YORKTON - An ‘Evening with Lorne Scott and William R Schroeder was held at the Yorkton Public Library Tuesday.
Schroeder is author of Trees Against the Wind, a detailed account of the federal government’s prairie tree planting program from 1901-41 under the leadership of professional forester Norman MacKenzie Ross.
The Canadian Prairies had many aspects which attracted the earliest pioneers, but trees were one thing generally missing from the landscape.
“Most homesteaders who streamed into the Canadian prairies in the late 1800s and early 1900s brought with them a desire for the comfort and protection of trees they had known ‘back home’,” explained Schroeder in a recent Yorkton This Week feature.
“Recognizing the potential value of trees as incentive for settling the vast and mostly treeless prairies, the Canadian government began to grow and distribute tree seedlings for planting around farm homes and yards.”
Schroeder, who grew up on a small family farm near LeRoy, Sask. noted, archival photographs and materials are prominent throughout the text.
Scott is an environmentalist. He worked for the Saskatchewan Museum of Natural History from 1967 to 1975 and for the Wascana Centre Authority, where he worked as a park naturalist from 1975 to 1991. He also operates a farm in the Indian Head area. Scott served as president of the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation, the Saskatchewan Natural History Society and the Whooping Crane Conservation Association.
From 1991 to 1995 Scott represented the seat of Indian Head-Wolseley and from 1995 to 1999 he represented Indian Head-Milestone in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan as a New Democratic Party member. He was a member of the provincial cabinet, serving as Minister of Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management from 1995 until 1999.
The evening was supported by the Yellowhead Flyway Birding Trail Association.
