VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES

Bird Friendly City

 

Started in 2019, Nature Canada is leading a Bird Friendly City program to help cities and towns across Canada to become bird friendly. This includes a list of actions that a city can take, and builds on the three pillars of: addressing threats, restoring nature, and educating and mobilizing citizens. There are three levels of certification as a Bird Friendly City based on the number of actions taken. Nature Regina was certified as Canada’s 5th Bird Friendly City in 2022.

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Volunteers are needed to join our Bird Friendly City team for Regina. BFC team members will collaboratively identify Bird Friendly City criteria currently in place in Regina, and priority action items that need to be addressed. Members can then choose priority action items to support and campaign around.  

 

If you are interested in volunteering for the BFC team, please contact  contact birdfriendlyregina@gmail.com.  

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Bird Safe Initiative

 

The Bird Safe Initiative, in association with BirdSafe.ca, helps to bring awareness to the issue of bird building strikes while promoting the idea and reporting these strikes to the database on BirdSafe.ca. It helps to encourage the public to find ways to mitigate this issue. Collisions with glass comprises one of the top three human-caused sources of bird deaths in North America.

Volunteers can help with this initiative by participating in events that we organize in the spring and fall. During a one-week period during migration season volunteers meet in downtown Regina at 6:30 a.m. to look for birds that had collisions with glass buildings during the night. Or volunteers can search other areas of the city. Birds that survive collisions are taken to Salthaven West Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, or are kept in a quiet environment for a few hours then released if appropriate. Bird fatalities are offered to the Royal Saskatchewan Museum to be used as specimens. All birds are reported on BirdSafe.ca.

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Please watch for notices in our e-news and newsletter for when and how to participate.

 

Board Member

 

Become a member of Nature Regina and serve on our volunteer Board of Directors. Directors are elected each year at the Annual General Meeting in the spring. Executive positions are elected directly (president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer). Other directors are elected in-general, and board tasks are then divided amongst members by mutual agreement. Board members must be 18 years of age or older. There is opportunity to be appointed to the board between AGMs if vacancies occur.

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If you have an interest in being on the Board, please email natureregina@gmail.com.

 

Christmas Bird Counts

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Christmas Bird Counts are bird population surveys conducted throughout North America in late December and early January under the auspices of Birds Canada. Nature Regina participates in the Regina, Craven and Balgonie counts.

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On the count day volunteers fan out across the count area to identify as many birds and mammals as they can. As volunteers usually go out in groups and each group is led by someone with strong bird identification skills, so even someone that doesn't know birds well can prove to be a valuable spotter. However, ability to identify the 30-40 species likely found in Regina over the winter is an asset. These counts start in the morning around 8am and often finish in the late afternoon between 3:30-5:00 pm, although it is also possible to come out for a portion of the day.

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Please watch for the notice in our November/December newsletter for how to participate.

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​Christmas Bird Counts for Kids

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A Christmas Bird Count for Kids is held in Regina, usually in early January in Wascana Centre, and is hosted by Nature Saskatchewan with help from Nature Regina. This event allows children of all ages to learn about the birds that can survive our tough winters and lets the kids practice their bird ID skills. Volunteers are needed to help with the event.  

 

Friends of Wascana Marsh Children's Activities

 

There are regular volunteer opportunities with our nature education activities for children and families. Volunteers share their knowledge of wildlife, birds, plants, insects and general nature through games and activites. Events are organized by our Friends of Wascana Mash committee, or can be events at which Nature Regina is invited to participate with activities of nature-themed games for children.

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If you have knowledge to share, ways you can volunteer include helping with current activities or bringing new activities and games to events, or perhaps creating a set of identification sheets for birds, insects, animals or plants found in the city, about what they eat, where they live and their habits. Maybe you have some other ideas too!

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If you are interested in volunteering at one of our Children's programs, email us at natureregina@gmail.com.

 

Field Trips/Outings

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Under the direction of the Field Trips and Outings Coordinator, volunteers assist with planning and leading nature outings such as birdwatching and exploring our natural environment. Outings range in length from two hours to full days depending on the location and event.

1. Field Trips Coordinator – You maintain a list of, and contact with, the field trip leaders and assistants. You’ll also be the support person that offers advice and mentoring to our Field Trips/ Outings team

2. Field Trip Leaders – We have a great cast of characters in this regard, but could use more.  Your job is to pick a date and a place that you’d like to lead a field trip to – this could be a birding spot, a great native plant spot, or any other outing you think would be of interest to our membership – then do a write up describing your field trip (we can provide a template) so our publicity person can promote it. Or, we can provide suggestions of places.

