mixed woodlands, meadows, wetlands and wildlife.

Stay tuned for more recipes during Tourism Week as we explore Cattail Nutrition and Cattail recipes. Did you know that the fresh spring cattail heads taste like corn on the cob?

A super easy recipe is to just barbecue your foraged cattail heads. Clean them first by rinsing, and soaking in vinegar, and then rinse off the vinegar. Next parboil them for a short while. Now you can brush a bit of olive oil on them and grill or barbecue them for a short while.

Also the pollen can be collected in paper bags, or by inserting the cattail head into a bottle? Just give the head a shake, while it is all wrapped up inside, and the pollen will be so easy to collect, and so healthy to add to any of your baking dishes, or to your rice pilaf or pasta dishes! Stay tuned for some more amazing cattail recipes!

Young cattails are loaded with nutrition, and according to specialty produce, cattails provide beta-carotene, niacin, riboflavin, thiamin, potassium, phosphorus, and Vitamin C.

Cattails are a great way to try your hand at foraging, they are everywhere and are easily identifiable.
Shawn Bailey

Alternatively, you can peel the fibers away, and eat the tender root. Parboil your root, and then grill with a sauce made from your favourite salad dressing!

Send us a comment on how you succeed with your foraging adventure! Stay tuned throughout tourism week for more Cattail recipes for your outdoor foraging foray. Remember to be safe around the water.

Avoid harvesting your cattails with your puppy dogs with you in the spring while waterfowl are nesting. “For waterfowl, other marsh birds, and small mammals, broadleaf cattail provides food and important nesting, brooding, and loafing habitat. Broadleaf cattail is extremely important to common muskrats. It provides a major food source and important nesting habitats and materials” FEIS source

Today, during Tourism Week across Canada! We agree with the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC), that “We encourage all Canadians this #TourismWeek, to take the pledge, and when you are able, plan and travel in Canada this year!“ Why not venture out to the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas, and enjoy Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area or George Genereux Urban Regional park. They are great places to socially distance in 326 acres and 147.8 acres respectively.

Typha latifolia, the common cattail, or one of its varieties, will be found all over the Northern Hemisphere. There is everything to like about this plant: it’s all edible (and tasty!), easy to identify, and easy to harvest. This makes it both a fine staple and an excellent survival food.
Fred Demara

Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mold myself.
Henry David Thoreau
For directions as to how to drive to “George Genereux” Urban Regional Park
For directions on how to drive to Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area
For more information:
Blairmore Sector Plan Report; planning for the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, George Genereux Urban Regional Park and West Swale and areas around them inside of Saskatoon city limits
NEW P4G District Official Community Plan
Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area is located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada north of Cedar Villa Road, within city limits, in the furthest south west area of the city. 52° 06′ 106° 45′
Addresses:
Part SE 23-36-6 – Afforestation Area – 241 Township Road 362-A
Part SE 23-36-6 – SW Off-Leash Recreation Area (Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area ) – 355 Township Road 362-A
S ½ 22-36-6 Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area (West of SW OLRA) – 467 Township Road 362-A
NE 21-36-6 “George Genereux” Afforestation Area – 133 Range Road 3063
Wikimapia Map: type in Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area
Google Maps South West Off Leash area location pin at parking lot
Web page: https://stbarbebaker.wordpress.com
Where is the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area? with map
Where is the George Genereux Urban Regional Park (Afforestation Area)?with map
Pinterest richardstbarbeb
Blogger: FriendsAfforestation
Tumblr friendsafforestation.tumblr.com Facebook Group Page: Users of the George Genereux Urban Regional Park
Facebook: StBarbeBaker Afforestation Area
Facebook for the non profit Charity Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc. FriendsAreas
Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area
Facebook: South West OLRA
Reddit: FriendsAfforestation
Twitter: St Barbe Baker Charity Twitter:FriendsAreas
Mix: friendsareas

YouTube

United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration

Use the UN Decade’s Visual Identity
Make it your own
Spread the word about the UN Decade
Let’s Bring Back Forests
Let’s Green Our Cities

““Be like a tree in pursuit of your cause. Stand firm, grip hard, thrust upward. Bend to the winds of heaven..”
Richard St. Barbe Baker

You Will Thank Us – Tips About Cattail Nutrition You Need To Know

There are truly amazing benefits to cattails. They are high in Manganese, Vitamin K, and Magnesium. The roots ground into powder to provide a high protein flour for your favourite recipe.

Manganese supports bone health, reduces blood sugar, aids in the formation of blood clots alongside of Vitamin K, and helps the body form superoxide dismutase, an anti-oxidant enzyme which may indeed reduce inflammation related to inflammatory bowel disease for instance according to Medical News Today.

Healthline reports that magnesium is essential to facilitate the biochemical reactions taking place in your body. These include energy creation, protein formation, prevent depression, gene maintenance, mitigates Type-2 diabetes, aids muscle movements, prevents migraines and aides in the regulation of your nervous system.

There is a very easy way to forage for your cattail roots according to Northern Woodlands is by baking the roots in the oven under a slow oven about 200 degrees Fahrenheit to let them dry overnight. Then place the roots into your coffee grinder or use your mortar and pestle to create a fine high-protein flour. This flour is wonderful to use as a gluten free thickener, or to make pancakes for instance. Just reach down, and remove the connecting rhizome between two cattail plants. The outside layer of the rhizome is spongy, and not great to eat. Just peel your rhizome like a banana peel separating the outer layer with your thumbnails, remove it and you should be left with core.

The Farmer’s almanac says that to “prepare a cattail root, clean it and trim away the smaller branching roots, leaving the large rhizome.” A great means to clean your cattail harvest is to rinse, then soak in vinegar for a few minutes, then rinse again.

There are two choices in using your newly harvested cattail roots.

You can bake the roots in the oven under a slow oven about 200 degrees Fahrenheit to let them dry overnight. Then place the roots into your coffee grinder or use your mortar and pestle to create a fine high-protein flour. This flour is wonderful to use as a gluten free thickener, or to make pancakes for instance.

