Convening for Action in British Columbia

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restorative development

    2ND ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM ON PLANNING FOR RESILIENCE: “Inspired by Buzz Holling, BC’s Stormwater Guidebook established an adaptive management precedent. A decade later, Buzz and I had a reflective conversation after his keynote address at UBC. He further inspired me,” stated Kim Stephens when he represented the Water Sustainability Action Plan as a panel member on Uncertain Water Supplies (March 2010)


    “My first contact with Buzz Holling was in 1999. An assignment for King County allowed me to delve into the origins of adaptive management, and research experience around the world. Specifically, we were looking for a local government precedent, and there was none. This led me to phone Buzz,” stated Kim Stephens. “In 1999, my Aha Moment was realizing that our cross-border response to the ‘salmon crisis’ in the Pacific Northwest paralleled the efforts of Buzz Holling related to Florida Everglades Restoration.”

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    OKANANGAN ‘FROM RAIN TO RESOURCE WORKSHOP’: “The strategy for putting down topsoil to capture rainfall in the wet weather months is the same strategy for water conservation,” stated Ted van der Gulik when he described how to move from awareness to action and embrace a new culture as described in Beyond the Guidebook 2010 for achieving water sustainability (October 2010)


    “One summer day, as I was on my way to a meeting, I was listening to a discussion on the radio about water conservation. The meeting that day was about rainwater management and the importance of putting water back into the ground for stream protection. It struck me that the same solution applies to water conservation and drought management. The topsoil that absorbs the water in the winter months is the same topsoil that retains water in the summertime so that we can irrigate less; and lawns and gardens would be healthier,” stated Ted van der Gulik.

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    WATER SUSTAINABILITY ACTION PLAN FOR BRITISH COLUMBIA:“After the Action Plan was released with the approval of the provincial government in February 2004, the branding graphic for the integrated scope of the partnership framework evolved from a jig-saw puzzle to a Venn diagram by 2007. This reflected the maturing of the Action Plan implementation program,” stated Ray Fung, Chair (2003-2008)


    “The main goal of the Water Sustainability Action Plan is to encourage province-wide implementation of fully integrated water sustainability policies, plans and programs. The Action Plan recognizes that the greatest impact on water, land and water resources occurs through our individual values, choices and behaviour. The Action Plan promotes and facilitates sustainable approaches to water use, land use and water resource management at all levels – from the province to the household; and in all sectors,” stated Ray Fung.

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    PARKSVILLE 2019: ‘Convening for Action’ symposium started strong with Dave Derrick stream restoration workshop and walkabout, and finished strong with Storm Cunningham presentation on restorative development; remarkable 40% response rate by delegates confirmed that the key educational objectives were fulfilled


    Attract an audience balanced across sectors. Demonstrate the power of collaboration between the stewardship sector and local governments. Create an environment for sharing and cross-fertilizing experiences. Those were the objectives. “I just wanted to say thanks to you and everyone behind the great symposium! Great job!! It was an exciting few days, and I left feeling inspired and even somewhat empowered about finding ways to protect water. The importance of ecological services really hit home for me. There is lots of great work happening out there – thanks to all the organizers for bringing it all together,” said Laura Beckett,

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    NANAIMO 2018: “The vision for restorative development is an idea whose time has come – and a set of videos uploaded to YouTube provide a permanent record of this watershed moment,” stated John Finnie, Chair, Nanaimo 2018 Symposium Organizing Committee


    “The program was structured as three modules to enable the audience to have an informed conversation,” stated John Finnie. “Context is everything. Hence, two co-keynote presentations in Module A set the context and primed participants for a town-hall sharing and learning session in Module B about restorative development. In the afternoon, a set of four reflective presentations introduced building blocks for achieving Sustainable Watershed Systems.”

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    GUIDANCE DOCUMENT: “Town of Comox – A ‘Beacon of Hope’ for Citizen Science in Action & Reconnecting Hydrology and Ecology through the Water Balance Approach to Land Development” (#8 in the Watershed Case Profile Series, released September 2019)


    “The Town was not willing to entertain any development in middle Brooklyn unless there was a demonstrated program that would eliminate any increased risks to the Town; be they flooding or environmental,” stated Shelley Ashfield. “When the EAP analysis then connected the creek to the concept of it being an asset of the Town, this provided Staff with one more way to link the stream to the health of the community. The concept of the stream as an asset allows the Town to include it in the plans to manage all of the Town’s assets on behalf of the community for future generations.”

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    DRINKING WATER & WATERSHED PROTECTION IN THE NANAIMO REGION: “We engage with volunteers in the Englishman River watershed and other watersheds across our region,” stated Julie Pisani, Regional District of Nanaimo, when she explained the region’s partnership-based water quality monitoring program in a panel session on ‘Watershed Health and You’ at the Parksville 2019 Symposium (watch on YouTube)


    “Through the efforts of stewardship volunteers, the RDN’s Community Watershed Monitoring Network has successfully completed 7+ years of monitoring surface water quality. A recent study has analyzed the data region-wide, modelling land use factors and their connection to water quality results, including for the Englishman River,” explained Julie Pisani. “We have worked very closely with Ministry of Environment staff who helped us to decide what the key parameters are to monitor in order to get a baseline understanding of watershed health.”

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    DOWNLOADABLE RESOURCE: “An Introduction to the Ecological Accounting Process (EAP)”, released at the Parksville 2019 Symposium (April 2019)


    “The Ecological Accounting Process offers some insights on the importance of considering the natural commons as systems that residents, property owners and local governments rely on, but understand only to a limited extent,” stated Tim Pringle. “The commons are those resources in the community that are shared by and available to all residents and property owners. From a human settlement point of view, the reality of the commons provides a way to understand the social realities of managing ecological systems. EAP helps communities calculate what ecological services are worth.”

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    DESIGN WITH NATURE: “Man is that uniquely conscious creature who can perceive and express. He must become the steward of the biosphere. To do this, he must design with nature,” wrote Ian McHarg in Chapter 1 of his landmark book that is his enduring legacy (published in 1969)


    More manifesto than scholarly text, Ian McHarg’s now-canonical book arrived amidst the tumult of an ascendant, leftist environmental movement—one that delivered a series of landmark political victories in the 1970s, a period that would become known as “the environmental decade.” It remains one of the best-selling books ever written by a designer, has been translated into Chinese, French, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish, and remains in print today.

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    IMPROVING WHERE WE LIVE: Maybe we are not doomed after all. We have the brains. Do we have the will?


    In 1995, acclaimed marine biologist Daniel Pauly coined the term “shifting baselines” to describe a phenomenon of lowered expectations. This is a foundation piece for implementing restorative development, reconnecting hydrology and ecology, and bending the curve to restore stream systems. Accepted ‘standards of practice’ – especially those for engineering, planning and finance – influence the form and function of the Built Environment. The goal of shifting to an ecologically functioning and resilient baseline and creating a creekshed legacy will ultimately depend on the nature of change to standards of practice.

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