MISSION DECOMMISS ION Written By: Rachel Turnquist

REDBERRY LAKE BIOSPHERE RESERVE

What’s Happening in the BR?

JANUARY 2012

VOLUME 18

GREETINGS FROM JOHN KINDRACHUK Written By: John Kindrachuk

The New Year is here and things have not slowed down

at the office or in the biosphere area. This beautiful

weather we are having, makes us wonder if it is still fall

or if it is the start of spring and this means no time for a

winter slow down.

From what we have been doing in the past year, I have

come up with a wish list for this New Year.

Understand what the Biosphere Reserve Associa-

tion is about and what we are trying to achieve. We

understand that we all have to make a living in the

Biosphere Reserve region, but we have to try do so

in a manner that insures that there will be a healthy

environment here for our children and grandchildren

to make a living and enjoy in the future as we are

doing now.

Visit our website and learn how we are encouraging

research, education and partnerships to try achieve

these goals.

Shell Canada is currently running a program called Fueling Change. This is

a grant program that supports environmental projects. Funding is awarded

to projects who receive the most votes online. The North Saskatchewan

River Basin Council (NSRBC) has applied for $25 000 for the project: Mis-

sion Decommission. The NSRBC would like to decommission abandoned

wells in our watershed to protect ground water.

Abandoned wells are a pathway for ground water contamination. Wells may

be contaminated by flooding, livestock, garbage etc. and that contamination

will return to the underground aquifer which can impact drinking water and

livestock water used by you and your neighbors.

Abandoned wells also pose a safety risk. People, pets, livestock and wildlife

can fall in to abandoned wells and risk serious injury or death. Vehicles and

equipment can be damaged by driving over an abandoned well.

Go to the website http://fuellingchange.com/main/project/243/Mission-

Decommission and cast your vote for Mission Decommission . Support the

NSRBC in another effort to protect our water!

© Heidi Hougham

Attend events in the community that we are a

part of. We are hosting them for every ones

benefit and invite you to attend.

Talk to us, we are more than happy to share

with you, what we are doing and we encourage

new ideas about how we can work together to

make our Biosphere Reserve region sustain-

able for ourselves and future generations to

come.

From the board and staff of the Redberry Lake

Biosphere Reserve we look forward to working

with you and hope everyone has a blessed and

prosperous New Year

Page 2

DUCKS UNLIMITED CANADA ENCOURAGED BY RECENT SARM RESOLUTION ON

DRAINAGE LEGISLAT ION Article Courtesy of Ducks Unlimited Canada

Saskatchewan landowners continue to experience damage from non-permitted drainage activities

Regina, Sask. – Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) commends the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities

(SARM) on the organization’s recent resolution to lobby the Saskatchewan government to enforce provincial land drain-

age legislation. SARM is the independent association that represents 296 rural municipalities in Saskatchewan.

“Unlicensed drainage is having a profound effect on downstream landowners and infrastructure throughout Saskatche-

wan,” says Brent Kennedy, manager of provincial operations for DUC in Saskatchewan. “This resolution recognizes the

danger and hardship drainage causes both municipalities and landowners. DUC congratulates SARM on taking this step

towards ensuring unlicensed drainage stops.”

Saskatchewan has one of the highest wetland loss rates in the country. Twenty-eight acres of wetlands are lost every day

in southern Saskatchewan alone. This drainage reduces or eliminates a watershed’s ability to store water during peak

water movement, resulting in far worse flooding as seen this last spring.

Also, flooding causes significant damage to infrastructure throughout the province. In the 2011-2012 mid-year financial

report released on November 28, 2011, the province estimated flooding costs to be in excess of $240 million, which is in

large part due to expenses like disaster claims and emergency highway repairs.

Non-permitted drainage of wetlands needs to stop. The recent SARM resolution is crucial in preserving wetlands now

and into the future, and reducing the damage that is being caused throughout Saskatchewan. DUC continues to work

closely with government and

industry across Saskatche-

wan to strengthen regula-

tions and policies to ensure

wetlands are protected.

Healthy wetlands are critical

for clean water, biodiversity,

habitat protection for species

at risk, greenhouse gas re-

duction and flood protection.

Ducks Unlimited Canada

(DUC) is a private, non-

profit organization that con-

serves, manages and restores

wetlands and associated

habitats for waterfowl. These

habitats also benefit other

wildlife and people.

For more information,

please contact:

Lori Gasper,

l_gasper@ducks.ca

Communications Specialist

Ducks Unlimited Canada

Office: (306) 665-7157

Cell: (306) 381-4535

© Ducks Unlimited Canada

SENS STUDENT ENJOYS WORK WITH BR Written By: Oksana Zbyranyk

Page 3

WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE A BIRD NERD? Written By: Rachel Turnquist

We are all familiar with the sound of a spring morning in Saskatchewan. Whether you are camping out at the lake or just

happen to live by an area hosting wetlands you know that sound, a plethora of song and wetland birds sending out their

communicative calls to their families and friends. But what bird species are we hearing? Bird Studies Canada claims

that there are 383 different bird species in Saskatchewan; Grouse, Ducks, Geese, Loons, Grebes, Hawks, Falcons, Song

Birds and Shore Birds, and many more!

