It was a special moment this week for a group of Saskatchewan residents and the Nature Conservancy of Canada who celebrated the unveiling for a plot of grasslands acquired using money that was crowdfunded.
The fundraiser was named Field of Dreams and organizer Marc Spooner said the idea came when the SGI announced it would issue rebate cheques to customers.
“I knew that for many people, that money’s going to be needed to make ends meet and to buy vital things like food or make rent,” Spooner told Global News.
“But for some of us in a position where an unexpected amount of money like that could be spent on a nice meal or a couple of fancy bottles of wine or something, I thought, what if we pooled that money together and did something.”
From there the Facebook group ‘Let’s do something together with our SGI rebates’ was born, which later became ‘Field of Dreams: Let’s do something together with our SGI Rebates/donations.’
The group brainstormed where the money could best be served before landing on the idea to protect a piece of the grasslands.
The NCC considers the grasslands as one of the most at-risk ecosystems in the world and a critical part of the province.
Grasslands filter water, help prevent flooding and droughts and sequester carbon.
According to the NCC, over the last 25 years, the province has lost more than 809,000 hectares of native grassland and now less than 20 per cent remains intact.
The group managed to raise $103,500 with a total of 403 people contributing.
Spooner said the NCC was able to grow that funding enough to be able to purchase 629 hectares of property in the grasslands.
The estates of Margaret Smith and Norman and Sophie Headford also contributed to the purchase.
While SGI didn’t make a corporate donation to the project, spokesperson Tyler McMurchy said Field of Dreams is “an excellent grassroots campaign.”
“One of the things that was great about the rebate program was it put cash in people’s hands and allowed them to make the decision about what they could do with it,” McMurchy said.
A press release from NCC stated the property, named Lonetree Lake, is about an hour and 45 minutes away from Regina.
On Wednesday, members of the Field of Dreams group had the chance to walk on the land they helped preserve.
The group heard remarks from NCC regional vice-president Jennifer McKillop, Spooner, and NCC program director Michael Burak.
There was also a story and teaching from Elder Pete Bigstone of Ocean Man First Nation.
Attendees also had the chance to go on two guided walking tours with a local rancher and Elder Bigstone to learn more about the cultural significance of the area.
McKillop said she was inspired about the idea when Spooner approached her last year.
“It was certainly a time when everybody needed some inspiration and it was a really inspirational kind of project,” McKillop told Global News.
McKillop explained when the NCC has a private donor, they’re able to match it with other funding that requires private funding to access it.
The Government of Canada was a major contributor to the project though the Natural Heritage Conservation Program, which is part of Canada’s Nature Fund.
The Saskatchewan government also contributed through the Fish and Wildlife Fund. NCC said the project also received support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“We can’t unlock those funding sources without private money, which is why that that’s so important, and so valuable to us to have that kind of support,” McKillop said.
McKillop said the NCC uses a science-based approach to identify priority lands and they need to meet certain criteria such as inhabiting species at risk.
NCC said the property is also a “haven for wildlife listed under Canada’s Species at Risk Act.”
This includes the burrowing owl (endangered), piping plover (endangered), loggerhead shrike (threatened), barn swallow (threatened), American badger (special concern) and northern leopard frog (special concern).
In more than seven years with the NCC, McKillop said she hasn’t yet been involved with a project like this until now.
“We have people from all over Canada that donate money to conserve grasslands, but when you get donations from people who live in Saskatchewan because they want to preserve the prairie, that’s a really special thing.”
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