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Glenbow Ranch Park Foundation launches Steward an Acre campaign

Visitors of Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park (GRPP) in west Rocky View County now have a new way to show their appreciation for the lands.

Visitors of Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park (GRPP) in west Rocky View County now have a new way to show their appreciation for the lands.

To mark its 10-year anniversary, the Glenbow Ranch Park Foundation (GRPF) has launched a new fundraising program called Steward an Acre.

According to Sarah Parker, the executive director of GRPF, the online campaign is a way for visitors to select and “sponsor” a particular acre in the park for a donation of $150. Sponsoring an acre ensures that section of the park will be maintained and preserved for three years.

“With the park getting busier and busier, we wanted to find a way for everyone to feel as though they’re stewarding these lands, protecting them along with us and supporting the work we do,” Parker said. “For three years, they know by stewarding that acre that they’re helping us do the work we do in the park.”

GRPF is the organization that oversees and protects the sprawling grasslands of Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park, which is located just southeast of Cochrane off of Highway 1A. The foundation also offers educational programs and tours where visitors can learn more about the park and its ecosystems.

According to Parker, donors can visit GRPF’s website and use the foundation’s new interactive map to select a particular spot. Once an acre is sponsored, it will change colour on the map, and users will be able to read who is stewarding it, and why.

Sponsoring an acre is mostly a symbolic gesture, Parker noted. Due to the ecologically sensitive nature of the park’s grasslands, she said donors are not able to visit their specific acre.

“They certainly can’t go to it, plant a tree or put up a sign, but what they can know is that our foundation – which has been here for 10 years – will continue to lead the vegetation management program, which basically means invasive species are kept in check and erosion is avoided so the lands can thrive,” she said.

For participating in the program, sponsors will receive a personalized stewardship certificate, information about their particular acre, a GRPF sticker, recognition on the foundation’s website and a charitable tax receipt.

At the end of the three-year stewardship, participants will be asked if they’d like to renew their sponsorship, find a new acre or move on.

After launching the campaign on Feb. 19, Parker said more than 100 acres were sponsored within four days. GRPF’s goal is to sell 750 acres this year, she added.

“The idea is this will be a long-term, sustainable fundraising campaign for us,” she said.

There are various reasons to participate in the campaign, according to Parker, who said most donors are sponsoring acres on behalf of family members, friends or pets.

“The reasons for people to steward these acres have been wonderful for us to read,” she said.

“We have grandparents dedicating it to their grandkids, with messages to protect this park for them to enjoy for years to come. We have a fair number of people dedicating acres to their dogs, both living and passed, as well as in loving memory of people, and in recognition of someone who has done wonderful work in the area.”

Parker said sponsoring an acre on behalf of a friend or family member who loves the outdoors is also a creative birthday, Mother’s Day or Earth Day gift idea.

She added the campaign is unique among provincial parks in Alberta.

“It’s certainly not being done in Alberta and I only know of a couple places in North America that are doing [something similar],” she said. “No one is really doing a campaign similar to this, so we’re pretty excited. It was a lot of hard work.”

To participate in Steward an Acre or learn more about the initiative, visit stewardanacre.ca or call GRPF at 403-851-9053.

Scott Strasser, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @scottstrasser19

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