Markus Rothkranz believes that God wants us all to be healthy and happy and so has given us free foods and medicines all over the planet. As he points out, there will be wild plants we can eat and others that will make us well, growing outside where we live and in our neighbourhoods.
Steve Andrews

Alternatively, you can peel the fibers away, and eat the tender root. Parboil your root, and then grill with a sauce made from your favourite salad dressing!

Send us a comment on how you succeed with your foraging adventure! Stay tuned throughout tourism week for more Cattail recipes for your outdoor foraging foray. Remember to be safe around the water. Try not to forage cattails with puppy dogs in tow during the spring nesting season. Audubon mentions that the Pied-billed Grebe “nests are unusual too – little platforms of plant material that float on water, hidden behind vegetation. …Martin Muller, an expert who loves unravelling the mysteries of Pied-billed Grebes: “Well, there’s the nest…there it is! We didn’t even see it because we were standing on the wrong side of the cattails, so if we step back a little bit…without the bird seeing…us directly staring at it, it’ll carry on.”

Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mold myself.
Henry David Thoreau
For directions as to how to drive to “George Genereux” Urban Regional Park
For directions on how to drive to Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area
For more information:
Blairmore Sector Plan Report; planning for the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, George Genereux Urban Regional Park and West Swale and areas around them inside of Saskatoon city limits
NEW P4G District Official Community Plan
Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area is located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada north of Cedar Villa Road, within city limits, in the furthest south west area of the city. 52° 06′ 106° 45′
Addresses:
Part SE 23-36-6 – Afforestation Area – 241 Township Road 362-A
Part SE 23-36-6 – SW Off-Leash Recreation Area (Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area ) – 355 Township Road 362-A
S ½ 22-36-6 Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area (West of SW OLRA) – 467 Township Road 362-A
NE 21-36-6 “George Genereux” Afforestation Area – 133 Range Road 3063
Wikimapia Map: type in Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area
Google Maps South West Off Leash area location pin at parking lot
Web page: https://stbarbebaker.wordpress.com
Where is the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area? with map
Where is the George Genereux Urban Regional Park (Afforestation Area)?with map
Pinterest richardstbarbeb
Blogger: FriendsAfforestation
Tumblr friendsafforestation.tumblr.com Facebook Group Page: Users of the George Genereux Urban Regional Park
Facebook: StBarbeBaker Afforestation Area
Facebook for the non profit Charity Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc. FriendsAreas
Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area
Facebook: South West OLRA
Reddit: FriendsAfforestation
Twitter: St Barbe Baker Charity Twitter:FriendsAreas
Mix: friendsareas

YouTube

United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration

Use the UN Decade’s Visual Identity
Make it your own
Spread the word about the UN Decade
Let’s Bring Back Forests
Let’s Green Our Cities

““Be like a tree in pursuit of your cause. Stand firm, grip hard, thrust upward. Bend to the winds of heaven..”
Richard St. Barbe Baker

Many more people are becoming interested in foraging and are going out looking for free wild foods. This puts them in touch with nature and with ways of the hunter-gatherer our ancestors were long, long ago.
Steve Andrews

Blairmore Sector Plan

The planning studies of the P4G includes Corman Park, Saskatoon, Warman, Martensville and Osler, includes the area around Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, and George Genereux Urban Regional Park.

Map showing the Afforestation Area Formerly Known As George Genereux Urban Regional Park, and the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, South West Off Leash Recreation Area, SW OLRA and the Afforestation Area All are within City of Saskatoon boundaries as of an annexation of 2005

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

Grus canadensis Sandhill Crane

The city long range planners are finding ways to accommodate 50,000 to 70,000 residents into these neighbourhoods. The George Genereux Afforestation Area was fully annexed into the city limits as of the boundary changes in 2005. At this same time, the full land area of the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, also was included within City of Saskatoon limits.

Saskatoon is growing, and is filling up the land spaces alongside Saskatchewan Highway 7 to the west, and also south of 11th Street West. These eight to ten new city neighbourhoods are part of the Blairmore Sector Plan. The western boundary will be the new Perimeter Highway alignment

The Blairmore Sector Plan initially started out as the West Sector Plan in late 2004, and with investigation, and studies, the original concept was changed and approved in 2011. The long range planners are still developing the Blairmore Sector Plan which will also accommodate the two afforestation areas.

On page 2 of the Blairmore Sector Plan Report the West Swale is acknowledged as an existing feature; “a shallow swale, likely a former melt-water channel that traverses the Sector in a north to south direction. The swale extends south and east, eventually entering the South Saskatchewan River.”

Further to this, page 4 Blairmore Sector Plan Report elucidates on the Natural Areas Screening process, “as part of a NCP, site specific Natural Areas Screening may be required to identify and protect important ecosystems, other natural areas, and archaeological sites. As part of development, developers are encourage to do their due diligence to maintain these natural areas and incorporate them seamlessly into the neighbourhood to form part of the open space system.”source

Page 5 Blairmore Sector Plan Report speaks to the eco-system; “The West Swale and tree clusters are being utilized by wildlife as indicated by nests and the sighting of a Swainson’s hawk (Buteo swainsoni), a number of Sparrow species, and American Robins.” In addition to this, the wetlands is home to the Black Crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax ), of course the Mallard (Anas Platrhynchos), Red-Winged Blackbird (Agelaius Phoeniceus), Great Blue Heron Ardea Herodias, American white pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos), and is a unique site to spot the ruddy duck (Oxyura jamaicensis) (to name a very few). Frogs, snakes, turtles and the Barred Tiger Salamander also known as the western tiger salamander (Ambystoma mavortium) number amongst the amphibians in the West Swale wetlands as well. Along with the Robins, visitors will sight the Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides), and the Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) come spring, however this prairie songbird population is declining. “Declines appear to be largely due to lost habitat — breeding and wintering habitats,” said Charles Francis, “It’s quieter, and it’s quieter because there are fewer [birds],” according to Christy Morrissey, a University of Saskatchewan avian toxicologist.

