Member Spotlight:
Dale and Paule Hjertaas
by Elaine Ehman
Dale grew up on a farm in southeast Saskatchewan, and on his 13th birthday his parents gave him a butterfly net, a copy of WJ Holland’s Butterflies of North America, and a mounting kit. He immediately started collecting butterflies. Dale quickly found a friend and mentor in Harold Pitman, the caretaker at the one-room school he attended in Wakaw. Harold was a naturalist, wildlife photographer, and birder who contributed to Birds of Saskatchewan records. Harold encouraged Dale in his pursuits.
Dale’s introduction to the nature societies was Doug Gilroy’s column in the Western Producer (which he read faithfully in high school). Stuart Houston and Lorne Scott were looking for Great Horned Owls to band and were interested in any nest in a certain radius of Saskatoon or Regina, but if you could find 5 or 7 owl nests in an area, they would go anywhere. Dale asked all his friends at school if they knew of any nests, and then he and his dad spent a couple days driving around before the leaves came out and discovered 7 nests. Lorne and Gary Seib arrived one Saturday to band owls and Lorne told Dale he should join the Saskatoon Natural History Society – so he did!
Paule was born in Quebec City and as a child was always running away. As early as the age of four she would be out at 5:00 in the morning, looking at wildlife and picking up snakes. In Quebec, Paule was a member of a birding society. She continues to be a keen birder, and she did the first birding class for Naure Regina. When she moved to Regina, Paule started her own native garden, beginning with native crocuses that she saved from a gravel pit. Paula was involved in the start of the native prairie garden at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum. She developed the original design and although her design wasn’t the final one, she played a very significant part in getting the prairie garden approved and implemented. She continues to provide plants and seeds for the RSM garden. She was also part of the Nature Regina group that helped seed Prairie Island in A.E. Wilson Park. She is a biologist by training and she and Dale met at a Canadian Nature Federation Conference in Regina.
In 1976, Dale took a job with Duck’s Unlimited in Regina (and a membership in Nature Regina) but moved to Saskatoon in the fall of 1977 to work as an ecologist for the Fish and Wildlife branch of the Saskatchewan government. That was the start of his 40-year career with various environment ministries. While in Saskatoon, Dale and Paule were involved with the Saskatoon Nature Society and Paule sat on the board as the secretary. When they returned to Regina permanently in 1981, Dale became active on the Nature Saskatchewan board as the conservation director, vice-president and president, and later both of them were on Nature Regina’s board (Paule for three terms as president in the early 80s).
Dale’s first role on Nature Regina’s board was as secretary, and later he was elected president by chance. Paule had to be out of town and had asked Dale to attend the Nature Regina annual general meeting. There was no one on the slate for president so Dale let his name stand. Over the years Dale was on the board in various positions, including membership and conservation director, and has held the position of president longer than anyone else.
Dale has a long association with Hidden Valley. The first thing he did was to repair the gully. Initially Dale thought they could fill it with rocks, but after the first trip from the trunk of the car to the top of the hill with a load of rocks he quickly realized that wasn’t going to work. Once the gully was fortified, he decided that trails were needed to protect the habitat and make hiking the hills a more civilized nature outing.
In 1987, Prince Philip, president of World Wildlife Fund for Nature, came to Saskatchewan to officially launch Nature Saskatchewan’s Operation Burrowing Owl as part of a larger event. At the time, while working on the burrowing owl project, Dale had undertaken a survey that had shown that farmers knew the burrowing owls and liked them; many had had burrowing owls on their properties and didn’t anymore; and they had no idea that they were endangered. Dale in his work capacity had selected farmers from all areas to receive their owl sign from Prince Philip and had his dad Warren on hand to take photos of each. He then sent the photos with “Local man meets Prince” to all the weeklies and people’s knowledge changed immediately: within a week 400 reports about the owls rolled in.
When asked about the recent selection of a City Bird, Dale admitted that the Black-capped Chickadee is one of his two favourite birds (the other being the Bank Swallow), but he supported the Canada Goose. It’s Regina’s bird story.
When asked how they see Nature Regina in 10 years, Dale noted the success of the youth activities which show that the parents are interested. Overall, people have more time and a lot more interest in nature. We’ve seen way more people visiting Hidden Valley – it peaked during COVID but is still seeing way more use than in the 1980s. There’s lot of in Interest in educational things but the enthusiasm for lectures and meetings doesn’t seem to be high; however, we do have some high turnout when good marketing is done. We have conservation activities such as the Bird Friendly City and good outreach. Our fieldtrips remain educational and fun, and thanks to the Merlin app, many people are asking about birds. Technology is making it easier to be interested in nature but it’s also changing the way we interact. People used to talk about birds in person but now computers and social media have made a huge change as people tend to connect on SaskBirders. The challenge is how to stay current with technology. He sees a strong future for Nature Regina.
Paule started out with prairie crocuses in her yard 40 years ago and at that time no one was selling native plants. She feels good seeing more and more native plants being used in people’s yards. It’s a very positive thing and a trend she believes will continue.