May 19, 2023
The best place to learn things, especially about local things, which are the bread and butter of community newspapers, is out mingling with people. Recently I attended the launch of an effort to promote preserving the habitat and to invite people to use and enjoy the public land by the Yellowhead Flyway Birding Trail Association (YFBTA).
The effort, a Road Allowance Project (AKA ‘Skip the Ditches’ seeks to mark road allowances on little-used roads as a way of indicating the trees and shrubs along the road are indeed wildlife habitats which can be enjoyed by people.
Certainly, on the short wagon ride to ‘officially’ install a sign – a photo op for the program launch – we saw a number of different birds; a Canada goose nesting on a round bale, a coot out for a swim in a slough, a green-winged teale taking flight, and a robin’s nest in a tree.
While I am not a birder, I at least understand the concept of enjoying a hobby, of which I have a few too many myself. The idea that the road allowances should, for the most part, be left as wild and natural as possible for wildlife to use and the public who own the lands to enjoy, is a rather common-sense approach to preserving nature.
While the wagon ride was actually rather relaxing, with no computer keys to punch, or email to check on, it was also interesting and not for the few bird species I sort of knew among those seen or heard. It was about the conversations.
It didn’t take long after my arrival to be asked if I thought the full house gallery at the most recent meeting of Yorkton Council had collectively said enough to convince Council not to sell the building that currently houses the Yorkton Public Library. It was a question which fostered some healthy discussion.
And there was talk of ticks – nasty critters that they are – and fancy pigeons and Oberhasli goats, and how, through the years, farmers have at times planted trees as a farm asset and at times cut them down as a farm nuisance. There isn’t likely a story to be written from any of the conversations, but that doesn’t matter. It was a time when, as a journalist, I simply mingled and chatted out among rural people. It was a reconnection of a sort that all of us in the weekly newspaper business can use with our readers on a regular basis.
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Disclaimer: opinions expressed are those of the writer.