The mixed forest in the George Genereux Urban Regional Park and Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area contain native and exotic trees; Trembling Aspen Populus tremuloides, American Elm Ulmus americana, Colorado Blue Spruce Picea pungens, Scotch Pine Pinus sylvestris L, Willow Salix, Black Balsam Poplar Populus balsamifera, Snowberry Symphoricarpos albus, Honeysuckle Lonicera, Canada Buffaloberry Shepherdia canadensis and Dogwood Cornus alba.

The west Swale is also home to mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus, Striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis), American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus), Moose (Alces alces),White-Tailed Jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii), Snowshoe Hare (Lepus Americanus) and Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) to name a few mammals.

The history of the area includes the Old Bone Trail which bisects straight through the West Swale enroute to the old train station located where the current Midtown Plaza now stands in down town Saskatoon.

In the western prairie provinces, areas of water collection are often referred to as prairie pothole wetlands. Larry Edwin Hodges, identified the Yorath Island Spillway as a Pleistocene era event in his PhD Thesis, Morphology of the South Saskatchewan River Valley Outlook to Saskatoon, and classified this Yorath Island Spillway as the West Swale as a major meltwater drainage channel, classical example of glacial spillway topography. In the West Swale are several areas and features that budding geologists can discover and study the results left behind as the “catastrophic floods of glacial meltwater and sediment washed through these valleys”, typifying the Yorath Island glacial spillway, now known as the West Swale.^{James S. Aber} Pleistocene deposits and geology show “erosional features of the underlying bedrock surface such as buried valleys, which are filled and concealed by drift, and which result in a thickening of Pleistocene deposits; erosional features of the surface of the drift, such as stream valleys, which cause a thinning of the Pleistocene deposits; and depositional features such as end moraines, drumlins, and outwash plains of glacial origin, which result in a thickening of the Pleistocene deposits.^{P.F. Karrow}.

The preservation of the afforestation areas in 1972 by Saskatoon city council, therefore, has also preserved a segment of the invaluable historic geological landmark of the West Swale, and its Pleistocene heritage and history.

The Blairmore Sector Plan Report continues on page 6 regarding the West Swale. “The West Swale divides the Blairmore SDA in half creating a natural boundary in the area. The swale is a large area of land, mainly left untouched due to topography and marshy soil quality. The swale provides an important overland drainage corridor connecting the northwest lands with the South Saskatchewan River near section 12-36-6-W3. The West Swale lands will be examined in more detail through site specific Natural Areas Screening; however, maintaining these lands as bodies of water is important. Within City limits, the City currently owns approximately half of the lands that make up the West Swale, and the remaining half is owned by private land owners”, amongst these owners is Ducks Unlimited who established Chappell Marsh Conservation area in the Rural Municipality of Corman Park 344 .

Page 8 of the Blairmore Sector plan, states, that “At full build out of the Blairmore Sector Plan within city limits, the total estimated number of units is 32,090 and the total estimated population is 70,6079 people.”

To accommodate this burgeoning population, multi-unit dwellings, single-unit dwellings, commercial, institutional, schools, parks, roads, existing and perimeter highways, truck routes, pedestrian, bicycle and vehicular modalities, multi-use trails, transit, multi-purpose recreation complexes, cultural facilities, community services, infrastructure servicing, watermains, sanitary sewers, storm sewers, buried utilities, and recycling facilities are a few of the considerations faced by the City long range planners.

The Blairmore Sector Plan (within the city limits) is being developed in conjunction with the Saskatoon North Partnership for Growth (P4G) area plans (outside city limits including the West Swale, and surrounding George Genereux Urban Regional Park). – Both George Genereux Urban Regional Park and Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area were annexed into city limits in 2005.

There will be public consultations for the Blairmore Sector Area plans upcoming, please watch the “City Pages” in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix for announcements.

For directions as to how to drive to “George Genereux” Urban Regional Park

For directions on how to drive to Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

For more information:

Blairmore Sector Plan Report; planning for the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, George Genereux Urban Regional Park and West Swale and areas around them inside of Saskatoon city limits

P4G Saskatoon North Partnership for Growth The P4G consists of the Cities of Saskatoon, Warman, and Martensville, the Town of Osler and the Rural Municipality of Corman Park; planning for areas around the afforestation area and West Swale outside of Saskatoon city limits

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area is located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada north of Cedar Villa Road, within city limits, in the furthest south west area of the city. 52° 06′ 106° 45′
Addresses:
Part SE 23-36-6 – Afforestation Area – 241 Township Road 362-A
Part SE 23-36-6 – SW Off-Leash Recreation Area (Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area ) – 355 Township Road 362-A
S ½ 22-36-6 Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area (West of SW OLRA) – 467 Township Road 362-A
NE 21-36-6 “George Genereux” Afforestation Area – 133 Range Road 3063
Wikimapia Map: type in Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area
Google Maps South West Off Leash area location pin at parking lot
Web page: https://stbarbebaker.wordpress.com
Where is the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area? with map
Where is the George Genereux Urban Regional Park (Afforestation Area)? with map

Pinterest richardstbarbeb

Facebook Group Page: Users of the George Genereux Urban Regional Park

Facebook: StBarbeBaker

Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

Facebook: South West OLRA

Twitter: StBarbeBaker

Please help protect / enhance your afforestation areas, please contact the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc. (e-mail)

Support the afforestation areas with your donation or membership ($20.00/year). Please donate by paypal using the e-mail friendsafforestation AT gmail.com, or by using e-transfers Please and thank you! Your donation and membership is greatly appreciated. Members e-mail your contact information to be kept up to date!

QR Code FOR PAYPAL DONATIONS to the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc. — Paypal

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Membership : $20.00 CAD – yearly
Membership with donation : $50.00 CAD
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1./ Learn.

