“Bowker Creek Watershed Blueprint is a provincial game-changer,” Kim Stephens informs Capital Region elected representatives
Bowker Blueprint: Provincially Significant and Precedent-Setting
The Inter-Regional Education Initiative has brought together five geographic regions – namely Capital, Cowichan Valley, Nanaimo, Comox Valley and Metro Vancouver – to accelerate implementation of affordable and effective watershed sustainabillity and green infrastructure practices. The Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia is facilitating inter-regional collaboration.
In February 2014, Kim Stephens, Partnership Executive Director met with the Environmental Services Committee of the Capital Regional District (CRD) to present a Progress Report on Inter-Regional Collaboration for Watershed Sustainability. In his presentation, he took the time to describe why the Bowker Creek Watershed Blueprint is leading change in British Columbia.
Leading Change
“I really want to highlight the significance of the Bowker Creek Watershed Blueprint. In a word, it was a game-changer. It is a game-changer. It continues to be a game-changer. And it is provincially significant and precedent-setting. It is also inspirational. In my 40-year career as a professional engineer, there is nothing that equals it. And the reason it 
is so important is that it gave the rest of us a vision of what can be. In this region, you moved it from just having reports to actually having action.”
“I always say you judge progress by how far you have come, not where you still have to get to. And so, Bowker Creek really is significant. The experience of what this region has done is informing others, from Metro Vancouver all the way up to the Comox Valley.”
“The real value of collaboration is helping everyone go farther, more efficiently and effectively. And if I think about the Bowker Creek in the context of what we are trying to do in British Columbia, it is about designing with nature. If we implement green infrastructure, that is how we ultimately mimic the natural water balance. Watershed health really does depend on how we respect the land.”
To Watch the Video:
To Learn More:
To download a PDF copy of the PowerPoint presentation by Kim Stephens, click on Collaboration Will Help Everyone Better Deliver on Regulatory Compliance.
To read a story posted previously on the Vancouver Island community-of-interest, click on Inter-Regional Education Initiative: Overview of 2014 Work Plan
Bowker Creek Watershed Blueprint
The Bowker Creek Blueprint is a 100-year action plan to restore watershed function in the urban heartland of the Capital Region. The inclusive process that culminated in the Bowker Creek Blueprint demonstrates how major breakthroughs happen when decision makers in government collaborate with grass-roots visionaries in the community to create desired outcomes.
“The Bowker Blueprint is helping the community understand that: we all live in a watershed, all water ends up in the same place when it runs off the land, and everyone must commit to actions that improve watershed health. As we improve the way we deal with water runoff, our world will be a better place – not only now, but even more so in a 100 years – because we will have been implementing the Blueprint for that long,” states Steve Fifield,. Prior to retirement, he was the City of Victoria’s representative on the Bowker Creek Initiative.
To Watch a Video:
To learn more about the Bowker Creek Initiative and the story behind the Bowker Creek Blueprint, click on the link following to view a 5-minute video.
In February 2010, the Bowker Creek Forum attracted provincial attention to the precedent-setting accompishment that is the Bowker Creek Blueprint. To access the “homepage” established on the Waterbucket website for this transformational event, click here.
