BOWKER CREEK FORUM PREVIEW: “Leading up to the Bowker Creek Forum, a set of four stories progressively foreshadowed and/or elaborated on what would be covered at the Forum,” stated Kim Stephens, Program Coordinator, Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia (February 2010)
An Integrated Approach to Urban Watershed Management: Bowker Creek Blueprint Demonstrates the ‘Regional Team Approach’
Leading up to the Bowker Creek Forum, a set of four stories progressively foreshadowed and/or elaborated on what would be covered at the Forum. A fifth story documents the Forum outcomes. The publication schedule, titles and scope are listed below:
- Week of January 25, 2010:
Story #1 titled Convening for Action in the Georgia Basin: Bowker Creek Blueprint establishes precedent for moving from awareness to action describes the Bowker Creek Blueprint, summarizes the process that culminated in the 100-Year Action Plan, and synthesizes lessons learned. - Week of February 1, 2010:
Story #2 titled Convening for Action in the Georgia Basin: Bowker Creek Forum promotes inter-regional sharing and collaboration introduces the vision for collaboration among the three regions (CRD, north of the Malahat, Metro Vancouver); and describes the ‘regional team approach’ to achieving water sustainability through implementation of green infrastructure. - Week of February 8, 2010:
Story #3 titled Shared Responsibility: Community Perspectives on Developing and Implementing the 100-Year Action Plan for Watershed Restoration described the role played by community groups and associations; and explainws how community values influenced the plan development process and are reflected in the Bowker Creek Blueprint. - Week of February 15, 2010:
Story #4 titled Shared Responsibility: Local Government Perspectives on Developing and Implementing the 100-Year Action Plan for Watershed Restoration elaborated on what on-the-ground implementation will mean for municipal staffs which are tasked with making things happen. - Week of March 1, 2010:
Story #5 titled Call to Action: Bowker Creek Forum provides advances a ‘regional team approach’ to watershed restoration in the Georgia Basin summarizes what was accomplished by the Forum, and foreshadows where the outcomes may lead.
These stories served as resource materials for participants; and in future will serve as a publicly accessible record of the Forum process.
To Learn More:
To download a PDF version of this web story, click on Bowker Creek Forum: Water Bucket Storyline & Publication Schedule
About the Bowker Creek Blueprint
The Bowker Creek Blueprint provides member municipalities, the Capital Regional District, the community and other land stewards with information and guidance to manage and restore the Bowker Creek watershed and creek corridor over the long term.
Having a plan in place will ensure that positive changes can happen incrementally, and that opportunities for major improvements can be achieved as they arise…in order to achieve the Bowker Creek Vision.
Need for Regional Team Approach
Achieving the Bowker Creek Vision entails a ‘regional team approach’ that is founded on the notion of shared responsibility.
To Learn More:
To download a copy of the discussion document released by the Water Sustainability Action Plan in December 2009, click on Backgrounder: Shared Responsibility Underpins a Regional Team Approach to Creating Our Future in British Columbia
Communication via Water Bucket
The waterbucket.ca website is the communication platform for the Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia; and for regional initiatives and programs such as CAVI-Convening for Action on Vancouver Island. The waterbucket.ca website is used to support/publicize “convening for action” events such as the Bowker Creek Forum.
Desired Outcomes
According to Kim Stephens, Program Coordinator for the Action Plan, publishing a series of stories on waterbucket.ca is intended to achieve three outcomes:
- progressively establish expectations;
- enable participants to tell their stories in their own words; and
- provide a written record of our “convening for action in BC” history as we create it.
“By publishing weekly stories on waterbucket.ca, this provides groups such as the Bowker Creek Steering Committee with flexibility to issue news releases (complete with web links) to inform target audiences,” states Kim Stephens.
Format for Information Delivery
“
The format for information delivery is a downloadable PDF document accompanied by a short web story. These are not technical documents. Although the layout is report-style, the documents are written in a journalistic style with emphasis on use of quotes. These personalize the stories and make them reader-friendly. Our experience shows that this approach is proving effective in communicating key messages,” adds Mike Tanner, Chair of the Water Bucket Website Partnership.
To Learn More:
Click on Mike Tanner tells “The Story of the WaterBucket Website” at the 2009 Resilient Cities Conference.
