• We are a non-partisan and non-profit society whose purpose is to support stewards of Alberta’s protected areas.
• The Society was formed in 2000 to assist stewards enrolled under the government’s Volunteer Stewards Program (1987) serving the Alberta government’s protected areas network.
• To learn more, see: A Short Selected History of SAPAA, and Volunteer Stewardship – Backgrounder.

• Natural Areas have been added to and evolved over the intervening years (see A Short Selected History of SAPAA).
• Federal, Municipal, First Nation, and protected-private areas owned by land trusts add to Alberta’s enviable position of being wild and natural.
• Much of the provincial Crown Land is undesignated with portions enjoying varying degrees of protection.
• Ecological Reserves, Willmore Wilderness Area, and Wilderness Areas provide the greatest protection.
• Order-in-Council, and Protected or Consultative Notations applied to Natural Areas having the least protection (but more than undesignated Crown Land).

• These protected areas are often small and isolated.
• These sites conserve unique plant, geological, or cultural treasures and provide critical stepping stones for flora and fauna.
• Volunteer stewards registered under the government’s Volunteer Steward Program (begun 1987) have been typically assigned to protected  lands covered by the Wilderness Areas, Ecological Reserves, Natural Areas and Heritage Rangelands Act (WAERNAHR Act).

• SAPAA uses Naturalness to describe a pattern where: A shared natural area is open to many users who gain individually.
• Naturalness refers to the degree to which a protected area retains its native ecological character with minimal human disturbance.
• In the SAPAA context, this typically includes:
  • Extent of human-made alterations — trails, structures, vehicle tracks, cutlines, fences, or other developments that reduce the site’s original condition.
  • Integrity of native vegetation — whether plant communities remain intact, undisturbed, and representative of the natural ecosystem.
  • Presence of invasive species — which reduce naturalness by displacing native flora and altering ecological processes.
  • Evidence of ecological processes functioning normally — such as natural regeneration, wildlife activity, and hydrological patterns.
  • Overall “wild” character — the degree to which the site feels and functions as an undeveloped natural area.
    SAPAA uses this concept to help stewards assess whether a site is maintaining the qualities for which it was originally protected.
• Why naturalness matters in SAPAA’s stewardship model
  • It’s a core indicator of ecological health in Alberta’s protected areas.
  • It helps identify emerging threats (e.g., off‑highway vehicle use, unauthorized camping, industrial encroachment).
  • It guides management recommendations in SIR reports.

• The ecological costs are shared by everyone, because damage accumulates across the whole landscape.
• No single user feels responsible for limiting their own impact.
• The result is long‑term degradation of the protected area’s natural values

Further Challenges:

• Stewardship capacity is low, meaning no one is monitoring or reporting issues consistently.
• Enforcement is limited, so damaging activities go unchecked.
• Multiple user groups have overlapping or conflicting expectations.
• Industrial pressures (e.g., access roads, seismic lines) accumulate over time.
• Recreation impacts—trail braiding, litter, fire rings, unauthorized camping—compound across seasons.
• SAPAA’s stewardship model (including Site Inspection Reports) is designed to counteract this dynamic by:
  • Increasing eyes on the landscape
  • Providing structured reporting of impacts
  • Encouraging collective responsibility among volunteers, communities, and government partners.
• Guns, CBC, and Natural Areas – 2024-11-15 | YEG Ville

• SAPAA’s stewardship model (including Site Inspection Reports) is designed to counteract this dynamic by:
  • Explain why protected areas need active stewardship, not just legal designation.
  • Highlight systemic causes of degradation rather than blaming individual users.
  • Advocate for policy changes, better management, and stronger community involvement.
  • Frame stewardship as a shared duty, not a niche volunteer activity.

• SIR-SAPAA is a Web based site inspection report (SIR) tool launched in 2026.
• All MLAs are invited guests to log into SIR-SAPAA but registration is required: Say Hello to SIR-SAPAA!.
• Comments and feedback to Ministries on public policy and operational activities, for example: Plan for Parks – Public Engagement, and Recent Natural Area Remediation Projects.
• Community of Practice, helping other nonprofits through knowledge sharing: Paddling Toward Stewardship, Best practices in Grant Management (Talking About Grants), the role of Citizen Science in Stewardship (Creating Citizen Stewardship and Citizen [BLANK]), Volunteer Management Systems (The VMS Landscape), OHS Compliance for a nonprofit (Easy Bake Safety)
• Hosted nearly 50 students from Alberta and across Canada in Work Experience programs.