Tag: collaborative conservation

The site chosen for the memorial forest is, at present, a wasteland—an abandoned parcel of land on the outskirts of Clavet. It is the kind of landscape that typically becomes a dumping ground or development afterthought: bare soil, compacted earth, no shade, no structure, nothing that might inspire care.

In other words, it is the perfect place to begin again.

Help bring this vision to life—one tree, one family, one community at a time.

The inspiration comes partly from Ontario’s Highway of Heroes Living Tribute, where millions of trees are being planted to honour fallen Canadian service members. But the prairie variant adapts this model to a harsher climate and a different emotional terrain. Here, the goal is not only to honour those who died, but to reclaim land from neglect and transform it into a space for reflection, healing, and ecological renewal.

Their vision for the Clavet Memorial Forest is multilayered:

• A sanctuary for families and communities to gather, remember, and grieve. A sanctuary for remembrance, where families and communities can gather beneath a canopy of living tribute.
• A greenspace for residents and travellers, especially ecotourists following the Yellowhead Highway, looking for quiet refuge.
• A teaching forest, where Indigenous knowledge keepers, scientists, and students can learn from each other.
• A research and education hub, where schools, Indigenous knowledge keepers, and citizen scientists can learn and collaborate.
• A restored ecosystem, replacing ecological barrens with climate-resilient trees, native grasses, and wildlife habitat.
• Indigenous and Métis elders come forward to enrich community collaborating on cultural and ecological storytelling for interpretive signage, tours, pamphlets.
• Schools and youth groups use the forests for climate education and citizen science.
• Local businesses contribute materials, equipment, and sponsorship.
• Volunteers monitor species, maintain trails, and advocate for long-term protection.
• A climate-mitigating carbon sink, built on principles championed by Richard St. Barbe Baker—the Saskatchewan-born environmentalist who founded the Men of the Trees and influenced global afforestation efforts.

It is a living answer to loss—a reminder that memory can take root and spread.

Add your voice, your time, or your hands to a forest that belongs to all.

Support through ZEFFY https://shorturl.at/cJ8uG

Why a Forest? Because the Prairies Have Been Stripped Bare

Afforestation in Saskatchewan is neither simple nor guaranteed. These are some of the most extreme growing conditions in Canada: scorching summers, brittle winters, drought cycles that can render the soil as hard as fired clay.

Yet it is here—precisely here—that forests matter most.

Saskatchewan’s remaining native prairie represents one of the most endangered ecosystems on Earth. Every patch of restored habitat acts as a lifeline for biodiversity: songbirds, owls, deer, foxes, pollinators, and prairie plant species that are disappearing everywhere else.

Join a community restoring hope, habitat, and heritage.

The Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas know this better than anyone. Over the past decade they have advocated for two forgotten urban forests—Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area and George Genereux Urban Regional Park—into thriving ecological sanctuaries. They removed nearly 200,000 pounds of waste, fought for trail safety, restored wetlands and grasslands, and brought thousands of citizens into climate action.

These are not just trees. They are acts of resistance.

Be part of a prairie forest that heals the land and the people on it.

A Coalition of Care

What makes this new memorial forest remarkable is not only its ecological ambition but the breadth of those who have stepped forward to support it.

This is what community looks like—not the sentimental version promoted in political speeches, but the hard, grounded work of people choosing to care for land and each other.

Stand with us as we restore land, honour stories, and build connection.

A Future We Choose to Grow

The memorial forest near Clavet will not undo past grief. No forest could. But it will do something that is increasingly rare in the modern world:
It will give grief a place to live.

A place where families can walk and remember.
A place where children can learn what happened and why it matters.
A place where trees grow not just upward, but outward—casting roots into a community that refuses to forget.

A correction to ecological degradation.
A correction to the erasure of trauma.
A correction to a cultural habit that treats tragedy as a moment, rather than a continuum.

We deeply appreciate and acknowledge all letters of support which have arrived from the RM of Blucher, the Village of Clavet, the City of Humboldt, and regional organizations. Contractors are at the ready. Businesses have expressed interest. The project hopes to secure funding by spring, plant by autumn, and grow the project for decades. When communities mobilize—when they plant, restore, educate, and refuse to forget—they do more than grow forests. They grow resilience. Perhaps the most striking element of this story is how much of it is powered by community. What emerges is not merely a forest, but an ecosystem of relationships. The project, envisioned by Project Manager René Kreutzwieser and championed by the Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas, has gathered support from the Village of Clavet, the RM of Blucher, the City of Humboldt, researchers at the University of Saskatchewan, and a growing chorus of environmental and community groups.

