The Dr. J.R. (Jim) and Shirley Jowsey Wildflower Heritage and Conservation Area"
The Yellowhead Flyway Birding Trail Association and the Saltcoats and District Regional Park Authority have worked co-operatively to designate and preserve this small parcel of land:
"The Dr. J.R. (Jim) and Shirley Jowsey Wildflower Heritage and Conservation Area”
Jim and Shirley Jowsey have lived their lives as respected and knowledgeable naturalists who have shared their passion, enthusiasm and knowledge with a host of people. Their particular expertise in the identification, photographing, cataloguing and describing the many species of wildflowers found its culmination in the publication of “Wildflowers Across the Prairies", a user-friendly and scientifically accurate compendium of the wildflowers that have been part of the landscape of the great western plains of North America. F. R. Vance, J. R. Jowsey and J.S McLean were the authors of this book published in 1984. The acknowledgements at the front of the book speak of Shirley Jowsey's skill, wisdom and commitment to the project as being "substantially equivalent to those of the authors." The third edition of the book (1999) includes an exciting section on grasses, sedges and rushes by Frank A. Switzer who, like Jim Jowsey, is originally from this area.
The Jowseys are charter members of the YFBTA. In 2008, Dr. Jowsey was named Honourary Chairperson of Nature Sask.
This area celebrates the Jowseys, the book, "Wildflowers Across the Prairies", and the wonderful but threatened multiplicity of species of wildflowers that have delighted generations with their beauty while also providing the original inhabitants of the land and early settlers with plants with medicinal and another household uses.
We invite you to pause and wonder at the amazing richness of the natural world. Take time to find and identify as many wildflowers as you can. Step carefully, and with gratitude for life and all living things, so that future generations may also know something of the beauty and diversity of the natural prairie.