Bowker Creek Blueprint provides springboard to “Integrated Sustainable Planning for Infrastructure and Public Works”
Note to Reader:
Established in 2004, the Bowker Creek Urban Watershed Renewal Initiative (BCI) is a unique multi-jurisdictional effort in British Columbia’s Capital Region. Local governments, community groups, post-secondary institutions and private citizens are collaborating to improve the health of Bowker Creek and its watershed. Bowker Creek has become a demonstration area for urban watershed management and restoration in the Georgia Basin.
Completed in 2010, the Bowker Creek Blueprint demonstrates how major breakthroughs happen when decision makers in government collaborate with grass-roots visionaries in the community to create desired outcomes.
District of Saanich working cooperatively within a multi-jurisdictional watershed boundary
“An innovative, sustainable adventure has begun in the communities of Saanich, Victoria and Oak Bay in the core of the Capital Region on Southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada,” writes Colin Doyle, Director of Engineering with the District of Saanich, in an article published by the American Public Works Association.
“The Bowker Creek Blueprint: A 100-Year Action Plan is a visionary plan and a first of its kind. The Blueprint details watershed and reach-specific actions to rehabilitate the creek channel and to restore hydrologic function to the watershed through the process of redevelopment over decades.”
“The District of Saanich and our partners have set out on a new path towards sustainable planning for infrastructure and public works within a multi-jurisdictional watershed boundary. We have all started to internalize the watershed management mandate.”
“Within Saanich this means that the Planning, Engineering, and Parks and Recreation Departments have been directed to consider the principles and actions for watershed management, the 10-key actions for short-term implementation, and stream reach actions laid out in the Bowker Creek Blueprint when developing Departmental work plans and budgets.”
“With a clear vision and Blueprint in place, municipalities and communities are able to incorporate efforts into operational work plans, volunteer and school group efforts and to work together with the development community to restore Bowker Creek and its watershed,” concludes Colin Doyle.
TO LEARN MORE:
The Bowker Blueprint process has achieved consensus within and across boundaries, and has galvanized political commitment to move from awareness to action. The success of the Bowker Blueprint is informing a provincial ‘course correction’ as to how ‘urban watershed plans’ should be developed.
To access and download the article by Colin Doyle, click on Bowker Creek Blueprint provides springboard to “Integrated Sustainable Planning for Infrastructure and Public Works”.
