This announcement is the eighth in a series. Designed to paint a picture of the field day and 2-day symposium, the series delves into the details of the cascading program to inform, educate and establish expectations for each of the modules.

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Bowker Creek flows through three municipalities: Saanich, Victoria and Oak Bay. Degraded over generations, and buried for much of its length, Bowker restoration demonstrates how a good strategy is the path to success. The Bowker Creek Urban Watershed Renewal Initiative serves as a how-to-guide for a ‘top-down & bottom-up’ approach. Connect with the community and get the vision right.

A decade in the making, and approved by all three municipalities as of 2012, the Bowker Creek Blueprint: A 100-year action plan to restore the Bowker Creek watershedresulted from a unique multi-jurisdictional effort. Outreach proved to be a powerful tool for building community and political support.

The Bowker process demonstrates that four ingredients are essential for a successful creekshed restoration strategy, namely – champions inside and outside government, broad-based collaboration, perseverance by individuals in all walks of life, and sustained commitment over decades by local governments. Ultimately, Bowker Blueprint implementation hinges on embedding details into operational work plans. This is happening.

Replacement of the old Oak Bay High School with a new facility created the opportunity for a flagship creek restoration project. Completed in 2015, this has been a catalyst for action – for example, the Bowker Creek Developers’ Guide, in collaboration with the Urban Development Institute.

“Channel restoration at Oak Bay High was a true ‘watershed moment’ for the creek and the community. It is a wonderful example of how a long-term coordinated plan to restore function to a degraded watershed can happen, piece by piece, and when opportunities arise, when we work together towards a common vision,” states Jody Watson, Capital Regional District. Jody  is Supervisor, Environmental Partnerships & Initiatives. Now Past-Chair, Bowker Creek Initiative, she provided strong leadership for a decade and a half (i.e. from 2004 through 2018)

“The Bowker Blueprint is the outcome of a landscape-based and action-oriented process. It 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.”

The “Comox hour” is an integrated presentation that blends three perspectives to showcase the long-term value of collaboration guided by a shared vision for creekshed restoration. The 3-person team comprises Christine Hodgson of the Brooklyn Creek Watershed Society, and two members of the Town of Comox leadership team, namely: Al Fraser (Parks) and Marvin Kamenz (Planning). Their storytelling will prime the audience for a town-hall conversation about “improving where we live”.

First, Al Fraser will provide context for the Comox journey, with a focus on partnerships. Then, Christine Hodgson follows with a show-and-tell about Brooklyn Creek. Finally, Marvin Kamenz elaborates on three building blocks in the evolution of the Town’s incremental process for implementing changes in development practices: lower Brooklyn Corridor, North East Comox, and new areas tributary to the middle Brooklyn Corridor.

Brooklyn Creek

The lower corridor is a regional amenity destination, reflecting the beneficial impact of the investment by the Town and the Brooklyn Creek Watershed Society in stream stabilization and riparian area enhancement. The Partnership for Water Sustainability selected Brooklyn Creek as a working example of how to apply the Ecological Accounting Process (EAP) to value the worth of a creekshed, its hydrology, and ecological systems.

“EAP focuses on the worth of ecological services to residents,” states Marvin Kamenz, Municipal Planner. “Worth deals with real numbers which local governments need to deliver outcomes. The worth of a creekshed is defined as a package of ecological services made possible by the hydrology.

“Looking through the ‘worth lens’ culminated in a fundamental shift in philosophy regarding how to value natural assets in Comox. We are integrating the understanding gained from the Brooklyn Creek EAP demonstration application into the Town’s strategy for development.”

In a watershed adjacent to Brooklyn Creek, the North East Comox Stormwater Management Plan applies the water balance methodology to address downstream watercourse capacity, fish habitat, agriculture and sensitive ecosystem concerns.

“We had the reality of a legal issue related to flooding in the downstream reaches of the drainage system. This provided the leverage for action by the Town,” explains Marvin Kamenz.

“The Town is being proactive in changing development practices. This is demonstrated by the training course that the Town held for drainage and land development engineers. Because the course comprised six sessions over a 3-month period, participation required a major commitment of their time.”

“The Town hosted this training because the planning and design process is becoming increasingly more complex, and with greater expectations than we have ever applied to drainage infrastructure.

“The Town’s experience is that a lack of explicit identification and justification of the assumptions and simplifications made in the analysis of stormwater impacts has resulted in stormwater systems that address hypothetical as opposed to actual site characteristics and development impacts.

“It has taken a huge investment of effort and collaboration between the Town and local development engineers to: (1) realize and then understand the different constraints, requirements and abilities of each party; and (2) collaborate in the creation of a new approach to rainwater management.

“The result is an approach where assumptions and simplifications are understood by both parties and where there is mutual agreement as to their applicability to development site characteristics and the rainwater management objectives.”

Work is now underway to apply the lessons learned from both areas to create a neighbourhood plan that protects and enhances the package of ecological services of the middle Brooklyn Corridor (environmental protection, recreation and stormwater drainage) for future neighbourhood residents, while protecting those same values in the lower Brooklyn Corridor.