Horse in pasture with sagebrush, Val Marie PFRA Community Pasture
I spent several hours photographing a group on horses near the Val Marie PFRA community pasture headquarters. This horse decided to run through a field of sagebrush to catch up with his buddies. Val Marie PFRA is the largest community pasture in Saskatchewan, containing over 41,256 hectares (101,946 acres) of magnificent native prairie. Frenchman River flows through the pasture, with rugged valley slopes adding to it’s photographic appeal. Together with the adjacent Beaver Valley PFRA pasture, there are over 200,000 acres (80,000 hectares) of un-interrupted native prairie. Something...
Read More70 Mile Butte at sunset, Grasslands National Park
Sunset at 70 Mile Butte in the West Block of Grasslands National Park. I took this image on the last day of a week-long trip in mid June of 2013. Although the weather was very unstable, I did not get too many days with interesting skies or cloud formations. Most of the time it was gray and uniformly overcast. That evening, everything came together and I was awarded with a glorious sunset. A composite HDR image made of 3 separate exposures. The location is just a short walk from the parking lot leading to the 70 Mile Butte hiking trail. Back to the Grasslands National Park photo...
Read MoreSaskatchewan Community Pastures video
Here is a short video that I prepared for the Public Pastures – Public Interest group, a citizen-based organization devoted to maintaining Saskatchewan’s public grasslands as healthy prairie ecosystems and working landscapes. The idea was to raise awareness about the plight of former PFRA community pastures that will no longer be manged through the 70-year old Community Pasture Program, and transferred from federal control to the prairie provinces. The Saskatchewan government is not interested in managing these large tracts of native prairie and plans to sell or lase the...
Read MoreMargaret Atwood and Graeme Gibson visit PFRA Community Pastures
Margaret Atwood and Graeme Gibson, two of Canada’s most acclaimed writers and lifelong conservationists will be in Saskatchewan from June 24 to 28, 2013 for the Prairie Passages Tour. The two writers are Joint Honorary Presidents of BirdLife International’s Rare Bird Club. During the tour, Atwood and Gibson will visit PFRA community pastures and Grasslands National Park. The purpose of this tour is to raise public awareness of the national and international significance of the PFRA heritage rangelands for plant and animals that live on them – natural prairie and the 32 species at...
Read MoreGrasslands National Park after the 2013 wildfire
The Grasslands National Park photo tour went well. The weather was relatively cooperative and we managed to capture a few great images. I will post a few samples later this week. Prairie in the Park is recovering very fast after the massive wildfire that swept through the Park in April of this year. Early May was drier than normal, but heavy rains arrived at the end of the month. Temperatures were below average and rainfall was well above average over the first two weeks of June; many areas of Saskatchewan have received more than 150% of normal amount of rain. This might explain why the...
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Dr. Branimir Gjetvaj is a biologist and internationally published environmental photographer specializing in western Canadian landscapes. He leads photography workshops and photo tours, and gives public presentations on photography, natural history and conservation biology topics.