Nothing, if your family is like mine. But in the open grasslands of southwestern Saskatchewan, Don Gillespie’s mother Norah mastered low-stress animal handling techniques. She never worked bison, her ranch had cows and horses but the skill she developed helps today with bison conservation.
Don Gillespie took lessons he learned from Norah into his work with bison at Grasslands National Park.
I didn’t get the chance to see Don Gillespie work with bison but seeing the care used to design the bison handling facility, it was obvious he knows the big animals well.
If you would like to see the bison at Grasslands National Park, book your stay in advance as campsites book up quickly and there are few hotels. A visit here is worth the effort. The prairies are an understated environment if you are used to mountain vistas or ocean swells, but it has a beauty that charms if you slow down to listen.Check out details here.
What did you learn from your mother? I’d love to hear.
Me either! I only realized how important Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs are when I met John Laux of Nebraska Game and Parks Commission while on a media trip. These little creatures build towns of linked tunnels – the largest town ever found covered 65,000 square kilometers! Early explorer Capt. Lewis described them as “barking squirrels”, while Clark called them a “ground rat”. They caught and ate one of the prairie sentinels, but it never became a diet staple. When Lewis and Clark ordered their men to flush out more rodents with water, the men hauled water all day and succeeded in catching only one prairie dog – it was put in a cage and made a pet!
When I was young you had to suffer to camp. Canvas tents leaked if you touched them when wet, air mattresses deflated overnight, and supper was whatever you could cook over a smoky fire in the rain. Things improved with the invention of Gore-Tex and affordable recreational vehicles (RVs), but it can be a hassle to pull a RV and wrestle it into a camping site. A creative-thinking entrepreneur, Darci Schepansky, has reinvented the camping experience by delivering rental RVs to any campground in the Waskesiu region of northern Saskatchewan.
picnic table, and flowers by the door before you arrive. You don’t need to buy an RV, own a large vehicle or worry about parking. Explaining her motivation for starting Retro RV, Darci says, “I wanted a business that would let me spend time with my kids.” Her kids enjoy visiting provincial parks while Mom makes money. As the name implies, some of the rental units are vintage, but there is nothing old-fashioned about this recreational reinvention! To learn more go to