2./ Experience

3./ Do Something: ^***

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 is the “Skin” of the earth, for without it there can be no water and, therefore, no life. ~Richard St. Barbe Baker

“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

Egg-Cradles

Spring Sunset Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area and West Swale Wetlands in the fog

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area and West Swale Wetlands , Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

An old writer once said “the various productions of nature were not made for us to trod upon, not only to feed our eyes with their grateful variety, or to bring a sweet odour to us; but there is a more internal beauty in them for our minds to prey upon, did we but penetrate beyond the surface of those things into their hidden properties.”

Turn now to the interesting facts which the science of entomology reveals to us as to the egg-cradles, so to speak, of insects, by which is meant the various localities selected by them for the deposition of their eggs, some of them, as we have mentioned, in the water, some in the earth, some upon plants and trees, and some in mansions made by the insects themselves for the purpose of hatching their eggs.

Let us come, then, and watch the great water-beetle, at the time when the mother-insect is about to commit her future offspring to the care of the waters. She is to be found on fine days, when the sun is going down into a bed of gold, enjoying herself and delighting in the pleasant air of the evening, as she sits upon a plant close by the water’s edge; or she may even have taken up her position on a floating leaf of the plant, the clear waters flowing gently beneath her. She has been in the water all day long, and is now just emerged. On other evenings she will take wing, and speed her way whither no eye can follow; but now, she has another and the most important duty of her existence to perform, and her customary evening ramble is not permitted to interfere with its fulfilment. On watching her closely we find her busy at some self-imposed occupation; what is its nature? To discover that, she must be closely and patiently watched. At her tail are a couple of spinning organs, which move from right to left and up and down with great swiftness, all the while a glutinous fluid, which hardens into a thread, being discharged from each of them. With this apparatus the industrious insect is spinning a pouch not unlike the purses which were in fashion before the long ones that ladies knit came to be adopted. This purse is three quarters of an inch long; it consists outside of a tissue, like parchment, which is quite impervious to water, but is lined inside with the most beautiful, light, downy material possible, which is as white as snow. There is a sort of little horn to this pouch, which admits the air, but the opening to which is protected by a layer of cross threads, which excludes the wet. In three hours of patient toil this beautiful cradle is completed. The water-beetle then safely secures it from being carried away by the waters on which it floats so buoyantly, by fastening it by cables to the neighbouring plants. Here safely moored it rests until the eggs are hatched, soon after which the little creatures within escape into the waters out of the ark, which has, during the period of their infancy, safely preserved them from every danger, both of water and wind.

Thus wraps up the look of entymology and the eggs and egg-cradles of Water Beetles.

“Where the pool
Stands mantled o’er with green, invisible
Amid the floating verdure, millions stray;
With various forms abounds, Nor is the stream
Of purest crystal, nor the lucid air,
(Though one transparent vacancy it seems,)
Void of its unseen people,
Let no presuming impious railer tax
Creative wisdom, as if aught was formed
In vain, or not for admirable ends.
Shall little haughty ignorance pronounce
His works unwise, of which the smallest part
Exceeds the narrow vision of her mind?”~James Thomson

“We cannot remove tree cover without running the risk of losing the blessing of the water cycle. We cannot denude the earth’s surface without creating the desiccation of sand the dust dunes. We cannot permit animals to devour whatever little is left of green growth. Excessive grazing of cattle, sheep and goats is as damaging to the land as a wholesale felling of trees…” Richard St. Barbe Baker

For directions as to how to drive to “George Genereux” Urban Regional Park

For directions on how to drive to Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

For more information:

Blairmore Sector Plan Report; planning for the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, George Genereux Urban Regional Park and West Swale and areas around them inside of Saskatoon city limits

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

Pinterest richardstbarbeb

Facebook Group Page: Users of the George Genereux Urban Regional Park

Facebook: StBarbeBaker

Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

Facebook: South West OLRA

Twitter: StBarbeBaker

Please help protect / enhance /commemorate your afforestation areas, please contact the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc. (e-mail)

Payment Options

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

1./ Learn.

2./ Experience

3./ Do Something: ^***

See how nature – trees, flowers, grass – grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence . . . We need silence to be able to touch souls. ~Mother Teresa

“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

“Besides water, trees provide pure air. They are the great filtering machines for the human organism. They improve and transform the air in a way which is most favorable and most acceptable to the lungs of man.” Richard St. Barbe Baker

Saskatoon City Police Support

White-tailed Deer Fawn. Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. Saskatoon, SK, CA

Caragana Flower Blooom FRichard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. Saskatoon, SK CA

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

Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, West Swale Wetlands. Chappell Marsh. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing is what we do for others.–Lewis Carroll

In a nutshell, Stewards and Stakeholders of the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area seeking to get the appropriate services to direct and educate the public to be respectful of the diverse flora and fauna of woodlands, grasslands and wetlands – the afforestation area preserved in perpetuity.

It is very easy to enjoy a semi-wilderness wildlife habitat nestled in a mixed deciduous and evergreen forest such as usually only seen north of the provincial treeline. Here in our native and modified Aspen Parkland eco-system, and West Swale wetlands it is better if all users had an awareness and respect for the environment around them.

Quote by John L. Lonergan “Education not punishment is the solution. Education has a huge role to play to change things… Anybody that goes out and wrongs or damages another human being deserves to be punished. …You cannot allow people to go out and damage other people and injure other people or to rob from other people or to destroy other people’s property. That is not the point… The point is that once we look at the population and at the evidence; are there ways to reduce the number of people committing crime and if we can say yes to that we’ll automatically reduce the numbers of victims and it is far better to prevent people becoming victims of criminality rather than responding to it which we do. ” John L. Lonergan TedX Dublin. Sept 2014

Several points follow; put forward by Jeff Hehn, Ambassador of the Fatlanders Fatbike Brigade and the various stewards / stakeholders of the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

1) It is greatly appreciated the assistance being afforded by Air Support One and a request is humbly submitted for continued support until barriers are in place.

2) Better signage, awareness and education will allow police to act when called upon and hopefully less need for action. A defined knowledge of city land / park / open space / environmental bylaws or regulations which are extant if afforestation areas are owned by a/ land branch b/ parks department.

