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Tim Pringle

    TIER ONE CHAMPION FOR AN ECOSYSTEM-BASED APPROACH IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: In 1988, the inaugural Real Estate Foundation Board of Governors appointed Tim Pringle as their first Executive Director, a position he held for 20 years. In 1991, the Governors adopted his recommendation to adopt a philosophy that “use and conservation of land are equal values”


    The Real Estate Foundation is a creation of the Province. Adoption of the philosophy that ‘use and conservation of land are equal values’ provided me with the mandate and authority to leverage Real Estate Foundation grant funding to effect positive land use change. That is the context for Real Estate Foundation leadership as a co-funder of the Headwaters Project in East Clayton. Process issues could have derailed the Headwaters Project. But the Real Estate Foundation provided the workaround and Erik Karlsen made the workaround work,” stated Tim Pringle.

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    REIMAGINE URBAN GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE AS AN ECOSYSTEM: “My research is the first systematic review of the use and definition of the green infrastructure concept in local government plans in the United States,” stated Zbigniew Grabowski, principal author of ‘What is green infrastructure? A study of definitions in US city planning’


    “Many plans fail to explicitly define green infrastructure. How it is defined guides the types of projects that local governments implement, with enduring impacts to people and the urban environment. Ecology is not really being embedded in any planning practice. This realization turned my attention towards this question…how do you embed ecosystem science and principles within landscape planning to conserve landscapes, ecological functions, and quality? My work is about a new paradigm that moves away from humans as separate from nature,” stated Zbigniew Grabowski.

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    EAP, THE ECOLOGICAL ACCOUNTING PROCESS: “In 2025, the Partnership for Water Sustainability exported the EAP content to a new standalone community-of-practice,” stated Kim Stephens, Executive Director


    “Beyond the Guidebook 2015 concludes with the concept of Twin Pillars of Stream System Integrity. One pillar is Water Balance Accounting and the other is Ecological Accounting. In 2015, we introduced EAP as an idea whose time had come. We linked it to asset management because viewing the watershed through an asset management lens shines the spotlight on why ‘cost avoidance’ is a driver for local governments to require that land development practices mimic the Water Balance. A decade later, it was time for a dedicated EAP home on waterbucket.ca,” stated Kim Stephens.

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    EAP, THE ECOLOGICAL ACCOUNTING PROCESS: “Communities rarely manage streams as ecological systems; rather they are sliced and diced to suit land development objectives,” stated Tim Pringle, EAP Chair and adjunct professor at Vancouver Island University


    “Nature is a system, you cannot slice and dice it. When streams are sliced and diced, consequences follow – erosion, flood damage, loss of property enjoyment, diminished aquatic habitat. There will be no stream to produce ecological services if land use intensity destroys riparian conditions. EAP provides a number that communities need to include streams in budgets for asset management and tackle Riparian Deficits. EAP builds on the ‘big idea’ that use and conservation of land are equal values. EAP provides a value picture of a stream system as a land use,” stated Tim Pringle.

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    EAP, THE ECOLOGICAL ACCOUNTING PROCESS: “EAP is at a logical point to evolve … to become valuable to planners and council members as well as to engineers. By evolving, EAP will support stewardship organizations as well,” stated Tim Pringle


    “The starting point for EAP is Natural Asset Management. We are taking a spatial approach. We deal with parcels which is as spatial as you can get. We need readers to understand that in order for EAP to be real to them. It lets local governments know the financial value of their streams as a Natural Commons Asset. Next, we are moving EAP from a primary emphasis on Asset Management to use by planners for spatial analysis related to streams and trees. As we evolve EAP through more projects, we will be able to say here are rules of thumb for planners,” stated Tim Pringle.

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    METRO VANCOUVER LEGACY RESEARCH; BENCHMARK FOR WATERSHED HEALTH: “When local governments obtain a financial value for streams as spatial assets, they can include them in their asset management plans and budgets,” stated Tim Pringle, Adjunct Faculty with the Master of Community Planning Department at Vancouver Island University


    “Context is everything. In 1999, the science was brand new and the Streamside Protection Regulation was still two years away from becoming law. This context underscores just how far ahead of the game that Metro Vancouver was with its watershed health rating system. This is context for Metro Vancouver coming full circle to build on seminal applied research undertaken in the Metro Vancouver and Puget Sound regions in the late 1990s.This legacy work provides us with a benchmark for comparison of watershed health assessments then and now,” stated Tim Pringle.

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    NATURE-FIRST CITIES AND URBAN ECOSYSTEM-BASED PLANNING: “Nature-First Cities is not a heavy academic book. We wrote it to be inspirational. We challenge readers to understand why we have become so disconnected from nature and what happens when we start to rebuild that connection,” stated SFU Professor Sean Markey


    “Nature belongs in cities, but how do we put nature first without pushing people aside? Nature-First Cities reveals the false dichotomy of that question by recognizing that people and nature are indivisible. What are the costs associated with having cities that are not nature-based? What are the benefits if we invite nature back into our cities? What would it take to actually do this? If we are to challenge how urban development has taken place without a deep understanding of our connection to nature, what is a strategy for bringing nature back into cities,” stated Sean Markey.

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    ASSET MANAGEMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE SERVICE DELIVERY: “My passion is about driving positive change. Being committed to goals. Setting long-term objectives. And committing to those until they are delivered. That is what gets these big items over the finish line,” stated Melony Burton, Manager of Infrastructure Planning with the City of Port Coquitlam


    Melony Burton’s actions in driving positive change are guided by her no-nonsense approach to keeping it simple, practical and implementable. She is results-based and has a history of accomplishment with three local governments. Her responsibilities encompass the entire infrastructure portfolio. “I have leveraged my career into a position that allows me to have more influence and positive change. This came, in part, from channeling the frustration at being limited in the role I was in. When you are comfortable, you are not motivated to make a change,” explains Melony Burton.

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    12 – LESSONS FROM THE PAST INFORM THE FUTURE IN METRO VANCOUVER: Twin Pillars of Stream System Integrity


    Puget Sound research correlated land use changes with impacts on streams. Hydrology and riparian integrity are of equal importance. “There are many factors that influence stream degradation. There is not a single smoking gun. Impervious area is the main culprit. But you can trash a stream just as badly by deforestation of the riparian zone as you can by paving over the headwaters with a mall,” says Chris May.

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    18 – LESSONS FROM THE PAST INFORM THE FUTURE IN METRO VANCOUVER: Stream Health in Metro Vancouver Region


    “Both the Metro research in the late 1990s and the current EAP research are spatial analyses. With hindsight, I can say that Metro was ahead of its time and got it right with the RFI index but let it slip away,” stated Tim Pringle. “EAP deals with parcels which is as spatial as you can get. The EAP process allows local governments to transcend the numbers and explore the financial impact of land development choices.”

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