Bowker Creek Blueprint: Provincially significant and precedent-setting
Note to Reader:
On October 15 in Nanaimo, the “CAVI Forum within the VIEA Summit” will look back at what has been accomplished by the CAVI initiative over the past six years and look ahead to paint a picture of settlement, ecology and economy in balance. In Hour #1, a panel of five will bring to life the defining moments along the timeline for the period 20067 through 2012. In contributing her vignette, Jody will elaborated on how the Bowker Creek Blueprint is now embedded in the annual work plans of the partber municipalities as well other organizations.
Bowker Creek Blueprint established precedent for “moving from awareness to action”
The Bowker Creek Urban Watershed Renewal Initiative (BCI) is a unique multi-jurisdictional effort in the Capital Regional District on Vancouver Island. It is a collaboration between local governments, community groups, post-secondary institutions and private citizens to improve the health of Bowker Creek and its watershed. The BC has developed the Bowker Creek Blueprint: A 100-year action plan to restore the Bowker Creek watershed.
“The outcome of a landscape-based and action-oriented process is a truly integrated plan to restore watershed function over time. Agree on the vision. Set the targets. Provide planners with the detail necessary to guide site level decisions as opportunities arise. Then implement,” states Jody Watson, BCI Chair.
Working cooperatively within multi-jurisdictional watershed boundary
“An innovative, sustainable adventure has begun in the communities of Saanich, Victoria and Oak Bay in the core of the Capital Region on Southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada,” writes Colin Doyle, Director of Engineering with the District of Saanich, in the May 2012 issue of the APWA Reporter, a publication of the American Public Works Association.
“Recently accepted by the three municipalities, implementation of the Bowker Creek Blueprint has begun. It is a visionary plan and a first of its kind. The Blueprint details watershed and reach-specifc actions to rehabilitate the creek channel and to restore hydrologic function to the watershed through the process of redevelopment over the next few decades.” “The District of Saanich and our partners have set out on a new path towards sustainable planning for infrastructure and public works within a multi-jurisdictional watershed boundary. We have all started to internalize the watershed management mandate.”
“Within Saanich this means that the Planning, Engineering, and Parks and Recreation Departments have been directed to consider the principles and actions for watershed management, the 10-key actionss for short-term implementation, and stream reach actions laid out in the Bowker Creek Blueprint when developing Departmental work plans and budgets,” concludes Colin Doyle.
To Learn More:
To learn about the contributions of Jody Watson, click on Bowker Creek Initiative celebrates 10-year anniversary; recognizes leadership provided by Chair Jody Watson.
