Wilma Robinson worked to protect the sandhill crane.
Photograph by: submitted , TIMES
Such was her love for nature that not only did Wilma Robinson co-found the Alouette Field Naturalists, she donated a parcel of her family's land for a park to keep it from being developed.
Wilma Robinson died on Dec. 18 at the age of 89, most of her years spent in her hometown of Haney and in Pitt Meadows.
Born into the Menzies family in Haney, Wilma graduated from MacLean High School. Shortly thereafter she married George Robinson of Ruskin and moved to Portage La Prairie where he was stationed during the war. They then moved back to Maple Ridge where they settled farming tomatoes.
In 1960, Wilma moved back to her family's property on Menzies Hill, which is now called Sheridan Hill.
In order to save the sandhill crane and keep the Pitt marsh from becoming a residential area, Wilma and her son Steve formed the Alouette Field Naturalist Society. Every year, she took part in the annual crane count.
Wilma's son remembers his mother "flogging the marshes out at Pitt Lake, watching the sandhill cranes."
Nature was always dear to her heart, and their home become a tourist attraction of sorts when her mother found and raised a bobcat.
"Lots of people would come out to see it from Vancouver," her son Robin said.
Wilma donated the property to the City of Pitt Meadows to be designated as a park.
Wilma leaves behind four sons, Jim, Gordie, Steve, and Robin, 10 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren.
A celebration of her life will be held at the Royal Canadian Legion in Maple Ridge at 1: 30 p.m. on Jan. 31, which would have been her 90th birthday.
