↑ in case we need to get in contact with you about details!

General Information

This section will gather Who Are You, When did you Visit. Where Did You Go?

↑ SAPAA members received a newsletter and notice about Alberta’s Protected Areas. Complete a membership form and become a member today!

↑ When did you visit. Use your last day of visit if multiple days and note dates in the Steward Name Section.

↑ Select the name of the area from the drop down. If one visit spanned two or more adjoining sites, note this in the optional field. Not sure where you went, check out our list of Protected Areas.

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Overall Impression of the Site

If you only answer one question, this is the one. How Healthy was the site and what are your thoughts? Used for further site visits, reporting, etc. to members and the government.

↑ YOUR gut reaction and assessment. 4 is for what you would expect from the site; pristine wilderness for some, mowed grass for others. 0 is the opposite; perhaps vandalism or dumping. 1, 2, and 3 are relative points in between.

This is your measure but factor in infrastructure incursions (e.g. pipelines), human activity (e.g. dumping or ATV tracks), site infrastructure (e.g. trails, signs), evidence of natural activities (e.g. tracks or scat), invasive species (plants, animals, and/or diseases). Your consistency between sites visited is more important than consistency between different visitors to the same site.

↑ A few words for your assessment of How Natural was the Site?

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How was your visit to the PA?

Before getting to the site, how was your trip? 

↑ How Long did you spend in or around the PA? How thorough was the visit? How much time did you spend in the PA in hours? Enter “0.1” if you passed by but did not go in. If part of a multi-day trip, enter the number of hours estimated in the area excluding time spent camping, etc.

↑ What were you hoping to see/do when you were in the site? Check all that apply, add an activity in the comments section below.

↑ If you want, tell us more about your visit. How much of the site were you able to visit? What was the approximate area visited (e.g. southwest corner), how was the visit (e.g. distance travelled, travelling method), did you partake in an activity not listed above. If you have track of your route, send us a screen shot as a photo or the GPS file (e.g. a GPX, KML, KMX, etc.) in the file submission notes below. Describing disturbances, etc. are in the following section.

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What is in the Site (that should be there)?

What plants, animals, geological, signage or facility features did you see? Comments can be provided via question 52.

↑ Describe any significant biological observations (plants, animals, insects, etc.) you want to share? Significant observations should be noted through a site such as iNaturalist.org.

↑ Will you be submitting any postings to iNaturalist.org. SAPAA prefers to use this online resource.

↑ How do you know it is a natural area?

↑ Final comments on what should be in the site that you have not already noted?

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What are the human activities/disturbances affecting the Site?

What human activities are in the site? Note, some of these activities may be permitted (e.g. grazing) and others may be illegal (e.g. tree cutting, gravel extraction). You need only report what you saw, SAPAA will try to determine whether the activity is permitted or not. 

↑ Is the PA used by a local farmer/rancher? Many sites have grazing leases.

↑ (Non) renewable resource extraction. Some sites have existing leases to allow this.

↑ Some sites permit motorized access.

↑ Walking/hiking trails, skiers, snowshoeing, mountain biking, horses, other animals, canoeing. Please exclude activities you, or your party, went to the site to engage in (and asked in a prior section). This questions is based on what you observed directly (e.g. bird watchers) or indirectly (e.g. snowshoe tracks).

↑ These are human disturbances ‘left behind’.

↑ Washrooms or picnic shelters should be noted in the previous section. Include both recent or long-established infrastructure.

↑ Any comments or explanations for questions 61 to 66?

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What Needs to be (Has Been) Done?

What, if anything, does the site need to improve/protect it?

↑ Select any remediation activities needed for this site (check all that apply); provide details in the comments section below.

↑ Any comments or explanations on the above? For example, suggested remediation activities, neighbours, other observations?

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Thank You and Do You Have Pictures?

↑ SAPAA loves pictures. If you have digital files (pictures, videos, audio files, geo-location data – gpx, kml, screenshot of the location). Send us your photos by email to webmaster@sapaastewards.com. Before sending, please try to use these standards to identify your images:
Filename: [WHERE][WHEN][WHO]_[IDENTIFIER]
File size: e.g. resize an image down to be no more than 1,000 pixels on the largest dimension (Height or Width).
Cropping: Extraneous information from the image should be removed

↑ Have we missed anything? Do you have other comments, ideas, or thoughts about this site?

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Thank You! 

Thank you for taking the time to help Alberta’s Protected Areas. If you are not a SAPAA Member, please considering joining or at least look us up on Facebook to learn more about what we do.  (801)

By completing and submitting this form, you agree that your have read, understand, and agree with the terms of this form as outlined in Site Inspections.