Its purpose is clear:
To create a living memorial that refuses to let Saskatchewan forget.

In a province where the land bears so many scars, this forest will become something radical:
a reminder that healing, like restoration, is a long, patient, communal act.

We cannot change the events that brought us here.
But we can choose what grows in their shadow.

And in Saskatchewan, on ten acres of reclaimed earth beside a small prairie village, something living and lasting is about to take root.

Here, sorrow did not disappear. It took root.
Here, memory is not a stone. It is a sapling.
Here, we plant not just trees, but a new way of living with the land and with each other.

And perhaps, years from now, long after the first slender shoots push through the prairie wind, visitors will walk among the trees and understand that this is what resistance looks like—not grand, not loud, but persistent, rooted, and growing still.

Join us in growing a place where memory, healing, and hope take root.

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The Memorial Forest honouring the Humboldt Broncos stands as a living place of remembrance—not only for the team members and staff who lost their lives in the 2018 Humboldt Broncos bus accident, but also in honour of earlier tragedies that touched the hockey community and the province. The 1986 Humboldt Broncos bus accident, which claimed the lives of players including Scott Kruger, Trent Kresse, and Brent Ruff, remains a solemn chapter in Saskatchewan’s history. The 1980 Swift Current Broncos accident, which took the life of player Bryan Pergel, is remembered as well.

By naming these events openly and respectfully, the forest acknowledges that grief and resilience echo across generations. The trees become symbols of continuity—rooted in loss, but growing toward hope. The Yellowhead Memorial Forest will not erase grief. But it may transform it—into shelter, into shade, into songbird habitat, into carbon stored safely in the ground. The Memorial Forest proposes that the environment is a relationship. Relationships, unlike infrastructure, cannot simply be built. They must be cultivated.
And they grow only when people insist on them.

Become a steward of remembrance, reconciliation, and renewal.

The memorial forest also recognizes that healing in Saskatchewan stretches far beyond hockey tragedies. For many Indigenous families, the impacts of the residential school system continue across lifetimes. As a greenspace dedicated to reflection, reconciliation, and connection to the land, the forest provides an inclusive setting where all forms of community healing are honoured.

Through its memorial plantings, storytelling, and shared stewardship, the forest becomes a place where the memory of the Broncos, the legacies of earlier losses, and the path of healing from residential schools can coexist—rooted in sorrow, strengthened by community, and guided by a shared commitment to move forward together.

The memorial forest will say:
Here, sorrow did not disappear. It took root.
Here, memory is not a stone. It is a sapling.
Here, we plant not just trees, but a new way of living with the land and with each other.

And perhaps, years from now, long after the first spades of earth are turned and the first slender shoots push through the prairie wind, visitors will walk among the trees and understand that this is what resistance looks like—not grand, not loud, but persistent, rooted, and growing still.

Together, we can turn loss into legacy—and legacy into living forest.

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Media Contact

Friends of the Saskatoon Afforestation Areas
Email: friendsafforestation@gmail.com
Website: http://www.friendsareas.ca

The Clavet Memorial Forest is more than a project—it is an invitation. An invitation to honour the past, restore the land, and grow a future rooted in hope, remembrance, and reconciliation. We welcome everyone who feels called by this vision: families seeking a place of healing, educators and students eager to learn, Indigenous knowledge keepers wishing to share teachings, businesses ready to support local environmental action, and volunteers who believe in the quiet power of planting change one tree at a time.

Together, we can transform a neglected landscape into a living sanctuary—one that shelters wildlife, restores the prairie, strengthens community, and stands as a testament to resilience across generations.

Join us.
Stand with us.
Help this forest take root.

To get involved, support the project, or stay connected, please reach out. friendsafforestation@gmail.com

Addresses:

Part SE 23-36-6 – Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area – 241 Township Road 362-A

Part SE 23-36-6 – SW Off-Leash Recreation Area (Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area ) – 355 Township Road 362-A

S ½ 22-36-6 Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area (West of SW OLRA) – 467 Township Road 362-A

NE 21-36-6 “George Genereux” Afforestation Area – 133 Range Road 3063

Wikimapia Map: type in Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area or

Google Maps South West Off Leash area location pin at parking lot

Web page: https://stbarbebaker.wordpress.com

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United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration

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““Be like a tree in pursuit of your cause. Stand firm, grip hard, thrust upward. Bend to the winds of heaven..”