President's Corner
The Saskatoon Nature Society's weekly Nature Notes column in the Saskatoon Sun is one of our important projects. It serves to educate the public about vital conservation issues and fascinating natural history topics in our region. During the past 5 years, Ron Jensen has chaired a committee that has planned the columns and found volunteers to write them. I would like to publicly thank Ron for his leadership on this project. I am happy to learn that John Patterson has agreed to take over the chairmanship of this committee now that Ron has retired as chairman.
Last year our field trip committee organized nature hikes to some of the naturalized parks within the city limits. The city has agreed to manage these parks to improve their attractiveness to birds so that birders and other visitors can enjoy them. Last summer Anna Leighton and I met with Gary Pedersen, who is in charge of this program. We visited Donna Birkmaier Park and passed on suggestions for native plants that might bring more birds to this park. Later in this newsletter, you may read his report to the society on this project. (By coincidence, the entrance to this park at the east end of Taylor Street is opposite Slimmon Road, which was named in honour of Jim Slimmon, one of our society's most active members.)
Many of our members participated in the Ecoblitz of the Northeast Swale that was organized last spring by Anna Leighton. Recently, the MVA sponsored a film about this project that was shown to the public at Roxy Theatre. As a follow-up, Louise Jones is starting a committee that will advocate for the protection of this important grassland habitat as the city expands northwards. If you would like to participate in this project, please contact Louise at louise.jones@sasktel.net.
As we enter a new year, I would like to thank all of our members who have assisted with various society projects and activities during the past year. If you have any suggestions for improving our society's activities, please contact anyone on the board.
Stan Shadick
SNS President