History

Nature Up Close: Shirley Jackson Photography collection

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Shirley Jackson, a long time member, board member, hiker, and photographer, has just donated 151 photos of close-up nature photos for our archive. The Shirley Jackson Photography album is a unique collection of macro and zoomed-in photography, that includes over 100 photos of wildflowers and almost 50 photos of butterflies, other insects, birds, amphibians, and mammals.

Until recently, Shirley was a frequent participant on our hikes and she always took photos. Her contribution to the Waskahegan photography collection is immense and goes back to 2007, when we first started archiving our photos online. Her annual DVD compilations, “A Year in Hiking”, were also popular and are fun to watch at any time of year.

Since retiring from the working world, Shirley is spending more time on world travel. Nevertheless, she took time to curate a collection of her nature close-ups taken on the Waskahegan Trail, and to organize, research and label the photos. She has passed these photos on to us, and we put them on Flickr.

Thank you, Shirley, for your gift of the photo collection and for your donation of field guides for future hiking.

Remembering Stan Skirrow

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On Saturday, December 8, our beloved Stan Skirrow passed away.

Stan was more than a longstanding member…he devoted his passion and energy into making the Waskahegan Trail and its organization what it is today.

We have long wondered how to properly honour Stan and let the world know of his accomplishments. In 2017 we nominated him for a prestigious volunteer award given by the Province (even though we knew he wouldn’t attend the awards dinner in Banff—a mandatory condition of the award). This is what we told the award committee.

For the presentation portion of the AGM that year, we invited other longstanding members to talk about their volunteer experiences with the Association. Stan was in the hospital, but members who had visited him that day brought comments on his behalf.

One way we will remember Stan is with The Waskahegan Trail Guidebook. All the trail descriptions (over 45 trail sections) is Stan’s original writing, except where we’ve had to update the directions and contact information. Open the book to any trail description and he’ll tell you the story in his warm, entertaining style.

And then there is Stan’s Bench (above), situated on a ridge overlooking the Mud Lake area valley towards Coal Lake. It is said that it was his favourite view. We surprised him with it in 2006. Plans are in the works to have a special celebration there in the spring.

Many former and current Waskahegan members will be at Stan’s Memorial Service at 1 p.m. this Sunday, at Foster McGarvey (10011 – 114 Street) in Edmonton.

Many thanks to Karen Bell for providing the photos.