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“We know what a functioning catchment looks like. We know how to restore one. We can measure the return in flood peaks avoided, low flows sustained, sediment retained and assets protected. The science is mature. The constraint is institutional. The barrier is the continued belief that we can engineer our way out of a problem that engineering created. The result is a landscape that delivers water to the wrong places at the wrong speed with the wrong force. Drought and flood look like opposite problems. They are not. They are the same problem,” stated Neil Entwistle.

The Georgia Basin IREI is the foundation for the initiatives described in Part E. Entering the 2010s, watershed and stream health and rainwater management were priorities for communities on the east coast of Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland region. Five regional districts were IREI founding members. Each region had a vision and goals for water and watershed sustainability. This commonality was the point of departure for sharing and learning from each other. Complementary regional lenses produced a complete picture of the Urban Watershed Health issue.

Premier Gordon Campbell was a ‘water champion’. His interests encompassed the vision for the Water Sustainability Action Plan and greener communities. “Look long term. Think about what is best for the future. Not for you, but for those who will follow you. Think about how we can create a better environment that others can live in and benefit from. We get to make our own choices. We get to make our own future. We just have to have the vision to imagine, and the tenacity to pursue it. Collaboration is essential. We also have to bring people together,” he stated.

The third installment of the Chronicle of Green Infrastructure Innovation in Metro Vancouver covers the period 1997 through 2005. This sweeping narrative weaves quotable quote to tell the story of what led up to publication of BC’s Stormwater Planning Guidebook in 2002, and the impact of what followed in the wake of publication. “Transformation is often fraught with danger. How does one dance with the tiger? You do it carefully, skillfully, courageously, in tune to the same music, advancing step by natural step,” wrote co-authors Mary Altomare and Brian Nattrass.

In a magazine article titled Stormwater Paradigms, Andy Reese insightfully looked back at why we pursued stormwater management in ways which unknowingly – at the time – foreclosed opportunities for more sustainable, livable communities. Andy Reese traced nine such shifts against the backdrop of social change. “We only reluctantly change our ways and agree with someone else’s paradigm,” observed Andy Reese. The article inspired the BC team of Erik Karlsen, Robert Hicks and Kim Stephens to collaborate with Andy Reese to introduce a tenth paradigm.

“It is the modern science of causation which imposes the probabilistic framework for investigating the causal relationship between the climate and/or land use coverage change. The cause-effect relationship is the only way to put to the forefront the desperate need for an understanding of cumulative effects. And thinking about the headwaters when we are making decisions downstream. Cause-effect. The climate is the cause. The effect is the hydrological response. The land use, land cover changes are the cause…and the hydrological response is the effect,” stated Younes Alila.

“A unifying theme in conversations with 13 green infrastructure influencers is that staff champions in local government can only carry things so far. Only when someone who is elected takes the lead, and is the champion, does something happen. In the 2000s, everything was in alignment. The right people were in the right place at the right time. There was energy, there was passion. The regional team approach to municipal collaboration brought all the players together for a shared mission. They learned from each other; they moved forward in tandem,” stated Kim Stephens.

When Erik Karlsen brought people together, he would cast a magic spell. When he asked you to get involved in an initiative, of course you said yes! A thought leader and change agent, Erik Karlsen turned networking skills into an art form. He had an unparalleled network of connection with Georgia Basin communities – and most importantly, a high degree of trust with those communities. He has a special place in the history of the Partnership for Water Sustainability. was a mover and a shaker in the public service. His legacy is embodied in the continuing work of the Partnership.

In his book, Howard Macdonald Stewart documents that, too often in his career as an advisor to the United Nations, he experienced a vital paradise that had become an environmental desert due to ‘business as usual’ decisions. He wrote the book to help readers better understand past decisions and their consequences. “Many books have been written about individual communities and industries around the great waterway, but none have examined the region as a geographical unit with its own dynamic systems, which can best be understood as an interrelated whole,” stated Macdonald.

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. This new book is a guide to building urban ecosystems. “Prepare to be entertained, educated, and stirred to advocate for nature-oriented cities. Brewer, Hammond, and Markey, discontent with band-aids and wishful thinking in the face of planetary crises, address the core of what threatens our survival,” stated Cherise Burda.