Photo and concept courtesy of Dr. Ed Scissons
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Check back regularly for updates on the campaign to keep the weir off-limits to humans. Help us oppose--and mock!--the idea of turning Saskatoon's weir into a megamillion dollar artificial white-water playground and not-so-green dam.
Click on photo to go there!
Pelicans are free!
A white-water playground will be very, very expensive (think 15 million at the very least). AND NOW another $50 million for a dam.
Join Pelican Watch!
- CONTACT US AT pelicanW@gmail.com.
- Become a "pelicanista": a Saskatonian who prefers pelican-watching to rafting, tubing, and tiny boats bounced around by boisterous neoprene-clad paddlers.
- A community of pro-pelican folks who like to "loaf and invite the soul" while down by the riverside.
- Now the time has come for letter-writing, for creative protest, for speaking out.
This site is dedicated to maintaining wild and semi-wild spaces in the context of urban Saskatoon.
Check back regularly for updates on the campaign to keep the weir off-limits to humans. Help us oppose--and mock!--the idea of turning Saskatoon's weir into a megamillion dollar artificial white-water playground and not-so-green dam.
Alternative Sites for a White Water "facility"
- 1. Mount Blackstrap: one white elephant deserves another; or maybe they'll cancel one another out? White water in summer, luge and skiing in winter. Go for it, fellas!
- 2. On the Churchill River (in fact, isn't that where there are real rapids?)
- 3. West Edmonton Mall
- 4. Inside an actual building, with walls and a roof, so those who don't want to watch don't have to.
- 5. Colorado
Ten Reasons To Keep Saskatoon's Weir As It Is!
- 1. The pelicans choose to feed where we can watch and enjoy them, and you shouldn't blow that kind of good karma.
- 2. The South Saskatchewan is already dammed!
- 3. Pelicans don't go shooting through the water yelling "kowabunga!"
- 4. Holding hands while watching pelicans drifting around is kinda romantic.
- 5. Pelicans are the original synchronized swimmers.
- 6. It's hard to feel romantic watching a guy muscle his kayak through fake rapids.
- 7. The weir is paid for.
- 8. The South Saskatchewan has been declared Canada's most threatened river.
- 9. Quiet spaces where nothing much is happening are essential to the health of busy urbanites.
- 10. Pelicans are free!
White Water Park and Green Power Hydro Dam by the numbers
- Estimated cost of the dam: 42 MILLION.: Wait, it's now $65 million. Give them another year and it'll be up to $75 million.
- The dam will provide electricity to about 3200 homes. That's over $130 grand per house.
- Province's contribution: $100,000 to study the white water play pool aspect
- City of Saskatoon's contribution so far: $30,000 for a study plus $300,000 to study the hydro aspect
- Estimated cost of the white water park: $5 MILLION: Nope, that was last week. Now it's up to $15 milion!
Write to Our City Council
Click on photo to go there!
About Us
- Pelican Watch
- Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
- We are a loose-knit group of pelican fanatics who don't want to see the South Saskatchewan river, the weir in particular, turned into a playground for a few folks who prefer fake rapids to the real thing. We believe we should live with nature and not against it. To contact us, send an email to pelicanW@gmail.com.
contact us
We welcome your pelican thoughts, pelican photos, pelican anecdotes. Email us at pelicanW@gmail.com.