2026 – President’s AGM Report

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SAPAA’s 2025–26 year featured reduced field activity due to weather but a stronger strategic focus. Six priorities guided operations, inspections, government and peer relations, best practices, and student involvement. Although SAPAA cannot fully assume Alberta’s former stewardship program, it can support volunteer site visits, preserve its legacy, and offer tools to members.

Prairie Crocus (Pulsatilla patens), NW of Bruderheim (EastParcel), 2026-05-09, P. Potter.
Prairie Crocus (Pulsatilla patens), NW of Bruderheim (EastParcel), 2026-05-09, P. Potter.

The Stewards of Alberta’s Protected Areas Association (SAPAA) 2025-2026 program year saw both a reduction in and better targeted activities. Field work was curtailed by a wet and buggy summer. Nevertheless, SAPAA is playing a larger role in the Alberta environmental landscape over the coming years. This role is dependent on answering two strategic questions.

Understanding the Questions

At the last Annual General Meeting (AGM), a report card was provided for the 2024-25 Ten Priorities. These priorities helped to formulate the following two strategic questions:

  1. Can a small nonprofit, such as SAPAA, taken on the former Alberta Government Program?
  2. If Yes, then what is the ‘product’ offered to volunteers (and that donors and funders would want to pay for)?

It has taken two years to distill down and arrive at these questions. The work done over the past year has provided partial answers and was structured according to Six Organizational Priorities.

2025-2026 Six Organizational Priorities

These priorities were agreed to at the last AGM and listed in the prior President’s report, A Sextet of Priorities that Will Play with the Challenge Quartet:

  1. Operations. Sustaining current operations, supporting new projects and activities, and giving our volunteers a best in class experience. Inform the public and the Minister(s) about the state of the protected areas.
  2. Site Inspections. Develop and refine the site inspection process. Align questions with GoA priorities, continue Ministerial reporting, and increase inspection submissions.
  3. GoA Relations. Maintain a productive working relationship with Ministries and the Minister(s) of the day. Engage at the political level and in particular with rural MLAs. Support legacy government Stewards.
  4. Cultivate Peer Relationships. Make better use of the resources provided to SAPAA by Nature Alberta. Develop Site Inspection capacity by partnering with interested environmental, recreational, and educational organizations.
  5. Stewardship Best Practices. Identify and communicate best practices to members and peer organizations. Topics include administration, safety, science, and technology. Best practices come from Alberta, across Canada, and globally.
  6. Students, etc. Use non-traditional resources, such as student teams, to resource SAPAA.

2025-2026 – Operations

Operations were very quiet because SAPAA itself was largely inactive. Significant changes include:

  • Board Meetings. Board decisions and communications were largely carried out via email. Attempts at board field trips were thwarted by bad weather and circumstances.
  • Membership. Myrna has taken on membership role noting that it has not appreciably grown.
  • Reporting & Organizational Membership. Myrna has completed all required reporting to Service Alberta and/or Nature Alberta, our umbrella organizations. This includes paying the annual fee to Nature Alberta which covers insurance and other benefits.
  • Communications with Members. Email Octopus continues to be an efficient method of communicating with members en masse. Only a February Newsletter was produced prior to the AGM edition. A Welcome in the new year, AGM Notice, and eight other micro emails were sent out.
  • Website. Hubert has plunked away on the website identifying broken and misdirected links. SAPAA had to upgrade to a higher tier plan to continue to use Google Maps on the site (see: Where have all the Google Maps Gone?).

Site Inspections

This has been a poor year for site visits. The reduced numbers is a function of weather as well as reduced promotions on the part of SAPAA. On a positive note, the Site Inspection Report (SIR)-SAPAA software was launched in the Spring and upgraded in the Fall to version 3.0. A proof of concept is underway to better understand whether SIR-SAPAA is suitable for organizations. Further details on the development and current initiatives for SIR-SAPAA are as follows:

Field trips and activities included the following:

GoA Relations

Contact with Ministry officials has been limited. Nevertheless, the Government of Alberta (GoA) is included in all communications sent to members. Other GoA initiatives include:

Cultivate Peer Relationships

Working with peer organizations was an ongoing priority for SAPAA in 2026. These organizations are included in SAPAA communications. In the Fall of 2026, Frank (SAPAA President) has also joined the board of Nature Alberta and serves on the Regional Representatives Sub-committee. Other peer activities included:

Stewardship Best Practices

This has been an area of focus for SAPAA in 2026. In addition to commissioning SIR-SAPAA, SAPAA has worked with student groups and other resources to complete these projects:

Students and Resources

Students continue to be a critical resource for SAPAA to complete strategic and tactical objectives. They bring unique expertise, enthusiasm, and energy to the problems at hand. Noting that school semesters are misaligned to the calendar and SAPAA program years, the following links lead to projects either completed or underway. Student Opportunities – 2025 to 2026 and Student Opportunities – 2026 to 2027.

Past and prior students are noted here: Student & Volunteer Thank You Page.

Answering the Two Strategic Questions

Returning to the two strategic questions posed at the start of this report, here are the answers for the end of the 2025-2026 SAPAA Program Year:

  1. Can a small nonprofit, such as SAPAA, taken on the former Alberta Government Program? The answer continues to evolve, and is Yes, No, and Maybe.
    1. No, this became apparent at the last AGM in that the costs and risks of running such a program are beyond the capacity of SAPAA, see: [link]
    2. Yes, SAPAA can continue to collect and encourage individual site visits by interested members, and
    3. Yes, SAPAA can continue to honour the past volunteers who contributed to the success of the legacy program.
    4. Maybe, SAPAA will continue to determine whether it can help other peer organizations directly or indirectly. The SIR-SAPAA PoC Advisory Panel is one example of this.
  2. If Yes, then what is the ‘product’ offered to volunteers (and that donors and funders would want to pay for)?
    1. For individual members, the product is paltry and inspiring:
      1. Pessimistically: “At your own expense and assuming all the risks, drive to a natural area, apply valuable observation and data gathering skills to evaluate the site, drive back and submit a report which likely will not be read by anyone who has the ability to do anything about it.“
      2. Optimistically: “Using unique tools only available to you, explore Alberta’s hidden gems; meet and interact with other individuals with similar passions and interests; know that in some small way, you are doing your part to help preserve Alberta’s Natural Areas.“

Conclusion and Personal Thoughts

SAPAA is partially dormant as it enters the 2026-2027 program year. Available Time, Talent, and Treasure is scarce. Nevertheless, SAPAA also offers an unique product and is contributing to Alberta’s environmental sustainability.

There are many interesting projects available under the SAPAA banner. These may be working with student groups, running field trips, or other ideas. I know I am enjoying my time, learning lots, and meeting interesting individuals. Hopefully you are inclined to join SAPAA and help to report on and protect Alberta’s Natural Areas!

Frank Potter, President, November 2026.

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