Redberry Lake Biosphere Reserve
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Transcript of Redberry Lake Biosphere Reserve
MISSION DECOMMISS ION Written By: Rachel Turnquist
REDBERRY LAKE BIOSPHERE RESERVE
What’s Happening in the BR?
JANUARY 2012
VOLUME 18
GREETINGS FROM JOHN KINDRACHUK Written By: John Kindrachuk
The New Year is here and things have not slowed down
at the office or in the biosphere area. This beautiful
weather we are having, makes us wonder if it is still fall
or if it is the start of spring and this means no time for a
winter slow down.
From what we have been doing in the past year, I have
come up with a wish list for this New Year.
Understand what the Biosphere Reserve Associa-
tion is about and what we are trying to achieve. We
understand that we all have to make a living in the
Biosphere Reserve region, but we have to try do so
in a manner that insures that there will be a healthy
environment here for our children and grandchildren
to make a living and enjoy in the future as we are
doing now.
Visit our website and learn how we are encouraging
research, education and partnerships to try achieve
these goals.
Shell Canada is currently running a program called Fueling Change. This is
a grant program that supports environmental projects. Funding is awarded
to projects who receive the most votes online. The North Saskatchewan
River Basin Council (NSRBC) has applied for $25 000 for the project: Mis-
sion Decommission. The NSRBC would like to decommission abandoned
wells in our watershed to protect ground water.
Abandoned wells are a pathway for ground water contamination. Wells may
be contaminated by flooding, livestock, garbage etc. and that contamination
will return to the underground aquifer which can impact drinking water and
livestock water used by you and your neighbors.
Abandoned wells also pose a safety risk. People, pets, livestock and wildlife
can fall in to abandoned wells and risk serious injury or death. Vehicles and
equipment can be damaged by driving over an abandoned well.
Go to the website http://fuellingchange.com/main/project/243/Mission-
Decommission and cast your vote for Mission Decommission . Support the
NSRBC in another effort to protect our water!
© Heidi Hougham
Attend events in the community that we are a
part of. We are hosting them for every ones
benefit and invite you to attend.
Talk to us, we are more than happy to share
with you, what we are doing and we encourage
new ideas about how we can work together to
make our Biosphere Reserve region sustain-
able for ourselves and future generations to
come.
From the board and staff of the Redberry Lake
Biosphere Reserve we look forward to working
with you and hope everyone has a blessed and
prosperous New Year
Page 2
DUCKS UNLIMITED CANADA ENCOURAGED BY RECENT SARM RESOLUTION ON
DRAINAGE LEGISLAT ION Article Courtesy of Ducks Unlimited Canada
Saskatchewan landowners continue to experience damage from non-permitted drainage activities
Regina, Sask. – Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) commends the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities
(SARM) on the organization’s recent resolution to lobby the Saskatchewan government to enforce provincial land drain-
age legislation. SARM is the independent association that represents 296 rural municipalities in Saskatchewan.
“Unlicensed drainage is having a profound effect on downstream landowners and infrastructure throughout Saskatche-
wan,” says Brent Kennedy, manager of provincial operations for DUC in Saskatchewan. “This resolution recognizes the
danger and hardship drainage causes both municipalities and landowners. DUC congratulates SARM on taking this step
towards ensuring unlicensed drainage stops.”
Saskatchewan has one of the highest wetland loss rates in the country. Twenty-eight acres of wetlands are lost every day
in southern Saskatchewan alone. This drainage reduces or eliminates a watershed’s ability to store water during peak
water movement, resulting in far worse flooding as seen this last spring.
Also, flooding causes significant damage to infrastructure throughout the province. In the 2011-2012 mid-year financial
report released on November 28, 2011, the province estimated flooding costs to be in excess of $240 million, which is in
large part due to expenses like disaster claims and emergency highway repairs.
Non-permitted drainage of wetlands needs to stop. The recent SARM resolution is crucial in preserving wetlands now
and into the future, and reducing the damage that is being caused throughout Saskatchewan. DUC continues to work
closely with government and
industry across Saskatche-
wan to strengthen regula-
tions and policies to ensure
wetlands are protected.
Healthy wetlands are critical
for clean water, biodiversity,
habitat protection for species
at risk, greenhouse gas re-
duction and flood protection.
Ducks Unlimited Canada
(DUC) is a private, non-
profit organization that con-
serves, manages and restores
wetlands and associated
habitats for waterfowl. These
habitats also benefit other
wildlife and people.
For more information,
please contact:
Lori Gasper,
Communications Specialist
Ducks Unlimited Canada
Office: (306) 665-7157
Cell: (306) 381-4535
© Ducks Unlimited Canada
SENS STUDENT ENJOYS WORK WITH BR Written By: Oksana Zbyranyk
Page 3
WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE A BIRD NERD? Written By: Rachel Turnquist
We are all familiar with the sound of a spring morning in Saskatchewan. Whether you are camping out at the lake or just
happen to live by an area hosting wetlands you know that sound, a plethora of song and wetland birds sending out their
communicative calls to their families and friends. But what bird species are we hearing? Bird Studies Canada claims
that there are 383 different bird species in Saskatchewan; Grouse, Ducks, Geese, Loons, Grebes, Hawks, Falcons, Song
Birds and Shore Birds, and many more!
