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Ted van der Gulik

    DOWNLOADS FOR THE FALL 2024 SEASON OF THE LIVING WATER SMART SERIES: “Storytelling is among the oldest forms of communication,” stated Professor Rives Collins, author of ‘The Power of Story: Teaching Through Storytelling’


    We share our world view through our stories and storytelling This is how we pass on our oral history. Storytelling is the way we share intergenerational knowledge, experience and wisdom. “Storytelling is the commonality of all human beings, in all places, in all times,” stated Professor Rives Collins, Northwestern University, author of “The Power of Story: Teaching Through Storytelling”.

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    CHRONICLE OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE INNOVATION: “Few people know how important the Fraser Valley is to food security for British Columbia. The question is…does anyone care, really?” – Ted van der Gulik, President of the Partnership for Water Sustainability, and former Senior Engineer in the Ministry of Agriculture (6th installment in a preview series)


    “The fertile Fraser Valley is some of the best farmland in Canada and can grow a lot of the food that we need. To get to food security in BC, we need to increase the irrigated area from 200,000 to 300,000 hectares. If we invest in the infrastructure needed to supply water from the Fraser River, one-third of the additional 100,000 could be provided in the Fraser Valley. But we are slowly losing our land base for growing food. And it is not because land is coming out of the Agricultural Land Reserve. Rather, it is all about what is happening on the land within the ALR,” stated Ted van der Gulik.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Is our food security slipping away without anyone noticing?” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in November 2024


    Ted van der Gulik was ahead of his time when he spearheaded development of the Agriculture Water Demand Model almost two decades ago. With this tool, British Columbia has been able to quantify what the province has versus what the province needs with respect to land and water for food security. “In the Fraser Valley, we are losing some of the best agricultural land in Canada and without even knowing it is happening.. All of us need to care about what happens on the land. That will require a mind-set change,” stated Ted van der Gulik.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Green Infrastructure Innovation in the Metro Vancouver region” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in May 2024


    “Bringing together and inspiring people, especially those in the trenches, to keep fighting the good fight,” stated Ray Fung. “That is basically what we did in the 2000s and continue to do! How do you judge that time with the advantage of hindsight? It is always a confluence of different things.” In the 2000s, the Green Infrastructure Partnership played a prominent role in leading changes in local government attitudes in the Metro Vancouver region. This influence cascaded from elected representative at Municipal Council and Regional Board tables to practitioners in the trenches.

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    A 3-YEAR STRATEGY FOR ENSURING CONTINUITY OF THE PARTNERSHIP NETWORK: “We have started to engage government with training and will continue through 2024. It is full speed ahead,” stated Ted van der Gulik in his President’s Perspective (Annual Report 2023, Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC)


    “A challenge confronting our society is widespread organizational amnesia. The baby boomers have more or less gone out the door. And with them has gone so much oral history. Knowledge and experience are not being passed on. Organizational amnesia is the consequence. It is a race against time to pass on knowledge and experience. It feels like the gap caused by loss of understanding is widening. When those coming into organizations do not know what they do not know, loss of understanding of the WHAT, WHY and HOW is a cause of concern in managing expectations,” stated Ted van der Gulik.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Smart in British Columbia: There is no time to re-invent the wheel” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in January 2024


    Ray Fung captured the mood of the summit with this summation: “The Partnership is seen as a resource that is stable, that is there, and that people can draw upon. I liked the comment that THIS IS A MOVEMENT. I find that is really inspiring to not see ourselves just as a network. We leave the summit inspired to figure out how the FORM of the Partnership will follow the FUNCTION. We can learn things from expanding our perspective. Part of that holistic approach includes the SPIRITUAL as well as the physical connection to the land.”

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: A message of hope is paramount in these times of droughts, forest fires and floods” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in October 2023


    “I frequently hear comments and concerns about getting buy-in to asset management within the organization and with the elected officials. Recently I spoke to a mayor who said, ‘I do not understand what this is about’ and added ‘we are already too busy with a very small staff!’. Communications (and miscommunication) continue to be our biggest barrier. This quote sums up some of our issues: The asset management community has lost sight of Sustainable Service Delivery strategies because it is lost in the details of Asset Management,” stated Wally Wells.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: In 2023, history repeated itself in the Kelowna region” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in September 2023


    “Mother Nature has an amazing sense of timing. On the 20th anniversary of the evacuation of 27,000 people from Kelowna due to forest fires, history repeated itself in August in the Kelowna region, in particular West Kelowna. We have had two decades to prepare for the obvious and the inevitable. 2003 was the first of a series of teachable years, with the full onslaught of a changing climate hitting hard as of 2015. Climate change is accelerating. There is no time to re-invent the wheel, fiddle, or go down cul-de-sacs. Understand how the past informs the future and build on that experience,” stated Kim Stephens.

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    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Fifty Years – and miraculously still here: BC’s Agricultural Land Reserve” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in April 2023


    Most British Columbians do not know a British Columbia without the ALR. “With only about 5% of BC’s land area capable of agricultural use, 50 years ago it was estimated we were losing 6000 hectares per year to non-farm uses. It was clear that local governments could not withstand development pressures upon this scarce provincial resource, In 1973, the Agricultural Land Reserve not only preserved the land for food production for present and future generations, but it preserved the option to plan our settled communities to be more resilient and sustainable,” stated Joan Sawicki.

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    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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