Category:

“The FLOWnGROW program has the real potential of influencing how we address water sustainability issues in BC going forward,” states Eric Bonham. “The themes, Whole Systems Approach, reflecting integration through inclusion, Blue Ecology, the interweaving of First Nations and Western Thought and Cathedral Thinking, the foresight and planning for future generations, will set the context for the day.”

Blue Ecology is a concept whose time has come. Pioneered by Michael Blackstock and supported by UNESCO, Blue Ecology emerged from interweaving two ways of knowing – a First Nations spiritual and traditional ecological perspective; and a Western science secular and ecological (water balance) perspective. “Hydrologists and water managers can use the hydrological and Blue Ecology cycles to help explain how and why the climate is changing,” states Michael Blackstock.

“It has become a mentality to over-water in the Okanagan, yet in nature plants dry out between waterings,” states Ken Salvail. “We are training plants to live with a steady supply of water rather than training for long periods without water. We can take almost any plant and wean it over time to live without water by stretching the time between waterings, weaning it gradually.”

“FLOW AND GROW is structured as four modules and is cascading – from high-level visioning to ground-level applications. Each module has a learning objective. Adaptation to a changing climate is a thread that runs through all the modules,” states Kim Stephens. “Climate change, water security, population demand and food security issues will be discussed in grounded terms by a team of 11 expert inter-disciplinary presenters. Their objective is to seed a conversation that will ripple through time.”