Wetland loss has happened in our province over the last 150 years, and so bird habitat has been lost. Yet there is an in-
formation deficiency on what effect this loss has had on birds. In 2007, the Prairie and Parkland Marsh Monitoring Pro-
gram was established. The PPMMP’s ambition is to find associations between waterbird species occurrence and habitat
characteristics in different areas, by conducting surveys. The informa-
tion identified by the program will be important for conservation ef-
forts and habitat management of our wetland birds.
For the surveys, birds are recorded at a wetland site for 15 minutes at 6
to 8 different survey stations at least 3 times in between May 20th and
June 31st. Those participants involved must be able to identify approxi-
mately 60 birds by sight and sound. Do you have what it takes?
Would you like to network with others interested in birding? Would
you like to learn and volunteer for these surveys? Redberry Lake Bio-
sphere Reserve will be taking part in the surveys in Spring 2012. If
you are interested in volunteering for the surveys, training on bird
sight and sounds will be offered in the winter months. Please contact
Rachel at (306) 549-4060 or (306) 549–7473. © R Turnquist
My name is Oksana Zbyranyk. I am a Master of Environment and
Sustainability (MES) candidate at the School of Environment and
Sustainability (SENS) at the University of Saskatchewan. Origi-
nally from Ukraine, I completed my Bachelor degree in Cyprus,
Turkey. When I heard about this new interdisciplinary program of
the University of Saskatchewan I decided to change my academic
home to Canada. SENS is one of the first programs in Canada
tackling various environmental issues and emphasizing sustain-
ability dimension of it. From the very beginning of my studies at
the School, I was fascinated by the concept of biosphere reserves
and wanted to do my masters thesis in this field. The close col-
laboration between the Redberry Lake Biosphere Reserve and
SENS happened to be perfect for me to study and to understand how researchers
and practitioners can work together effectively in order to achieve the objectives
of conservation and sustainable development. I spent some days in the Hafford
area to interview people involved in different projects initiated within the Red-
berry Lake Biosphere Reserve area. I was able to analyze and synthesize my find-
ings with a hope to produce an informative work at the end of this process. I am
truly grateful to all who participated and spent their time to give me their insights.
For us students it is so important to sometimes leave the books behind and get an
idea of how things work in reality!
Is there an event going in
in you community or
area?
Let us know! We’ll put it
on the Community Cal-
endar on our website!
Box 221
Hafford SK, S0J 1A0
Phone: 306 549-4060
Fax: 306 549-4061
Email: [email protected]
Check us out on the web!
www.redberrylake.ca
Like us on Facebook!
Follow us on Twitter! If you would like to receive this
newsletter via email, please
contact our office
R E D B E R R Y L A K E B I O S P H E R E R E S E R V E
Redberry Lake Biosphere Reserve Association Box 221, Hafford, Sk. S0J 1A0
Tel: (306) 549-4060 Fax: (306) 549-4061 Email: [email protected]
Government of Saskatchewan
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUES TIONS OR SUGGESTIONS FOR OUR NEWSLETTER OR PERHAPS YOU WOULD LIKE TO CONTRIBUTE AN ART ICLE. PLEASE CONTACT REDBERRY LAKE BIOSPHERE
RESERVE AT (306) 549-4060, OR EMAIL [email protected]
RHOEN BIOSPHERE RESERVE: CANADA
PARTNERS WITH GERMANY Written By: Susanne Abe
Building capacity and exchanging strategies on sustainable
development. These are the ideas of this (inter)national part-
nership between the three Canadian Biosphere Reserves Red-
berry Lake, Charlevoix (Que.) and Georgian Bay (Ont.) and
the German Rhoen Biosphere Reserve.
Known among hikers as the “Land Of Open Vistas” this bio-
sphere reserve is located in the Rhoen mountain range in the
heart of Germany. For both visitors and the people living in
the area the Rhoen stands for local grown and home-styled
food, local manufactured products as well as for the “Rhoen
sheep”. These black-headed sheep are one of the Rhoen’s
trademarks and play an important role in the conservation of
the characteristic landscape.
Hi, our names are Thomas and Susanne
Abe. We are from Germany volunteering
with the Redberry Lake Biosphere Reserve.
We arrived here in Hafford on October 5
and have had a great time working on sev-
eral projects: Revising the biosphere re-
serves website (www.redberrylake.ca) and
caring for the Facebook page. We also ac-
companied Rachel , the AEGP Technician,
to several farm calls and have had the op-
portunity to learn more about efficient and
environment-friendly farming in the work-
shops the biosphere reserve offers.
We really appreciate the friendliness of the
people here and we love going to local
events. That gives us the chance to get
more in touch with your culture and way of
living.
And yes, we are going to spend the winter
here! End of January we will head out west
to complete our one-year adventure in Can-
ada before we have to fly back to Germany
in March.
© Rhoen Biosphere Reserve
Printed by POWERPRINT
171-22nd Street, Battleford, SK
306-937-3396
NEW FACES : GERMAN VOLUNTEERS Written By: Thomas and Susanne Abe
NEW FACE:
WWW.REDBERRYLAKE.CA The Redberry Lake Biosphere Re-
serve’s website got a complete make-
over! Go to www.redberrylake.ca and
see for yourself!
© R Turnquist