3. Field Trip Assistants – Your job is to handle some logistics the day of the field trip, e.g., introductions, getting the participants to sign in, assigning someone to record plants, birds or other depending on the nature of the trip, making any necessary announcements, and then you enjoy the field trip the same as any other participant. If you’re already coming on field trips this is the perfect job for you.

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If you are interested in helping with field trips or outings, email us at natureregina@gmail.com 

 

Hidden Valley Sanctuary

 

The Society (Nature Regina) is the registered owner of one-half section of land along the Qu’Appelle Valley called Hidden Valley Sanctuary. The purpose of the Sanctuary is to preserve and protect the wild flora and fauna and the natural environment of the area in its natural state as representative of the surrounding natural environment.

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Hidden valley is looked after by the Hidden Valley Committee which consists of those members who choose to be involved. One may be a member of the committee, or simply a working volunteer.  The committee meets once or twice a year to discuss what needs to be done at Hidden Valley. Also, Committee members and other volunteers meet for occasional work bees, depending on current needs, to do things like trail development and maintenance, fence maintenance, and invasive weed management. 

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If you wish to learn more or be part of the volunteer group, email us at natureregina@gmail.com.

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Native Plant Garden

 

Since 1994 Nature Regina has nurtured the native plant garden, an oasis of natural beauty at the entrance to the Royal Saskatchewan Museum. In 2018, our volunteers began an ambitious rejuvenation of the garden. Those volunteers wanting to work directly in the garden meet weekly in the morning from spring through fall on Tuesday, and work under the guidance of a garden coordinator. 

Volunteers help with transplanting seedlings, removing sick or overly rambunctious native plants, collecting seeds, labelling plants, and weeding. There’s also the opportunity of sharing native plants and growing plants at home for the garden using seeds from the garden. We welcome novice and experienced gardeners.

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Native Plant Sales

We also need volunteers to help with our native plant sales: there is one in September and one in June. These are big events held at the RSM Native Plant Garden, and attract many people. Help is needed in preparing the plants for the sale (including potting plants and growing seedlings), set up the day of the sale, and helping people with their purchases at our sale. Our volunteers have a good time!

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If you want to help at the native plant garden, email us at natureregina@gmail.com. 

 

Butterflyway Project

 

The David Suzuki Butterflyway Project is a volunteer-led movement establishing highways of habitat for local bees and butterflies in communities across Canada. Nature Regina has at least half a dozen members participating in this program in 2024 by becoming Butterflyway Rangers. Regina volunteers have brought together Butterfly Rangers from across the province to support each other through regular zoom meetings.

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You can be a volunteer Butterflyway Recruit under a Butterflyway Ranger, who will help you find creative ways to establish pollinator-friendly habitat in your community. Each Ranger is tasked with organizing a small local team to help them plant at least a dozen pollinator patches.

Ways to volunteer for this project can include: growing pollinator plants at home for the Butterflyway, working on a Butterflyway project, or creating a boulevard garden in your own neighbourhood.

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Several Nature Regina Members are Rangers with the David Suzuki Butterflyway Project. For information on how you can participate, please contact: The Butterflyway Project - David Suzuki Foundation.

 

Pollinator Corridor: In tandem with the Butterflyway, Nature Regina members are very enthusiastic about developing a pollinator corridor through the city and beyond! This would create a highway of habitats for bees and butterflies through Regina and extending north to Last Mountain Lake and south to the border. Ways to help include planting pollinator plants, and joining in activities at the Native Plant Garden or Butterflyway Project.

 

Nature in the Community

 

As a volunteer with Nature Regina, you can be part of various activities such as:  

• clean up and enhancement of nature park and other public areas in and around Regina

• coordinate and participate in nature festivals

• participate in Citizen Science projects

• assist with BioBlitzes (an event that focuses on finding and identifying as many species as possible in a specific area over a short period of time)

• assist teachers and other educators by conducting nature interpretive activities

• assist the Royal Saskatchewan Museum with nature-oriented programs such as monarch butterfly rearing and release

 

Watch for these opportunities, advertised from time to time in our e-news, bimonthly newsletter and on our website: natureregina.ca.​

 

Regina Urban Wildlife Project

 

This coThis collaborative project of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, University of Regina, Nature Regina and other nature based non-profit organizations is not currently looking for volunteers while the future of the study is being re-evaluated. Please check back at a later date if you are interested in volunteering with this project.

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Newsletter, Website & other ways to Volunteer:

 

Volunteer opportunities include:

• Being a photographer for Nature Regina activities, and submitting photos

• Being a reporter for Nature Regina activities, and submitting articles

• Creating a set of articles on a nature topic

• Presenting at a Nature Regina General Meeting on a natural history topic

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