President's Message

Another Great Back Yard Bird Count is in the books and Saskatoon did an amazing job spotting over 40 species and filing at least 200 checklists at last count - way to go!!

I know we are all looking forward to spring but first we must do our annual business at our AGM next month, March 19th. This year may be a bit different as we have been unable to find a candidate for president under the current rules. I have been aware of this situation, so I am, if needed, willing to be renominated and elected. This requires a waiver of Article II bylaw 6, the bylaw which limits how long a president can serve. Let me provide some background here.

The SNS executive struck a nominating committee (myself & Jim Lee) in January to build a suitable slate of candidates for all vacant positions on the executive. While we were very successful in securing excellent candidates in many roles for next year including a very strong vice-president candidate, we were unable to find someone willing for president. We asked at least 10 qualified people, and all declined with very good personal reasons. So, we do not have a candidate for president, and we don’t see one coming up quickly in the next few weeks. This is something many organizations like ours are facing and in fact we understand Nature Sask has had to deal with this more than once in previous years.

Therefore, upon consulting with several past presidents and governance people, we think the best path forward is to present a special resolution to the membership at the AGM to waive Article II bylaw 6 regarding limiting presidential terms to two years for this year only. We discussed this at the executive meeting, and passed it there so it could come before the membership on March 19th. We hope you can support this resolution!

I do want to highlight though, one of the best features of our AGM is reviewing the highlights of all our committees; these reports show the best of what we do! Check it out!

And then we have our Members’ pictures night. Some great images for sure – don’t miss it!

We have lots of other news from our executive meeting that I would like to share. We were asked by an eminent group of birders across Canada to support enshrining the Canada Jay in federal legislation which we agreed to do heartily. You may remember the Canadian Geographic project a few years ago to determine what bird Canadians believe represented Canada the best and the clever Canada Jay won out – this group is continuing that work! Watch for that in the news!!

I should let you all know that the Blackstrap Provincial Park Advisory group has been restarted and our two representatives are Stan Shadick & Al Scholz, who will report to the executive through our conservation director. We are very glad that the advisory group has been reconstituted as the park means so much to us all!

I was reviewing my comments from last March and we were still undecided about partnering with NCC and the Asquith project, but we signed up shortly thereafter! We received our first impact report, and I must say it is very impressive! I think it underlines what a worthwhile project this is! Thanks to all of you, the membership, for supporting this!

I read with dismay the city report on Dutch Elm Disease potential outbreak this coming year so we need to stay tuned on this! As well, many of you may have heard that Environment Canada was canvassing interested organizations such as ours about our thoughts on changes to migratory bird hunting regulations. The new regulations would include, for Saskatchewan, the hunting of Mourning Doves and Tundra Swans. After checking with some members, it seemed clear we have reservations, particularly as it applies to Tundra Swans as other species such as Trumpeter Swans and even Whooping Cranes may be accidently shot by misidentification. We submitted our comments based on these concerns.

As always, our group does well because of our volunteers and of course volunteers don’t always stay forever. If you are interested in helping out send me a note. If you have skills in social media or web construction/upgrading etc. send me a note!

In closing, I want to send condolences to the Cook family on the passing of David, he was a very special member, very supportive of conservation work. As well, we were saddened to hear that our executive member Julia Balaton lost her daughter recently, our thoughts are with her.

Take care everyone - see you at the AGM!

David Forbes