A get to know you poll for the students, all scale of 1-5:

1. Career point, 1 in school, 5 working and going to school part time.
2. How ‘outdoorsy’ 1 not very, 5 back country hiking is cool!
3. Project management, 1 is mehh, 5 project management is life.

Seven Successes of Student Projects

There are four players involved: the program, instructor, students, and community partner. The last three players have a specific motivation
– Instructor, contextualize the course
– Students, pass and resume fodder
– Partner, problem or an opportunity
In SAPAA’s case, it starts with the tragedy of the commons.

Tragedy of the Commons is an economic and social concept. Individuals will over consume a shared resource even though this will lead to the loss of the commons for everyone.

Crownland is an example of a ‘commons’. It is accessible to everyone and subject to abuse.

One type of Crownland are the protected areas covered by this Act. The name is long, so we just call it the WAERNAHR Act (pronounced “Werner”).

Some are on the border with the United States (Outpost and Onefour). Egg Island is less than an acre and protects rare bird habitat. Burning Sulphur smells like rotten eggs as a result of exposed iron-sulphide minerals oxidize rapidly producing steam and 300C heat. 

These sites conserve unique plant, geological, or cultural treasures and provide critical stepping stones for flora and fauna.

These sites can be used for responsible, low impact recreation. To support this, a few have amenities such as signs and washrooms.

These protected areas were set aside over the past fifty years. They are held in trust for all Albertans, and the natural systems they benefit.

Unfortunately, they can be over consumed. ATV wreckage, tree cutting, or dumping are just some examples of the Tragedy of the Commons. One way to mitigate this damage is to make it clear they are being visited.

From the 1980’s to late 2010’s, the Alberta Government ran an innovative program of volunteer stewards who visited sites and reported on their status.

Unfortunately, enthusiasm fades and then an insurmountable obstacle appeared….

In 2017, the Occupational Health and Safety legislation mandated that volunteers became unpaid employees. Organizations, including the Alberta government suddenly had a higher level of responsibility for volunteers.

Although SAPAA was created to support government Stewards, since 2021, SAPAA has begun to take some of the functions of the former program. The latest initiative is SAPAA’s Safe Operations Program. This graphic outlines the key elements of the program

The program is based on three principles: 1. Born digital, everything is online. 2. Volunteer levels are scaled to training and experience, and 3. Risk mitigation is scaled to circumstances. 

The SAPAA business opportunity /problem is to answer three questions:  1. Is there anything missing or anything that can be removed? 2. How can the cost of compliance be reduced and what type of inducements can be used to encourage compliance? 3. What is this program going to cost in terms of Time, Talent, and Treasure?

Another project will investigate potential funding sources. Grant MacEwan’s focus is on the cost of OHS compliance. SAPAA needs three recommendations based on Time, Talent and Treasure.

Failure is Always an Option and is a form of success. I would rather find out sooner than later what are the challenges of implementing the program.

One of the benefits of a SAPAA project are field trips to Alberta’s Natural Areas. Ideally, we will run an initial visit to a local Natural Area, so you get a feel of the Safe Operations Program. Later in the summer, SAPAA is happy to run a field trip to a location further away.