3) Response protocol is defined and understood – police know where to respond and how to get in (particularly if locked) To put into place education that the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area is totally owned by the city and totally annexed in 2005 along with afforestation area formerly named George Genereux Urban Regional Park

4) An education or neighbourhood watch program implemented addressing safety for users of the afforestation area who personally step up as citizens in regards to protective services needs.

5) Agreement from the Police Commission and letter of support that better signage and vehicles restrictions to the area are necessary and will reduce resources needed to enforce the bylaws and thereby save the city money. Agreement from police board that restricting access will reduce the need to have go out there – costs less to fix problem at the root than to try and deal with symptoms.

The users of the afforestation areas realize this is not solved by the police alone. Education is the key, education at the citizen level to increase awareness of the afforestation area preserved in perpetuity, education for all users to respect the flora and fauna of the eco-system, education in the form of signage and education in the form of vehicle restrictions to mitigate illegal trespass.

With education, everyone’s role at the afforestation area becomes easier. A safe, vibrant and active community life abounds, the environment benefits, time and money can be much better spent.

“I will have nothing to do with this destruction of life. I will play no part in this devastation of this land. I am destined to live and work for peaceful construction for I am morally responsible for the world of today and of the generations of tomorrow.Let TAWAMHWE-pull together-be our motto ” Richard St. Barbe Baker”

don’t want to protect
The Board of Police Commissioners has forwarded comments to the Standing Policy Committee on Planning, Development and Community Services Department following consideration of your presentation dated April 20, 2017, to the Board regarding the above matter. The resolution from the Board, along with a copy of your presentation, will be considered by the Standing Policy Committee on Planning, Development and Community Services Department:

DATE: Monday, May 1, 2017

TIME: 9:00 a.m.

The present is full of opportunity. Never before in the history of the planet has mankind been given the privileges and opportunities that are at his disposal today. A great light has been raised and is penetrating the darkness of the world, but alas, too many with dust blinded eyes have yet to catch the vision. Some of us have . That is our privilege and our responsibility.

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 lifelong task.”Richard St. Barbe Baker

South West Sector Afforestation Addresses:
1/ Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area (City of Saskatoon Urban Regional Park) Parts Section 22 and SW 23 township 36 range 6 west of the third meridian. (East of the CN overpass on SK Highway 7) SE 22 & SW 23-36-6 W3 under MVA conservation management.

2/ Un-named City of Saskatoon Afforestation Area. Part south of CN Chappell yards SE section 23-36-6-W3 preserved as afforestation area in perpetuity, under MVA conservation management- west of SW OLRA and east of COC.

3/ In 1960, part of NE 21-36-6 W3 (West of the CN overpass on SK Highway 7) was purchased by the City, planted in 1972, preserved as an afforestation area. Named in 1978-1979 George Genereux Park (Urban Regional Park), this namesake was removed at this afforestation area for use at a different city pocket park.

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′
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

Pinterest richardstbarbeb

Facebook Group Page: Users of the George Genereux Urban Regional Park

Facebook: StBarbeBaker

Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

Facebook: South West OLRA

Twitter: StBarbeBaker

Please help protect / enhance /commemorate your afforestation areas, please contact the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc. (e-mail)

Payment Options

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

“From water and earth we came, and the future of mankind on this planet will be determined by respectful or disrespectful treatment of these basic elements.”~Richard St. Barbe Baker

For directions as to how to drive to “George Genereux” Urban Regional Park

For directions on how to drive to Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

For more information:

Blairmore Sector Plan Report; planning for the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, George Genereux Urban Regional Park and West Swale and areas around them inside of Saskatoon city limits

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

Pinterest richardstbarbeb

Facebook Group Page: Users of the George Genereux Urban Regional Park

Facebook: StBarbeBaker

Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

Facebook: South West OLRA

Twitter: StBarbeBaker

Please help protect / enhance /commemorate your afforestation areas, please contact the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc. (e-mail)

Payment Options

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

1./ Learn.

2./ Experience

3./ Do Something: ^***

You Tube Video Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

You Tube Video Richard St Barbe Baker presented by Paul Hanley

You Tube Video Richard St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area and West Swale wetlands

You Tube Video Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area – Saskatoon’s best kept secret.

You Tube Video George Genereux Urban Regional Park Hoar Frost

You Tube Video George Genereux Urban Regional Park Saskatoon

You Tube Video George Genereux Urban Regional Park

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

Don’t feed the waterfowl

I believe in oneness of mankind and of all living things and in the interdependence of each and all. I believe that unless we play fair to the Earth, we cannot exist physically on this planet. Unless we play fair to our neighbour, we cannot exist socially or internationally. Unless we play fair to better self, there is no individuality and no leadership. ~Richard St. Barbe Baker.

Don’t feed the waterfowl

Mallard Ducks Chappell Marsh. West Swale Wetlands Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. Saskatoon, SK, CA

Ruddy Duck. Chappell Marsh. West Swale Wetlands. Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. Saskatoon, SK, CA

Canada Geese West Swale Wetlands. Chappell Marsh. Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, SK, CA

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

Ruddy Duck in the West Swale Wetlands (Chappel Marsh) One of the only locales in Saskatchewan to sight the Ruddy Duck. Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, SK, CA

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

Canada Goose There are Geese at the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Chappell Marsh and West Swale Wetlands, Saskatoon, Sk, CA

Don’t feed the waterfowl, and the British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals goes on to say; Never feed ducks, geese, swans, gulls, herons or eagles.It’s a fine line to walk, between “Feed the Birds Day on February 3” and not feeding the ducks.

If you do use a bird feeder for migratory birds, place them safely away from domesticated animals such as dogs and cats, and do not allow the ground feed spilled out of feeders to habituate rodents.

“There is a risk that ducks and other waterfowl can get an illness known as angel wing, which is caused by not getting the right nutrients in their diet.

