In this issue, we remember one of our founders, Alison Dinwoodie. A short history discusses the organization she helped to build. Looking forward, the 2024 is announced as well as results from government meetings and site inspections. This newsletter can be downloaded.

1. AGM Notice November 30, 2024
2. From the Editorial Team
3. Remembering Alison Dinwoodie (1932-2024)
4. A Short Selected History of SAPAA
5. Travels up the Creek… A New Lorne Fitch Book
6. Joint GoA – SAPAA Meeting
7. Site Inspection Status
8. Editorial Team, Links and Resources at a Glance:
9. A Few Bonus Pictures!

AGM Notice November 30, 2024

• Saturday, November 30, 2024 from 1000h to 1130h
• Held Virtually, please sign in at 0945h to test your technology.
• Please RSVP via: 2024 AGM Registration
• Summarized Agenda:
  • Acceptance and Additions to Agenda
  • Presentation: Cara Gill, Senior Landscape Ecologist, Recreation Land and Ecosystem Management, Forestry and Parks.
  • Minutes of 2023 AGM and Business Arising from Previous Minutes
  • Reports: President’s (Hubert), Membership (Patsy), Financial Report (Myrna), Social Media Report (Frank), SAPAA Site Inspection Reports (Frank)
  • Update on SAPAA Strategic Directions (Frank)
  • Nomination and Election of Board Members (Hubert)
  • Discussion of Future Initiatives and Questions from the Floor
  • Adjournment

From the Editorial Team

Greetings to everyone: we hope you’ve been enjoying a fine Fall outdoors!

Memberships. Thank you to all of you who have renewed your memberships for the 2024-2025 membership year, ending September 30, 2025. We hope those who still intend to renew will do so. Your support assures us that SAPAA is still of value to stewards and encourages us to continue our exploration of ways for the Society to remain viable and sustainable.

Payments. An e-transfer is the preferred payment method as it saves volunteer time. Alternatively, cheques (for $15) should be made payable to Stewards of Alberta’s Protected Areas Association and mailed to Membership Secretary at 7401-156 St. NW, Edmonton, AB T5R 1X4.

Field Trips! Several of us have been busy this fall visiting Natural Areas and filling in Site Inspection Forms as snapshot reports of what we found there. We have also been talking to Forestry and Parks Protected Areas staff about the forms. We are planning to finalize them next year with some tweaks to make them more relevant to government data collection, and easier to use and process.

The Site Inspection Form is available on the Home Page of sapaastewards.com.

Feedback and Inspections. We encourage stewards, volunteers, and members of the public to submit their own site inspection reports. We also appreciate feedback in any form, be it questions, comments, letters, blogs or photos, which if you agree can be published in the newsletter or on the website.

SAPAA’s Annual General Meeting will take place virtually on Saturday, November 30, 10:00 to 11:30 a.m., and we invite everyone to attend. We are hoping to include a presentation from the government. The current board is willing to stand again, albeit with some shifting of positions, but of course we are very willing to entertain newcomers. We are in particular need of more directors.

Remembering. In this newsletter we will be taking another quick trip down memory lane, looking at how SAPAA got started. It seems fitting given that Alison Dinwoodie has played such a huge role in it (see her memoir).

Nature Strategy Survey. If you have not already done so, please consider responding to the Nature strategy engagement. It covers many areas of interest to SAPAA members.

Clyde Fen. On a final note: Kristyn Mayner, one of our members, is working with the stewards of Clyde Fen Natural Area to upgrade its status from PNT to OC. Kristyn is also director for Central Alberta for the Alberta Native Plant Council and a staff member of the government’s Office of the Chief Scientist. She says that if the process succeeds, there will be lessons to be learnt from it.

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Remembering Alison Dinwoodie (1932-2024)

By Patsy Cotterill

Alison Dinwoodie was a passionate outdoorswoman, a mountaineer, hiker and canoeist, who turned her love of the outdoors and the natural environment into a volunteer career of advocacy for conservation of Alberta’s natural places including our organization, SAPAA.

