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“Students are always looking for projects where they can make a difference. The idea was how can we bring more science into development to make a difference. I have always looked for people who are within the system but want to make a change. They are the leaders. And if we can contribute some science to these leaders, they can make the difference, not us. All we do is provide the data. And so, connecting with Richard Boase in the 1990s was really fundamental because he is on the inside,” stated UBC’s Dr. Hans Schreier.

“I am the first master’s student involved in EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process. It is interesting because my research is an applied project that has direct implications for local governments. My research looked at ways we could take EAP from a stream-by-stream approach and apply it to a watershed scale or a regional scale. This might be really useful and cost-effective for local governments that have multiple streams in their jurisdiction. In my thesis, I looked at ways to simplify the process for moving EAP to the regional scale and lower the boundaries to entry on different types of projects,” stated Sam Gerrand.

“Historically, drainage has been an afterthought in urban planning decisions. Neighbourhoods were developed without thinking about drainage in a broader watershed context. Circa 2000, however, the emphasis became let’s look at this on a watershed basis. For municipalities like Delta with well-developed infrastructure, this meant figuring out HOW to retrofit and redesign drainage systems. Road rights-of-way account for one-third of the land area of a typical urban watershed, Commitment to a rain garden program would make a material difference over time,” stated Hugh Fraser.

“In late 1996, in came Erik Karlsen from the Province as the spokesperson for the first Fish Protection Act. He convened discussions with environmental, engineering and planning staff. Those were such fantastic discussions. There was a really good alignment and call to action on making streamside regulation work. It was a major advancement but a lot of stress as well. Streamside regulation was being portrayed as a huge land grab. There was a lot of back and forth to move from something that was site-specific to more of a hardline edict with the province,” stated Susan Haid.

“It got my attention when Mike Wei pointed out that the 1200 aquifers in BC are typically tiny. The median size is about twice the area of downtown Vancouver. And so they are ignored because they are not viewed as important. But you live and die at that scale. So, what is the path forward that Mike Wei suggests? Well, it has three elements that make sense to me: deploy the legislative framework to ask the right questions; use the battleground watersheds for scientific research; and protect the local interest and do it well, and do it well everywhere,” stated Kim Stephens.

“The Comox Lake Watershed Protection Plan is truly a collaborative outcome. And most importantly, it is currently fully funded, although without a dedicated watershed service, this funding depends on the support of our elected officials. Because the advisory group represented a broad variety of interests, the plan has a very high level of community support. The watershed plan is a living document. We made that clear upfront. We also committed to revisiting the content as necessary to keep the plan relevant and to address changing conditions,” stated Zoe Norcross-Nu’u.

“Hire excellent people. Then let them make the operational decisions. Council always makes the policy decisions, but always with the advice of staff. Ask the right questions to make sure you are comfortable with recommendations,” stated Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart. “We are trying to get people working together. It is a fragile balance. In the age of social media, the Council reality is that, on a whim, the public can make changes based on information that is not accurate. If the public ever loses confidence in either Council or Staff, we could end up with a wrench in the works.”

“As far as my research into water is concerned, I finally realized that in human-water entanglements, the human is an elemental episode in an endlessly revisable text without words, which is water. That way of thinking comes from my post-modern background in English literature. My professor Raymond Federman had said that but he referred to the world rather than water as a text. I thought, what if I just say that we humans are just an elemental episode. In the big picture, after all, we are latecomers in geological history,” stated Serpil Oppermann.

“Our land ethic has consequences for water and the land it runs through. Atmospheric rivers and droughts, the situation is dire. At the summit, we will shine the spotlight on examples of policies and tools that enable local governments to implement a restorative approach. The water balance is out of balance. Time is of the essence. Science, applied research and experience underpin WHY WE ARE SO POSITIVE in terms of our philosophy that we can turn things around,” stated Richard Boase.

“In the early 2000s, when I was on the faculty at the Harvard Business School, I began my research into the concept of a networked approach that is more focused on network-building and trust-based relationships, and less about building an organization to get to your mission impact. The network emerges around a common goal, rather than a particular program or organizational model. The community mobilizes the resources from throughout the network and does this based on existing relationships in the community,” stated Dr. Jane Wei-Skillern, co-author of The Networked Nonprofit.