“The illness causes as deformity in birds’ wings that can hamper the way they fly or even stop them altogether, which could obviously be fatal,” said Harry Bellows from The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. RSPB says, “Uneaten, rotting food left by ducks can trigger noxious odours and fuel algae that can eventually eradicate fish from the area, as well as attracting rats, mice and insects.

“Mouldy bread can also cause aspergillosis a fatal lung infection that can wipe out waterfowl in flocks.”^Foster

Artificial feeding sites can cause outbreaks in wildlife of Duck Virus Enteritis, Aspergillus, and Avian Botulism. Additionally these feeding sites can attract a parasite which causes Swimmer’s Itch in humans.

Besides recognizing these health risks and diseases, there are more reasons not to feed the ducks. Receiving food from humans results in changes in the behavior of waterfowl. The natural areas become overcrowded where feeding occurs, and the native eco-system cannot support the over-run of ducks and geese. Due to the groups and the larger numbers of ducks and geese, a health risk mounts up from excess droppings which increases the risk of disease.

He who knows what sweets and virtues are in the ground, the waters, the plants, the heavens, and how to come at these enchantments, is the rich and royal man. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Furthermore, waterfowl may even decide not to migrate, relying on the food source from humans, and are trapped by the cold winter. For those waterfowl who do not migrate, they are at risk of dying when the winter temperatures drop to -40 Celsius and below, and there is a drop in human feeders.

The adult waterfowl addicted to bread stop teaching their young how to forage in the wild. The ducklings and goslings, then know only a life of seeking food from humans, and cannot survive in a natural setting. Therefore, waterfowl who rely on humans for food will cluster around human outdoor activities in parks, humans and parking lots without knowledge of domestic animals such as dogs and cats and vehicles on roadways.

Additionally relying on handouts of bread leads to severe duckling and gosling mal-nourishment as bread does not have the necessary nutrients to stave off disease or support a healthy body.

“Wild animals who get used to a handout will often take the easy route despite ample natural foods being available – even in urban areas,” says Dr. Sara Dubois, chief scientific officer for the BC SPCA. “Although it might seem harmless and cute to feed a squirrel on a park bench or ducks at the local pond, these activities can lead to increased habituation.”

“Habituated wild animals are also more susceptible to predators and vehicle collisions, as they lose their fear of people and the associated flight response.”^{BC SPCA}

Foods that should never be fed to ducks include:

Bread
Chips
Crackers
Popcorn
Biscuits
Sugary food including sweets and chocolates
Cereal
Sweets
Mouldy food

Over-wintering waterfowl in the region of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan may, as an exception, include Greater White-fronted Goose, Ring-necked Duck, Pied-billed Grebe, Greater Scaup, Snow Goose, Horned Grebe, Eared Grebe, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Northern Pintail, Green-winged Teal, Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead, Red-necked Grebe, Sora, American Coot, Canada Goose, Mallard, Blue-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, Canvasback, Redhead, and Ruddy Duck. If you are patient and still and happen to recognize these waterfowl, please do not feed them. Especially not in or near an off leash recreation area. The waterfowl of Chappel Marsh – the West Swale Wetlands – should not be habituated to humans. They should rely on their natural insticts to not approach humans.

I believe in oneness of mankind and of all living things and in the interdependence of each and all. I believe that unless we play fair to the Earth, we cannot exist physically on this planet. Unless we play fair to our neighbour, we cannot exist socially or internationally. Unless we play fair to better self, there is no individuality and no leadership. ~Richard St. Barbe Baker.

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′
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

Pinterest richardstbarbeb

Facebook Group Page: Users of the George Genereux Urban Regional Park

Facebook: StBarbeBaker

Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

Facebook: South West OLRA

Twitter: StBarbeBaker

Please help protect / enhance /commemorate your afforestation areas, please contact the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc. (e-mail)

Payment Options

Membership : $20.00 CAD – year
Membership with donation : $20.00 CAD – monthly
Membership with donation : $50.00 CAD
Membership with donation : $100.00 CAD

Our task must be to free ourselves … by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.~Albert Einstein

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Beitz, Mike. Don’t feed the birds. The Beacon Herald. Aug. 9, 2016.

Don’t feed the duck bread, say conservationists. The Guardian. Environment.

Don’t feed the Ducks. Saint John.

Don’t feed the animals. British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. BC SPCA. July 22, 2014

Foster, Alice. What you should NEVER feed to ducks: Six things including BREAD. Express Home of the Daily and Sunday Express. April 6, 20165
Four reasons why feeding bread to ducks is stupid. CBC News. May 24, 2015

Greason, Chet. Duck Feeding Ban passed Despite Protest. Stratford Gazette. August 10, 2016

Is Feeding Ducks Bread Bad? About.com January 20, 2017.
Don’t feed the ducks Mass Audubon. Protecting the Nature of Massachusetts.

McLendon, Russell. 3 Reasons why you shouldn’t feed bread to ducks. Mother Earth Network. November 18, 2015.

Podbielski, Ron. Don’t feed the wildlife. Saskatchewan Environment. Government of Saskatchewan. January 19, 2017.

Rockwood Park ducks refuse to fly south as feeding continues. Naturalist urges Rockwood Park visitors to feed ducks fruits and vegetables, not bread, if they do bring food. CBC News. Feb. 12, 2015

Saskatchewan Birding Trail Experience (pdf)

Seriously, Stop Feeding Wild Animals. DNews. Aug 28, 2016.

Stop Feeding Waterfowl. Department of Environmental Conservation. New York State.

