Upcoming events
Vermette Tree Planting
September 10—Vermette Park, South St. Anne’s Road past Perimeter Hwy
Thanks to a $2500 Donation from the Fido-Evergreen program, SOS and our Métis partners L’Union nationale métisse Saint-Joseph du Manitoba will be planting trees at the former community centre in the hamlet of Vermette. Details have yet to be determined. We hope for good weather, fiddle music, hot dogs and hardy trees to plant. Check the website for details. Tentative for September 2011.
Past events:
Annual General Meeting
April 13, 7pm — Morrow Gospel Church, 755 St Anne’s Road at Shorehill
SOS just capped off it’s 20th year with one of the busiest yet! Come down and meet the Board, enjoy some refreshments and hear about our accomplishments of the past year along with our plans for the coming years. Expect to hear about the activity at the floodway siphon, the multi-million dollar remediation project at the IKO site as well as the initial stages of the schools Adopt A River program on the Seine. We hope to see you there!
Echoes of Our Past - A Walk Along the Historic Seine and Red Rivers in St. Boniface and visit of Fort Gibraltar.
Save Our Seine is pleased to announce the participation of Festival du Voyageur for this year’s Jane’s Walk.
Date and Time: Saturday, May 7, 10:00 am
Starting point: Entrance to Lagimodière-Gaboury Historic Park off Thibault Street in St. Boniface. Get there via Provencher Blvd. turn north at junction of
Provencher and Desmeurons. Desmeurons turns into Thibault. The park is located 1 block north of Provencher off Thibault.
End Point: Fort Gibraltar in Whittier Park.
Duration: 2 hours
Footwear: Wear hiking boots as some parts of the trail may be wet. Dress for the weather.
Parking: Available on nearby residential streets. You may consider parking at the Fort Gibraltar site in Whittier Park which is the end of the tour – walk residential streets to the tour start at Lagimodière Gaboury Historic Park.
Accessibility: Much of the walk is on earthen trails and uneven ground making accessibility challenging for wheelchairs.
Jean-Pierre Brunet, a former long-time member of the Save Our Seine Board of Directors and author of The Seine River Trail - Echoes of our Past - Suggestions for Historical Interpretation, will guide the tour. A representative from Festival du Voyageur will open Fort Gibraltar for interpretation during the second half of the tour.
Join members of Save Our Seine and Festival du Voyageur with a walk through one of the most historic areas of Winnipeg, along the Seine and Red Rivers in old St. Boniface. In the course of this walk, you will:
• Walk through and learn about the historic Lagimodière-Gaboury Park while being surrounded by nature and the beauty of a peacefully meandering Seine River
• Discover where Jean-Baptiste Lagimodière, Canada's most celebrated voyageur and his wife Marie-Anne Gaboury, the first woman of European descent to live in Western Canada, set up their homestead and where Louis Riel was born
• Learn about the significance this site has played in the foundation of the Red River Colony, St. Boniface, Winnipeg, Manitoba and Western Canada through the missions and military that helped usher in a new way of life
• Be inspired by the vision of our provincial poet and founder - Louis Riel
• See and learn about the historic Little Forks where the Seine River enters the Red River and how the Seine River got its name
• Walk on an upland trail along the Red River from the Little Forks to Fort Gibraltar and observe and learn about one of Winnipeg’s finest river bottom forests that includes some of the largest trees in Winnipeg
• Visit and learn about Fort Gibraltar, the reconstructed Northwest Company fur trading post
• Hear swashbuckling stories about the life of the voyageur and the battles between the Northwest Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company as they ‘duked’ it out for the dominance of the fur trade in Canada’s Wild West.
• Learn why the Festival du Voyageur is held each year and has become one of Western Canada’s premier winter events.
For more information, contact: dadepape@mts.net
International Trails Day
June 4— Bois-des-esprits (meet at greenspace east of Royalwood Bridge)
International Trails Day is Saturday, June 4. We will walk North to John Bruce Road, admiring the new trail signage and the folk carvings of local artist Murray Watson (and of course Woody, the forest patriarch). Special honour will be given to long-time SOS member and the coiner of the name “Bois-des-esprits”, Jim Gyselinck. Expect the event to last 2 - 2.5 hours.
