SAM Newsletter #33: Spring 2022

 

City of St. John's

2022 Spring AGM - St. John's, NL Save the Date! The SAM 2022 Spring AGM will be hosted by the City of St. John's from May 6th-7th at the St. John's Convention Centre. More information on SAM Meetings can be found here. Emailed invitations will be sent out soon. Photo 1: SAM Fall Business Meeting 2021. Hosted by the beautiful Town of Deer Lake. Photo 2: Members and Partners that joined the Fall Business Meeting virtually. 2022 SAM Scholarship The first scholarship was awarded in 2015, and since then SAM has awarded annually a $1000 scholarship to a student from or studying in Newfoundland and Labrador whose interests and activities demonstrate an active commitment to conservation in Newfoundland and Labrador. The annual scholarship comes from the SAM Conservation Fund. The application for the 2022 scholarship is now available on our website, click here to apply.​ The deadline for the 2022 scholarship applications is May 1st, 2022. Website Refresh! We're so excited to finally show off the completely updated samnl.org! Our website has had a little facelift over the past few months, and we're very proud of all of the new updates! Some new updates include: A completely re-organized Resources Tab! Now called Resources to Support Conservation Action, you'll find lots of ways to support conservation as a community, as an individual, as a teacher, etc.! NEW: Check out the Educational Resources section for our SAM Educational Programming that you can download/print out and complete with your school or community group! Looking for more information or looking to book SAM to complete some programming with your group? Email samengagement995@gmail.com for more information. Check out the new Special Places tab with information on all of the Special Places in NL including wetlands, freshwater shorelines and riparian buffers, forests, coastal estuaries and beaches, Atlantic Salmon Rivers and Limestone Barrens. Plus many of our other sections have had a few refreshing changes including our Member Profile pages! Head over to samnl.org to see all of our updates! In The Community It's been a busy winter for SAM's Outreach and Education Coordinator! Check out a few photos from some previous outreach events: The Special Places of Newfoundland and Labrador Astute observers may have noticed that SAM’s website has received a makeover in recent months, which includes a newly improved tab called “Special Places.” For SAM members, this should come as no surprise, as it has always been within SAM’s mandate to protect the special places within municipalities throughout Newfoundland and Labrador. While that continues to be at the core our work, over the last several years we have begun to broaden our focus beyond municipal boundaries to identify, map, and catalogue the “Special Places” found throughout our beautiful province. What makes an area a special place? Broadly, we can define them as areas that have significant habitat, wildlife, or ecological value. Many factors might contribute to an area being identified, including high biodiversity, presence of species as risk, areas of high community value, rare or unique landscapes, or large intact landscapes or ecosystems, among others. Thus far, we have begun to work with wetlands, freshwater shorelines and riparian buffers, coastal estuaries and beaches, limestone barrens, boreal forests, and Atlantic salmon river habitats. Through the past several years, SAM has focused on identifying and mapping these areas, as well as on beginning the data collection process that allows us to determine whether these areas should be targeted for further conservation efforts. Over 250 areas have been identified as significant to date, as we continue to work on identifying new areas for consideration and diving further into areas already identified. Cape Freels Two areas have already been identified as meriting further investigation – the Upper Humber Wetland Complex and the Cape Freels Barrens. In both cases, SAM conservation biologists were able to draw upon a wealth of existing data and collate it into a single document, including recommendations for further protections moving forward. Upper Humber Historically, SAM’s efforts have primarily centered on the identification, biological assessment, and conservation of important wetlands. As one outcome, this broadening of our scope positions us well to respond to the changes that may result from the recent recommendations for a move towards regional governance. The Special Places project is ongoing – as new data arises and new areas are identified, we will continue to update our mapping layer to reflect the newest information. We are now working to publicly share this data more widely with our partners and interested parties. But most importantly, If you know of a "special place" in your hometown you think should be considered, please let us know at samconservation@gmail.com! Social Media Did you know that SAM is on Facebook? We have reached a new milestone of 500 Likes on our Facebook Page! We recently held a contest on our Facebook Page - congratulations to Amanda B. of Deer Lake for winning! Birds Canada Contributed by: Dr. Catherine Dale, Newfoundland Breeding Bird Atlas Coordinator, Birds Canada (cdale@birdscanada.org) SAM Member Survey Results Recently we sent a survey to our members to begin a process of seeking feedback on our current mission and goals as to how we are doing in meeting their/your expectations and needs. We intend to explore more fully the results of this survey at the upcoming Annual General Meeting. In this way, SAM Members can have their say and help shape the future of SAM. We thank all who filled out the survey by the initial deadline of March 7th. To date over 30% of members have responded. However we have decided to keep the survey open until the end of the month. If you have not yet completed the online survey, it will remain open until March 31st, 2022. If you are a member contact you would have received a link to the survey on March 1st. If you did not receive a link to the survey and believe that you should have, please contact samengagement995@gmail.com. We wanted to provide a brief overview of the survey results thus far. Overall, we are pleased to see responses indicating that more than 85% of survey respondents/members remain supportive of SAM's existing mission and various goals/objectives. That is an important indicator for future mutual success.   One aspect of interest is that members indicated that it remains important that SAM continue to represent its members on provincial environmental advocacy issues of mutual interest. Further, members thus far indicate interest in the following top rated issues: Funding for conservation projects Illegal/irresponsible ATV use Illegal dumping Development of habitat management policies We look forward to discussing this further with you at the AGM where we will present a report on final survey results. 2021 Stewardship Anniversaries It's a new year, and we would like to recognize some significant Municipal Habitat Stewardship Agreement signing anniversaries. Congratulations and we look forward to many more years of conservation and stewardship! 25 years since signed (1997) Torbay Bay Roberts-Spaniard's Bay Winterland 20 years since signed (2002) Flower's Cove 5 years since signed (2017) New-Wes-Valley Forteau Lewisporte Centreville-Wareham-Trinity Pouch Cove Do you have a conservation story you would like to see featured in a future newsletter? Send an email with the details to samengagement995@gmail.com!

Copyright © Stewardship Association of Municipalities NL, All rights reserved. Contact us: samconservation@gmail.com Stewardship Association of Municipalities Millbrook Mall, P.O. Box 20024 · Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador A2H 7J5 Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list