Winter, Lisa. The Disturbing Reasons You Shouldn’t Feed Bread To Ducks
We can’t live on bread alone, and neither can they. A-Plus. March, 21, 2015

Why you Should Never Feed Bread to Ducks. IFL Science

Zsivanovits, Petra, Deborah J. Monks, and Neil A. Forbes. Bilateral Valgus Deformity of the Distal Wings (Angel Wing) in a Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) Journal of Avian Medicine and Surgery 20(1):21-26. 2006
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1647/1082-6742(2006)20%5B21:BVDOTD%5D2.0.CO;2

Uropygial ~ Uropygium

Bend to the winds of heaven.
And learn tranquility

Uropygial ~ Uropygium Encompassing 2:2:2

Preening, or primping in relation to ornithology means, “to groom with the bill especially by re-arranging the barbs and barbules of the feathers and by distributing oil from the uropygial gland.” ^Source

And what a fancy word uropygial gland turns out to be. So to discover what that part of the bird might be: Uropygium is defined thusly; “the projecting terminal portion of a bird’s body, from which the tail feathers spring”.^Source

Mallard primping and preening

Mallards primping

Now turning to wikpedia it happens that “the uropygial gland, informally known as the preen gland or the oil gland, is a bilobate sebaceous gland possessed by the majority of birds,” which happens to be at the tail end of the bird. Voila!

Without the preening, the bird’s feather’s deteriorate, water-proofing is lost, an additional source of Vitamin D3 is absent, and the bird is more vulnerable to bird lice.

So this home-made cosmetic coming from their the uropygial gland works wonders for birds of all shapes and sizes is vital and necessary to their survival.

“Fashion is about two things: the evolution and the opposite.”
― Karl Lagerfeld

Try a walk in the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, SK. While there, walk past the West Swale wetlands, and observe the birds primping or preening themselves with oil from the nifty little uropygial gland.

“Think about it — do you really want to live in a world of only two dimensions?”~ Vera Nazarian,

Did you know: In regards to the American Pelican Pelecanus erythrorhynchos, a couple facts numbered here:

“All species lay at least two eggs, and hatching success for undisturbed pairs can be as high as 95 percent, but because of competition between siblings or outright siblicide, usually all but one nestling dies within the first few weeks.”^source
The “Two eggs are laid over a two-day period and then incubated by both adults for approximately 30 days”^source

And, did you know, A couple of facts about the Mallard Anas platyrhynchos:

“The ducklings are lead to water as soon as their soft, downy feathers are dry and they first fly about 2 months after hatching. “^source
“Mallard Ducks will grow to about two feet long and weigh around 2 -1/2 pounds.”^source

Stand firm. Grip hard.
Thrust upward to the skies.
Bend to the winds of heaven.
And learn tranquility.

~Richard St. Barbe Baker

For directions as to how to drive to “George Genereux” Urban Regional Park

For directions on how to drive to Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

For more information:

Blairmore Sector Plan Report; planning for the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, George Genereux Urban Regional Park and West Swale and areas around them inside of Saskatoon city limits

Pinterest richardstbarbeb

Facebook Group Page: Users of the George Genereux Urban Regional Park

Facebook: StBarbeBaker

Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

Facebook: South West OLRA

Twitter: StBarbeBaker

You Tube Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

You Tube George Genereux Urban Regional Park

Should you wish to help protect / enhance the afforestation areas, please contact the City of Saskatoon, Corporate Revenue Division, 222 3rd Ave N, Saskatoon, SK S7K 0J5…to support the afforestation area with your donation please state that your donation should go towards the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, or the George Genereux Urban Regional Park, or both afforestation areas located in the Blairmore Sector. Please and thank you! Your donation is greatly appreciated.

1./ Learn.

2./ Experience

3./ Do Something: ^***

“St. Barbe’s unique capacity to pass on his enthusiasm to others. . . Many foresters all over the world found their vocations as a result of hearing ‘The Man of the Trees’ speak. I certainly did, but his impact has been much wider than that. Through his global lecture tours, St. Barbe has made millions of people aware of the importance of trees and forests to our planet.” Allan Grainger

“The science of forestry arose from the recognition of a universal need. It embodies the spirit of service to mankind in attempting to provide a means of supplying forever a necessity of life and, in addition, ministering to man’s aesthetic tastes and recreational interests. Besides, the spiritual side of human nature needs the refreshing inspiration which comes from trees and woodlands. If a nation saves its trees, the trees will save the nation. And nations as well as tribes may be brought together in this great movement, based on the ideal of beautifying the world by the cultivation of one of God’s loveliest creatures – the tree.” ~ Richard St. Barbe Baker.

“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

Not the smallest piece of chaos

Here, is the world…perfect

Great Blue Heron Ardea herodias 42-52″ (105-130 cm) four feet standing.

“Here is the world, sound as a nut, perfect, not the smallest piece of chaos left, never a stitch nor an end, not a mark of haste, or botching, or second thought” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

The shores of the West Swale Wetlands. The background is sylvan and serene with Trembling Aspen bluffs and woodland horizon. In the right foreground are cattails and reed grasses, overgrown with shrubbery. At the left is a Willow idyllic and pastoral. Common waterfowl and ducks swim about the waters.

In the midst of her empire of rich rolling prairie are marsh and wetlands, breathless and wooded hills, overlooking our two great herons. It is here in this bucolic setting that the Black-crowned Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax, and the Great Blue Heron Areda herodias roost, and forage. The idyllic landscape displaying every natural beauty, forest, sunlit waters, and grasslands meadow, at their bluest and their greenest.

In order to be perfect, the future poet should
Know every sound of nature, of river, lake an’ wood,
Should know each whispered note and every answerin’ call—
The world of poetry’s lookin’ up an’ poets climbin’ higher;
~ Tacitus Hussey

For directions as to how to drive to “George Genereux” Urban Regional Park

For directions on how to drive to Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

For more information:

Blairmore Sector Plan Report; planning for the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, George Genereux Urban Regional Park and West Swale and areas around them inside of Saskatoon city limits

Pinterest richardstbarbeb

Facebook Group Page: Users of the George Genereux Urban Regional Park

Facebook: StBarbeBaker

Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

Facebook: South West OLRA

Twitter: StBarbeBaker

Please help protect / enhance your afforestation areas, please contact the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc. (e-mail / e-transfers )

Canada Helps

1./ Learn.

2./ Experience

3./ Do Something: ^***

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

A Tree-mendous Result!