Details on other International Trails events can be found on the Winnipeg Trails Association website: www.winnipegtrails.ca
20th Anniversary Event
See our special page on this event
Echos of Our Past - A Walk Along the Historic Seine River in St. Boniface
Date and Time: Sunday, May 2, 12:30 pm
Starting point: Entrance to Lagimodiere-Gaboury Park on Thibault Street in
St. Boniface, get there via Provencher Blvd. turn north at junction of
Provencher and Desmeurons. Desmeurons turns into Thibault. The park is 1 block north of Provencher off Thibault.
Duration: 90 minutes to 2 hours
Footwear: Wear hiking boots as some parts of the trail may be wet.
Join members of Save Our Seine with a walk through one of the most historic areas of Winnipeg, along the Seine River in old St. Boniface. In the course of this walk, you will
* enjoy the meandering Seine River as it navigates its way through Lagimodiere-Gaboury Park to Deschambeault Street
* walk along the refurbished St. Boniface Trail, one of the City's finest walking trails, with its many curves and changes in elevation in a natural setting.
* learn about the beginnings of St. Boniface,
* discover where Jean Baptiste Lagimodiere, Canada's most famous voyageur, and his wife, Marie-Anne Gaboury, the first white women to live in Western Canada, set up their homestead and where Louis Riel was born.
* find out where Winnipeg's oldest neighbourhood, established by the DesMeurons regiment, is located
* see the portion the Seine river that Gabrielle Roy, the famous international author, often found solace and described as 'our small Seine, a narrow watercourse that twisted its way onward like a snake between thickets filled with rose haws, a tiny river buried in the grass, muddy secret, of little danger to us, even when we plunge in headfirst, my pretty river, green as cats eyes."
* learn about the history of Belgian immigrants in St.Boniface and see the impressive memorial to Belgians Canadians solders who served in the First World War
* discover a new trail that connects the St. Boniface trail to Deschambeault Street where Gabrielle Roy's family house was located and is now a museum.
* be exposed to the sights and sounds of nesting geese, returning wood ducks and mallards and with any luck spot a white tail deer
* Learn about the largest soil and water decontamination project in Winnipeg at the IKO site on the Seine River
* find out how Save Our Seine has worked to restore the Seine River from an industrial waste site to a clean, canoeable river.
Jean-Pierre Brunet, a former long time member of the Seine Our Seine Board of Directors and author of The Seine River Trail- Echos of Our Past - Suggestions for Historical Interpretation, will guide the tour. He will be assisted by current members of the Save Our Seine Board of Directors. For more information, see http://janeswalk.net/walks/view/bois-des-esprit/www.saveourseine.com
This walk is part of Save Our Seine’s 20th Anniversary celebrations. Find out more at www.saveourseine.com.
Magical Urban Forest – A Walk in Bois-des-Esprit
Date and Time: Saturday, May 1, 12:30 pm
Starting point: John Bruce Bridge in south St. Vital at the end of John Bruce Road West. To get there, turn east off of St. Anne's Road across from the skate park and St. Vital Arena, just south of the junction of St. Anne's Road and Meadowood Drive.
Duration: 60 to 90 minutes
Footwear: Wear hiking boots as some parts of the trail may be wet.
Join members of Save Our Seine with a walk through Winnipeg newest protected urban forest, Bois-des-Esprits. The largest contiguous riverbottom and upland forest in Winnipeg, Bois-des-Esprit has been described as a magical place by people who have walked through it. In the course of this walk, you will
* enjoy the meandering Seine River as it navigates its way along the edge of this 117 acre forest.
* pass through or see five ecosystems - riverbottom forest, wetlands, oak forest, aspen forest and grassland
* discover Winnipeg's finest oxbows and some of its largest and oldest oak and cottonwood trees.
* be exposed to the sights and sounds of nesting geese, returning wood ducks and mallards and with any luck spot some white tail deer
* visit Woody, the magnificent 3 meter high carved wood spirit that guards the forest
* see four smaller tree sculptures carved this winter by well known bird carver Murray Watson
* walk along a newly constructed 2 km long gravel trail that allows for all weather use of the forest.
* visit a restored grassland where a planted tall grass prairie is thriving
* Be amazed at the haunting silence in this area surrounded by fast growing suburbs.
* See the new Royalwood subdivision that encircles the forest
* Hear the story of how this area, destined for housing development, was saved for posterity as a natural forest through the leadership of Save Our Seine
Denis De Pape, volunteer Vice President of Save Our Seine will lead this walk. He will be assisted by current members of the Save Our Seine Board of Directors. For more information,see http://janeswalk.net/walks/view/bois-des-esprit/www.saveourseine.com
Jane’s Day Walk
