October Program

Through the Seasons at Olson Place

Dale Hjertaas and Paule Hjertaas

7:30 PM, Thursday Oct. 16, 2025

In person and online!
Rm #GB06 Health Sciences Bldg, U of S

Dale and Paule Hjertaas are ecologists, naturalists and gardeners who have lived in Regina for over 40 years. Nature has been an important part of their lives since well before they met, in 1976 at a Canadian Nature Federation meeting.

As people who love nature and want to experience the beauty in their daily lives, we have worked to bring more native species into our yard. While we love visiting parks and natural areas, we understand that we spend a lot of our lives at home and so have worked to make home a beautiful, ecologically rich and diverse place. Through more than 35 years at Olson Place in Regina we have slowly learned, planted and designed to increase biodiversity in our yard, while also having places for children to play and growing food.

Dale and Paule have been active in the naturalist community for many years. Both have served as President of Nature Saskatchewan and Nature Regina. Dale, along with Ron Jensen, developed the anniversary presentation in honour of Nature Saskatchewan’s 75th anniversary given at the fall meeting in Regina. Paule has a passion for photography and has won many awards for her photographs, some of which you can see in Birds of Saskatchewan.

Using Paule’s outstanding photography, Dale will take you through the seasons at Olson Place and share the beauty we see through the year, whether from spring flowers, migrant birds, autumn leaves, insects or frost and snow. We will show some of the hundreds of species we have identified in our yard and talk about steps we have taken to increase biodiversity, with special emphasis on birds, plants and insects. One can find a lot of nature in a small area. Every photo in our presentation was taken from our yard.

We hope the great photos of birds, flowers and insects combined with stories about wildlife we observed and how we incrementally improved our yard for wildlife will communicate how that enriches our lives. We presented this talk to Nature Regina in May 2024 where it was very well received and attracted the largest audience of the year. The presentation has since been enjoyed by naturalists and gardeners in White City, Moose Jaw and Prince Albert.

Please note that if the link to join online requests a passcode, please enter SNS. If you have trouble connecting via the Zoom link, please text or phone LeeAnn at 306-880-9027. Please consider joining the meeting a little early so we can address any problems.

All members who have registered an email address with SNS will receive an email containing the link to join the meeting through Zoom. If you have not registered an email address with us, but would like to do so, please contact Claire Bullaro at c.bear@sasktel.net.

Tracking Migratory Birds:Where Do They Really Fly? – Ernesto Carman

September 2022

Wetland Drainage and its Impacts on Biodiversity in the Prairie and Parkland Region of Canada

Kiel Drake

February 2022

Monthly Meetings and Speaker Programme

Listen, learn, and share ideas with people who are passionate about our natural world! 

SNS offers a monthly speaker programme from September to April on the third Thursday of the month. All meetings are live streamed through Zoom.

During the fall and spring months presentations will be in hybrid format: speakers will present live at in-person meetings while being simultaneously streamed through Zoom. During winter months speakers may be streamed from outside the Saskatoon region and on these occasions, there will be no in-person meeting.

All are welcome to attend these meetings either in-person or through Zoom. Look for details about each month’s meeting in the SNS membership newsletter, confirming any in-person meeting time and place. A reminder email with the meeting details and Zoom link will be sent to each member whose current email address is on file.

Non-members who wish to attend through Zoom should provide their name and email address to Claire Bullaro at c.bear@sasktel.netfor each meeting. Please consider becoming a member of the Saskatoon Nature Society if you wish to receive the Zoom link automatically each month.

In person meetings are held on the University of Saskatchewan Campus and are thus subject to the university’s rules regarding COVID restrictions. At present, masks and social distancing are encouraged but not required. We will not be providing shared refreshments, so please bring your own drinks and snacks.

The monthly meetings include announcements from the SNS president. If you have an announcement or notice, please contact the president at least 2 days before the meeting.