The challenges looming on the horizon appear to be both awesome and formidable. …But, hey! What do we have to loose?

The changes taking place in Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area and the consequent erection of barriers to forestall illegal dumping and mitigate such trespass is beginning at the Urban Regional Park. Along with this spirit of defending the urban regional park, with physical, concrete Jersey Barriers, education is a vital link.

How will Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area find its place in Saskatoon? At the centre of the transition are great questions. How to appease a variety of contemporary stakeholders, how to honour City of Saskatoon wetlands policy and open space bylaws, and how to coalesce with the intent of the history and the city visionaries of 1960 who bought this piece of land as a “green belt” for Saskatoon, and the parks department personnel who went before city council to preserve the afforestation area in perpetuity in 1972. At the heart of the debate is succinctly this: “How will Saskatoon answer these great challenges?”

In the age of climate change and nature-deficit disorder, such experiences underscore this truth: Our relationship with nature is not only about preserving land and water, but also about preserving and growing the bonds between us. ” ~ ^{Louv. 2011. p. 139.}

This is definitely an area where Saskatoon could shine. As Maude Barlow states, ” The most important step is to be clear about the nature of the problem.”^{Barlow. 2005. p.271} This is an opportunity for Saskatoon to take a stand. How the civic government of Saskatoon and the parks department answer these great questions of this Afforestation Area in this time, depends on whose counsel it seeks.

If anything is going to limit the supposedly infinite possibilities of economic globalization, it will be the earth itself. Humanity has destroyed more forests, wetlands, and wild spaces in the last hundred years than in all of history. The highly regarded journal <Science reports that recent extinction rates are one hundred to one thousand times higher than before humans existed. Moreover, it says, with the exponential extinction rate now being experienced, that number could increase to between one thousand and ten thousand times by the end of the century….what is clearly needed is “Plan Rejuvenation”^{Barlow. 2015. p 279. 283.}

The afforestation area and the West Swale wetlands, indeed has some serious problems that need to be addressed. The community and several stakeholders will take note of what the City of Saskatoon decides. “Opportunities to find the natural world are all around us, even in the densest cities. But, unless we act quickly to conserve and restore these places, and create new ones, then nearby nature will become a quaint artifact of another time.”^{Louv. 2011. p. 199} “But the task is not as straightforward as might first appear.” ^{Barlow. Clarke. 2001. p. 168} “The challenges looming on the horizon appear to be both awesome and formidable.” ^{Barlow. Clarke. 2001. p.225}

A Tree-mendous achievement to placing barriers to mitigate trash dumping and illegal trespass has made taken a step forward. The project cannot begin by barricading the trash in. Or, if a farmer erects a fence to keep the fox out of the chicken yard, erects the fence, and turns around and sees the fox in the chicken yard, the fence defeats its purpose. So, as a good example going forward, a group of environmentally conscious volunteers from a diverse array of stakeholder backgrounds came together on Saturday, October 29, 2016, for a mini-clean up. This mini clean up lasted two hours; entailed three pick up trucks, a trailer, and eight volunteers. resulting in the removal of approximately 1,500 kilograms (3,300 pounds) of trash that was missed in the previous clean ups of June 2015 and July 2016. To echo the words of Elizabeth Barrett Browning; Deep thanks to all. How that great work of Love enhances Nature and thus shines Nature’s lamp in each.

“Above all, it is important to recall that the real strength and power of civil society, as distinct from governments and corporations, lies in the passion of people ~ the capacity to feel, touch, and relate to one another and thereby bring life back into this world” Maude. Clarke. 2001 p. 225

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

Black Capped Chickadee. Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area. SAskatoon, Sk, CA

Chipping Soarrow. Spizella passerina. Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, Saskatoon, SK, CA

Living fences made of dense, thorny, and sometimes poisonous bushes are used by farmers who cannot afford barbed wire. Living fences provide mulch, erosion control, land stabilization, fuel, and food;…What if, in our human habitats, we strove for biodiversity, for living fences and natural music? ^{Louv. 2011.p. 101}

“Given current corporate practices, not one wildlife reserve, wilderness or Indigenous culture will survive the global economy. We know that every natural system on the planet is disintegrating. The land, water, air, and sea have been functionally transformed from life-supporting systems into repositories for waste. There is no polite way to say that business is destroying the world.” ~ Paul Hawken, The Ecology of Commerce,: A Declaration of Sustainability ^{Barlow, Clarke, 2001. p. 81}

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Barlow, Maude. too close for comfort. Canada’s future with Fortress North America 2005. McClelland & Stewart Ltd. The Canadian Publishers. Toronto, ON. ISBN 0-7710-1088-5.

Barlow, Maude and Tony Clarke. Global Showdown How the new activists are fighting global corporate rule. 2001. Stoddart Publishing Co. Limited. Toronto, ON. ISBN 0-7737-3264-0.

Louv, Richard. Last Child in the woods. Saving our children from nature deficit disorder. 2005. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. ISBN 13: 978-1-56512-391-5. ISBN 10: 1-56512-391-3.

Louv, Richard. The Nature Principle. Human Restoration and the end of nature-deficit disorder 2011. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. North Carolina. ISBN 987-1-56512-581-0.

For directions as to how to drive to “George Genereux” Urban Regional Park

For directions on how to drive to Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

For more information:

Blairmore Sector Plan Report; planning for the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area, George Genereux Urban Regional Park and West Swale and areas around them inside of Saskatoon city limits

Pinterest richardstbarbeb

Facebook Group Page: Users of the George Genereux Urban Regional Park

Facebook: StBarbeBaker

Facebook group page : Users of the St Barbe Baker Afforestation Area

Facebook: South West OLRA

Twitter: StBarbeBaker

Please help protect / enhance your afforestation areas, please contact the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas Inc. (e-mail)

Payment Options

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

1./ Learn.

2./ Experience

3./ Do Something: ^***

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

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Don’t feed the waterfowl

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BIBLIOGRAPHY:

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Uropygial ~ Uropygium Encompassing 2:2:2

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