Volunteer Alberta stewards still monitoring natural areas years after government program faded
Province plans to renew stewardship program with focus on citizenship science
Nature lovers in Alberta say they are continuing to act as volunteer guardians of natural areas, even though a government-run stewardship program that used to formally recognize their efforts has all but disappeared in recent years.
Alberta has hundreds of protected areas across the province, from national parks and provincial parks to natural areas, which are smaller parcels of land with limited facilities for visitors.
Starting in 1987, through the Alberta government's volunteer steward program, dedicated volunteers checked in on areas and acted as the government's eyes and ears. They sent reports to the province about problems like dumping and gathered at annual conferences to socialize with other stewards.
The government recognized their efforts with awards and featured their stories in a seasonal newsletter.
In a newsletter published in the summer of 2003, the assistant deputy minister responsible for the program called it "one of the most effective volunteer steward programs in North America" and said it had been a model for other initiatives in Western Canada.
The government reported at that time that there were 271 individual, 60 group and five roving stewards looking after more than 160 sites in Alberta.
WATCH | Volunteers have kept up monitoring natural areas:
Guy Swinnerton, a retired professor from Edmonton who spent more than 25 years volunteering as a steward, said government staff stopped communicating with stewards after the last annual conference, before the pandemic.
The government stopped running the conferences and stopped recruiting new stewards, but did not tell volunteers the program would be officially ending, multiple stewards told CBC News.
"It became almost impossible for us to have a real understanding of what was going on," Swinnerton said.
Swinnerton said he became disillusioned with the government's commitment to protected areas and hasn't submitted a report about the Hastings Lake Islands Natural Area in the past year.
Other stewards say they are continuing to keep the spirit of stewardship alive, with or without a government program.
"We're recognizing the government program, for all intents and purposes, although it hasn't been officially killed, has been a zombie for a long time," said Frank Potter, vice-president of the Stewards of Alberta's Protected Areas Association (SAPAA) — a group that formed in 2000 to represent volunteer stewards.
Potter, who has been visiting natural areas in recent years as a retirement hobby, said the organization is in the process of reimagining itself so stewardship continues.
The association revamped its website, started encouraging people to submit site inspection reports for public posting and explored partnerships with other organizations.
SAPAA isn't the only group rethinking what stewardship means and experimenting with new monitoring techniques.
The Big Lake Environment Support Society (BLESS) recently installed a sign with a QR code that invites members of the public to submit reports about Big Lake to the organization.
BLESS treasurer Miles Constable said stewards used to submit reports via the Alberta Parks website but it stopped accepting them a few years ago.
The new QR code system will cost around $200 a year for BLESS to maintain, but it's a "slick" process open to anyone with a camera, he said. BLESS forwards reports to authorities if repairs or other problems need attention.
Vera and Richard DeSmet, who said they were the first people to join the stewardship program in 1987 and attended the annual volunteer conferences for years, still patrol the Halfmoon Lake Natural Area and report problems to the government.
"We consider ourselves as stewards, even though the government doesn't recognize us," Richard DeSmet said.
The not-for-profit Rainbow Equitation Society, which they founded, has 30 or so members — friends, family members and neighbours who all care about continuing to protect the area north of Edmonton.
President Jill Mason said in recent years, the society has been working on a trail management agreement with the province and has been able to obtain grants for repairs.
Though some natural areas are being regularly monitored and cared for by groups like the Rainbow Equitation Society, others are languishing, Potter said.
Last year, SAPAA notified the ministers responsible for parks and protected areas of dumping and an illegal shooting range members had observed at the Redwater River Natural Area, north of Edmonton.
During a more recent trip there, Potter fished out hundreds of shells from just two square metres of sand.
"This is the poster child of why you need people on the ground, going to places like this and asking the question, 'What's the state of the commons?'" he said.
Program review
The province hired the Miistakis Institute to survey stewards in 2021 and complete a review of the volunteer steward program in 2022. Stewards told CBC News they participated in the process but never saw the final report.
CBC News obtained the report through a freedom of information request.
The report's authors said in an executive summary that most stewards felt they were contributing meaningfully to conservation and wished to continue participating in the program, but the majority felt the government did not value their contributions.
About half of the surveyed stewards, the majority of whom were over 65, said they were frustrated with the current program.
The report authors recommended redesigning the program and outlined ways of doing so with a focus on citizen science.
Another report, which examined how an online citizen science hub could be structured, recommended that a science hub be created and managed by an existing non-profit.
Alexandru Cioban, press secretary for Forestry and Parks Minister Todd Loewen, told CBC News in a statement that the government is working to re-establish the stewardship program, updating operations, processes and protocols to align with changes to federal and provincial requirements.
"Alberta's government values its relationship with volunteers and those who are passionate about stewardship, and we continue to engage with the Stewards of Alberta's Protected Areas Association to consult on how the province can continue supporting volunteer stewardship efforts," he said in an email.
Glen Hvenegaard, a professor of environmental science at the University of Alberta's Augustana Campus who is involved with a stewardship society in Camrose, said people have an internal desire to contribute to the well-being of their local communities.
"There's value in meeting that need and that's where sometimes governments need to step in," he said.
Tony Blake, a roving steward in Red Deer, said he hopes a renewed program has a purpose that fits into a larger conservation objective.
"That's what I would love to see them pick up again in a more coordinated way," he said.
Potter said SAPAA welcomes a renewed program, but would like to see the government create and partially fund a new consortium to run it in the future.
In the meantime, he said, SAPAA will continue building its own stewardship activities.
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