Convening for Action in British Columbia

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Blue Ecology

    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Build bridges of understanding, pass the baton!” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in March 2023


    “Over the past 30 years, a series of provincial government initiatives established a direction for water sustainability, including Stewardship of the Water of BC in 1993, the Fish Protection Act in 1997, and the Water Conservation Strategy for BC in 1998. The high-water mark is Living Water Smart, British Columbia’s Water Plan, released in 2008. The Water Sustainability Act is another key piece; the Partnership is committed to furthering its implementation and collaborating with the provincial government to fill gaps and improve the legislation.,” stated Kim Stephens.

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    A 3-YEAR STRATEGY FOR ENSURING CONTINUITY OF THE PARTNERSHIP NETWORK: “Growing and sustaining the network is very much about finding those to whom we can pass the baton. At the end of the day, however, ensuring continuity of the network is really about how organizations continue within the network,” stated Ted van der Gulik in his President’s Perspective (Annual Report 2022, Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC)


    “A Partnership strength is the real-world experience we bring because of our multiple initiatives under Living Water Smart Actions. Under that vision, various building blocks processes have evolved over the decades. The Watershed Security Strategy and Fund, an initiative of the current provincial government, is the obvious mechanism to revisit, understand, learn from, and leverage past successes in the building blocks continuum. We have tools to help do the job. We can achieve better stewardship of BC’s water resources for present and future generations,” stated Ted van der Gulik.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Measure streamflow and close a data gap in community planning” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in February 2023


    “When it comes to measuring streamflow, there is a real risk of groups or individuals or ministries out-sourcing work that they do not understand. For this reason, a program goal is to educate these groups so that they get value for the dollar when work is done for them by third parties,” stated Neil Goeller. “It is a process to teach them what hydrology looks like, and what hydrometrics look like. There are so many aspects to it – how do you collect this data, what does it look like when you collect it, what is the value of the data, and what do you do with the data once you have it.”

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Community-based science raises water balance awareness on Salt Spring Island” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in February 2023


    “I am a geologist, and it has been my passion since age 8. And geology links quite naturally into an understanding of water resources. And so, when I retired to Salt Spring Island, I became heavily involved in some of the community-based science work that is underway on the island. We can do some fantastic science work, we can even achieve some ‘accuracy’ with our numbers, and we can say this is what we are going to base our planning decisions on. Unfortunately, if the public is not on board because they do not understand it, you are screwed,” stated Dr John Millson.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: A Pathway to Water Reconciliation and Resilience at the Local Scale” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in January 2023


    “When I think about the experience in the Cowichan, in many ways the region is still in the theoretical stage in terms of weaving Indigenous knowledge and Western science,” stated Brian Carruthers. “We created the framework for that to happen, but I cannot say that it truly has happened. The foundation for interweaving in the Cowichan region is really with the Cowichan Tribes. Everything the Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD) has done has been shoulder to shoulder with them. The framework is in place and the Drinking Water and Watershed Protection service exists. However, a reality is that things do take time.”

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    INTERWEAVING INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE & WESTERN SCIENCE: “In British Columbia, hydrometric records are fairly limited in time and geographic coverage. From a hydrology perspective, then, interweaving science and a rich oral history would turn a comparatively short period of data collection into thousands of years of knowledge. This might profoundly change how we view extreme changes in the water cycle and the consequences in BC,” stated Kim Stephens, Partnership for Water Sustainability (February 2022)


    “If Thomas Bayes (1702-1761) was alive today, I have no doubt that he would say, oral history extends the period of period and our understanding of what the data mean. Bayesian statistics offers a framework for combining different kinds of information and making best use of what is available. Four decades ago, a municipality brought public works staff back from retirement so that I could interview them and compile the oral history of strategic culvert installations. These ‘data inputs’ made it possible to generate flood frequency curves,” stated Kim Stephens.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Oral history extends the period of record and our understanding of what the data mean” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in February 2022


    “Interweaving means bring together two different ways of knowing into one new concept that weaves the strengths of both ways of knowing, rather than criticizing one or the other; or trying to make them compete. It is a more collaborative way of knowing. There is a sense of humility that comes with interweaving and acknowledging that Western science is not the only way of knowing. There are other ways of knowing. And so, the humility part is interweaving the strengths of those other ways,” stated Michael Blackstock.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Blue Ecology is the Pathway to Reach Water Reconciliation” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in January 2022


    “Our children’s children will be faced with daunting, complex, and urgent environmental problems. We owe them hope. Curiosity about other cultures draws us into a better understanding, and allows us to contrast and compare two worlds. The product of curiosity is an analysis whereby comparison and contrast enable the interweaving process. This is about creating a new form of knowledge through collaboration by interweaving useful threads from each way of knowing into a more robust way,” stated Michael Blackstock.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Blue Ecology Virtual Seminar on Creating a Climate for Change” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in October 2021


    “Are you prepared and willing to change your definition of water in science? And if you are, what would the change in definition look like? This is what reconciliation really gets down to when we are talking about interweaving Indigenous knowledge and Western science. No longer is it ceremonial. Is Western science prepared, for example, to add the moon to the hydrologic cycle? From the Indigenous perspective, we believe it should be there,” stated Michael Blackstock.

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