Vision for North Vancouver's Maplewood Learning Centre: Create a watershed learning legacy
“One of the things I have been working on recently is this idea for a new interactive type of park that would also provide an outdoor venue to learn about watersheds and especially urban watersheds and the urban water balance,” reports Richard Boase, 
Environmental Protection Officer with the District of North Vancouver. Richard is also Co-Chair of the Inter-Governmental Partnership that developed and maintains the Water Balance Model for British Columbia.
“Maplewood Creek is a small salmon bearing stream in the centre of North Vancouver District. During the design of a water utility project for regional water supply an idea for a new kind of Community Park emerged.”
According to Richard Boase, the vision for the Community Park is that it would be a place that;
- A person in a wheelchair could easily get to a place and watch salmon spawn
- A blind person could easily get to a place and hear and smell the salmon around them
- A person with grandchildren could easily get to and learn about watersheds
“We wanted a place that could not only do all this but a place that Canada would be proud of, a place the world would look at and be inspired. We are very close to doing this. We have a team of truly inspired individuals that are ready to help create our watershed learning legacy.”
“The major work has been done, the salmon have returned to spawn as soon as the new habitat was finished. All we have to do now is finish it off. We need the funding to make wheelchair ramps, bring services in (water, electricity), design and create the watershed education component, build shelters at each of the learning stations, install an underwater “salmon cam”, create audio and brail versions of the learning component. We have a lot to do,” concludes Richard Boase.
Richard Boase and his colleagues have created a video to share their vision for a watershed learning legacy. To view the video, click on Accessible Outdoor Watershed Learning.
Richard Boase has also created a PowerPoint slideshow to provide project details. To view it, click here.
Posted December 2009