If you knew Alison or want to read of a life well-lived, please visit her memorial post: Alison Dinwoodie 1932-2024. A celebration of life is planned for November 14 in Edmonton. If you wish to attend, please contact Linda Seale at membership@sapaastewards.com.

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A Short Selected History of SAPAA

by Patsy Cotterill

To prepare for the future of SAPAA, an understanding of its past is important. Many individuals, such as Alison Dinwoodie, have contributed to the organization and the stewardship of Alberta’s protected areas.

The Stewards of Alberta’s Protected Areas Association (SAPAA for short, pronounced sap-ar) got its start with an inaugural meeting on May 15, 1999. Its stated purpose was to be an arms-length organization supporting the activities of stewards enrolled in the government’s Volunteer Steward Program of 1986. Most of the stewards were of Natural Areas, the exception being a couple of stewards of ecological reserves and wildland parks.

Continue reading…. A Short Selected History of SAPAA.

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Travels up the Creek… A New Lorne Fitch Book

Lorne Fitch has published his second collection of essays, following Streams of Consequence in 2023.

Travels up the Creek: A Biologist’s Search for a Paddle is available for pre-order from Rocky Mountain Books at $25. Lorne is high among the small number of pre-eminent nature and conservation writers of Alberta. A retired fish and wildlife biologist living in Lethbridge, he writes on conservation issues for magazines such as the Alberta Wilderness Association’s Wildlands Advocate and Nature Alberta as well as the Edmonton Journal. He draws his inspiration not only from his own life experience but from well-known international environmental writers, including Canada’s own Stan Rowe.

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Joint GoA – SAPAA Meeting

Three board members met with officials from the provincial government to discuss site inspections and other matters of mutual interest. This was the third such meeting this year with previous ones occurring on March 6 and June 7.

• Subject: Updated Inspection Reports and Related Issues
• Date & Attendees: Virtual meeting, October 17, 2024; Government (GoA) personnel from various Branches of the Lands Operations Division of Forestry and Parks: Alexandra Miller-Tait, Chad Willms, Cara Gill; SAPAA Board members: Hubert Taube, Frank Potter, Patsy Cotterill.

Key Discussion Points

• Experiences to date with the SAPAA-operated Site Inspection tool.
• This tool was run as a proof of concept in 2023 and 2024.
• To date, more than 50 inspection reports have been submitted and a number converted into posts with the respective site webpage updated.
• GoA were positive and impressed with the reports and thanked SAPAA for their extensive work.
• GoA will consider how to communicate to Stewards not part of SAPAA.
• The importance of resources (time, talent, and treasure) to maintain a program.
• Future use of technology to support field applications and reducing the processing time to both submit and finalize an inspection report.

Action Items:

• GoA will provide suggestions to update the site inspection form or implicitly endorse the existing form and questions.
• GoA to provide contact to the Alberta Conservation Association and the Safety Program they had developed (completed).
• GoA and SAPAA will jointly monitor a submission to 310-LAND.

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Site Inspection Status

By Frank Potter

2024 was the second year of a SAPAA run site inspection process. Both last and this year were considered to be ‘proof of concepts’. That is testing whether the right questions are being asked, how best to collect submissions, and how to communicate them. There are about 12 submissions ‘in the hopper’ as of writing and 58 received reports.

Noting this is a small sample size, the degree of naturalness and relatively low disturbance which has been observed through the submissions is both heartening and speaks to the important role for Stewards in protecting these areas. These terms are defined in 2024-Questions.

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Editorial Team, Links and Resources at a Glance:

Editorial team: Patsy Cotterill, Frank Potter, Hubert Taube.   

• List of Alberta’s Protected Areas.
• Connect & Read.
• Online Steward Reporting form.
• New and Renewal of SAPAA Membership.
• SAPAA’s FaceBook Group.
• Land Reference Manual | Alberta Parks.
• This Newsletter can be downloaded in pdf.

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A Few Bonus Pictures!

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