Wetland loss has happened in our province over the last 150 years, and so bird habitat has been lost. Yet there is an in-

formation deficiency on what effect this loss has had on birds. In 2007, the Prairie and Parkland Marsh Monitoring Pro-

gram was established. The PPMMP’s ambition is to find associations between waterbird species occurrence and habitat

characteristics in different areas, by conducting surveys. The informa-

tion identified by the program will be important for conservation ef-

forts and habitat management of our wetland birds.

For the surveys, birds are recorded at a wetland site for 15 minutes at 6

to 8 different survey stations at least 3 times in between May 20th and

June 31st. Those participants involved must be able to identify approxi-

mately 60 birds by sight and sound. Do you have what it takes?

Would you like to network with others interested in birding? Would

you like to learn and volunteer for these surveys? Redberry Lake Bio-

sphere Reserve will be taking part in the surveys in Spring 2012. If

you are interested in volunteering for the surveys, training on bird

sight and sounds will be offered in the winter months. Please contact

Rachel at (306) 549-4060 or (306) 549–7473. © R Turnquist

My name is Oksana Zbyranyk. I am a Master of Environment and

Sustainability (MES) candidate at the School of Environment and

Sustainability (SENS) at the University of Saskatchewan. Origi-

nally from Ukraine, I completed my Bachelor degree in Cyprus,

Turkey. When I heard about this new interdisciplinary program of

the University of Saskatchewan I decided to change my academic

home to Canada. SENS is one of the first programs in Canada

tackling various environmental issues and emphasizing sustain-

ability dimension of it. From the very beginning of my studies at

the School, I was fascinated by the concept of biosphere reserves

and wanted to do my masters thesis in this field. The close col-

laboration between the Redberry Lake Biosphere Reserve and

SENS happened to be perfect for me to study and to understand how researchers

and practitioners can work together effectively in order to achieve the objectives

of conservation and sustainable development. I spent some days in the Hafford

area to interview people involved in different projects initiated within the Red-

berry Lake Biosphere Reserve area. I was able to analyze and synthesize my find-

ings with a hope to produce an informative work at the end of this process. I am

truly grateful to all who participated and spent their time to give me their insights.

For us students it is so important to sometimes leave the books behind and get an

idea of how things work in reality!

Is there an event going in

in you community or

area?

Let us know! We’ll put it

on the Community Cal-

endar on our website!

Box 221

Hafford SK, S0J 1A0

Phone: 306 549-4060

Fax: 306 549-4061

Email: info@redberrylake.ca

Check us out on the web!

www.redberrylake.ca

Like us on Facebook!

Follow us on Twitter! If you would like to receive this

newsletter via email, please

contact our office

R E D B E R R Y L A K E B I O S P H E R E R E S E R V E

Redberry Lake Biosphere Reserve Association Box 221, Hafford, Sk. S0J 1A0

Tel: (306) 549-4060 Fax: (306) 549-4061 Email: info@redberrylake.ca

Government of Saskatchewan

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUES TIONS OR SUGGESTIONS FOR OUR NEWSLETTER OR PERHAPS YOU WOULD LIKE TO CONTRIBUTE AN ART ICLE. PLEASE CONTACT REDBERRY LAKE BIOSPHERE

RESERVE AT (306) 549-4060, OR EMAIL RTURNQUIST@REDBERRYLAKE.CA

RHOEN BIOSPHERE RESERVE: CANADA

PARTNERS WITH GERMANY Written By: Susanne Abe

Building capacity and exchanging strategies on sustainable

development. These are the ideas of this (inter)national part-

nership between the three Canadian Biosphere Reserves Red-

berry Lake, Charlevoix (Que.) and Georgian Bay (Ont.) and

the German Rhoen Biosphere Reserve.

Known among hikers as the “Land Of Open Vistas” this bio-

sphere reserve is located in the Rhoen mountain range in the

heart of Germany. For both visitors and the people living in

the area the Rhoen stands for local grown and home-styled

food, local manufactured products as well as for the “Rhoen

sheep”. These black-headed sheep are one of the Rhoen’s

trademarks and play an important role in the conservation of

the characteristic landscape.

Hi, our names are Thomas and Susanne

Abe. We are from Germany volunteering

with the Redberry Lake Biosphere Reserve.

We arrived here in Hafford on October 5

and have had a great time working on sev-

eral projects: Revising the biosphere re-

serves website (www.redberrylake.ca) and

caring for the Facebook page. We also ac-

companied Rachel , the AEGP Technician,

to several farm calls and have had the op-

portunity to learn more about efficient and

environment-friendly farming in the work-

shops the biosphere reserve offers.

We really appreciate the friendliness of the

people here and we love going to local

events. That gives us the chance to get

more in touch with your culture and way of

living.

And yes, we are going to spend the winter

here! End of January we will head out west

to complete our one-year adventure in Can-

ada before we have to fly back to Germany

in March.

© Rhoen Biosphere Reserve

Printed by POWERPRINT

171-22nd Street, Battleford, SK

306-937-3396

NEW FACES : GERMAN VOLUNTEERS Written By: Thomas and Susanne Abe

NEW FACE:

WWW.REDBERRYLAKE.CA The Redberry Lake Biosphere Re-

serve’s website got a complete make-

over! Go to www.redberrylake.ca and

see for yourself!

© R Turnquist