Sarah Vinge has what many attendees of the Yellowhead Flyway Birding Trail Association Annual Symposium might consider a dream job.
Vinge, one of the weekend symposium's afternoon speakers, spends much of her time walking across natural prairie landscapes looking for rare plants.
It's her duty as habitat stewardship coordinator for Nature Saskatchewan's Rare Plant Rescue program. Vinge and her colleagues identify areas of native prairie in southern Saskatchewan that are home to rare plant species and work with landowners to protect those species.
Native prairie is endangered in Saskatchewan, notes Vinge; just 21 percent of original prairie remains in the province's south. Many rare species of plants and animals have declined or disappeared in Saskatchewan as a result.
While federally and provincially owned lands have clear requirements in place for protecting endangered habitats, private landowners may not even be aware of the treasure in their backyards.
That's where the Rare Plant Rescue program comes in. Employees of the program obtain permission from landowners to search for rare plants on their property, and notify them of what they find. The owners are then given tips on how to adjust their land management practices to help preserve those species.
The suggestions are not legally binding. Nature Saskatchewan calls it "voluntary stewardship," and Vinge is a strong believer in this approach.
"If you were ever to try and force a landowner to do something, then you'd get a lot of resistance. It's their land-they own it. It's their right to do what they want with it.
"When you come at it with that nonthreatening approach, they're really excited about it, and they want to do it for the good of their land, their operation, and the prairie in general."
The landowners Vinge works with are typically already practicing good conservation strategies, and only need to implement a few tweaks to maintain their success. Most of them are thrilled to learn they have rare plants growing on their property, she says.
"Most of the landowners we work with, they care deeply about the land and about making sure that it's healthy. Because if it's not, then their business won't be profitable: you can't feed your family if you have no grass to feed your cattle."
