Thank you to all who attended our recent AGM, I am honoured to be re-elected as president, and I am equally excited about the new crew coming on board. We will miss the retiring folks who served us all so well! The AGM provides an excellent review of the health of the organization and whether the organization is meeting its stated goals. I was delighted to say yes to both points, we are healthy, and we are doing our best to meet our goals – I’ve provided a checklist below that underlines that good work. Our treasurer, in her report, demonstrated that we are financially sound.
I want to acknowledge our volunteers, those folks that make things happen in the SNS. I think of Kathy with the newsletter, Jan with memberships, Claire with the email, Trent working the Website, Valerie, Bev, Stan, Greg, Donna, Kerry, Ron, Nicole & Peggy - we owe them a big thank you!! I want to especially thank those who have given so much through their board activities.
I organized my President’s report around our three themes of conservation, education and advocacy. These three vital goals stand out in making SNS a truly valued legacy nature organization here in our Saskatoon. They are so linked that’s it’s difficult to say what belongs to what, but I think this gives you, the member, a good perspective on our activities.
CONSERVATION
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Citizen Science activities such as our annual bird counts
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We signed 3 yr. renewal partnership agreement with NCC
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Participated in the relaunch of the Saskatoon Urban National Park’s (SUNP)
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Renewed efforts to have Saskatoon certified as a Bird-Friendly City.
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We petitioned the City to treat the City Hall windows, getting over 500 signatures at our tables at Broadway Street Fair and 33rd St Fair.
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We received a start-up grant of $3000 from Nature Canada to help us get going.
EDUCATION
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Our Programming committee continued to present thoughtful and provocative speakers
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3 groups received Kids in Nature grants, providing nature experiences for kids!
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Our field trips continue to be a big success,
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A big thank you to Ron Jensen, Kerry Hjertaas and John Patterson who led early morning outings as part of the Society of Canadian Ornithologists Conference this August 2025, Mercy Harris played a big part in this too.
ADVOCACY
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We made comments on the proposed provincial Environmental Management Protection Act amendments and the Federal proposed migratory birds hunting regulation changes.
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We continued to call for an effective Wetlands policy for the province.
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We participated in Phase 3 freeways consultation meetings in the fall.
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We nominated Stan Shadick and Al Scholz to represent SNS on the renewed Blackstrap advisory committee.
A special thank you to Mercy Harris our secretary and Nancy Lease our treasurer and all the committee chairs & coordinators (names are listed in the newsletter) who make it all happen in the SNS – Thank you so much!!
I want to recognize Jim Lee, who is stepping down as past-president, who helped so much as President then with the nominating committee and the Kids in Nature Grants; Heather Brenneman, especially for her work with the programming committee and her leadership on our Truth and Reconciliation committee and stepping up for me in the fall when I was away; Sara Bryson who has served effectively in so many roles especially as President and Conservation chair; Robert Johanson who has also served in so many ways, but I have to say I have personally valued his ability to share insights from past practice; Julia Balaton & Nancy Allan who shared their time with us – thank you all! Know that we truly appreciate your gifts of effort, time and thoughtfulness!
Again, welcome to our new executive members: LeeAnn Latremouille, Leanne Grieves, Rylan Urban, Guy Wapple, Wally Wells and Andreas Lohstraeter and those who are returning for another year! Please be sure to check out the new board listing on Page 7!
As I often do, I close with a book recommendation, this is one is a book published by SNS in 2006, Thanks to the Sun, A Scrapbook of Nature Notes about the Northern Prairies. I recognized several names who had contributed, and the topics are always something we are thinking about, I thought I should read this! As then President Donna Bruce observed, what better way to celebrate our fiftieth year! That gets me to thinking – our 75th is coming up soon - in four years in fact, something we should be thinking about!!
In closing, I was delighted to see over 100 people in attendance (in person or by Zoom) at our November General Meeting, By the end of 2025 our membership was getting very close to 500!! All of these are good indicators that we are doing well!
Thanks – see you out on the trails!
David Forbes
