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“The plan for integrated rainwater management will encompass strategies for flood mitigation in the downtown core, how to replace traditional engineered infrastructure with green solutions and will look through a broad lens at regional solutions,” explained Ryan O’Grady. “There’s a collective desire to collaborate … it would be great to work together. I look forward to facilitating that conversation with the bigger group (that also includes the neighbouring local governments, development community, stewardship groups, and K’omoks First Nation).”

“The Water-Wise Guide can be viewed as a communication tool,” stated Nancy Gothard, City of Courtenay environmental planner. “But more than that, it is both a call to action (for the community, but also for us) as well as a road map for that action. So, our goal is to begin to brand the story and depict visually that we are developing a consistency in expectations as to how development would address environmental concerns. Having the Water-Wise Guide available on every front counter and every website is a first step.”

“Retrofiting at multiple scales and multiple levels is really key. But, so many people in local government are just too busy these days to even contemplate what needs to be done to repair and restore at multiple scales and levels. As a result, and especially in the big urban cities, it is just too difficult for local government staff to work concurrently at multiple scales,” stated Dr. Chris May. “Kitsap is at a manageable scale. The County is big enough to effect change and make things better. That is our goal – have a positive impact on the community!”

“Financial support from the Real Estate Foundation will substantially subsidize the registration for the stewardship sector. Many community volunteers are on fixed or modest incomes. So, reducing the cost for them to attend a 2-day symposium has been a governing consideration for the Parksville 2019 Organizing Committee. The Parksville 2019 program has relevance and applicability to settled areas throughout BC,” stated Ted van der Gulik, President of the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC.

“Through 150-plus workshops in the last 8 years I have taught over 8,000 individuals the philosophy, methods, and concepts of river design and fluvial geomorphology. Over the course of my career as a research hydraulic engineer with the US Army Corps of Engineers, I have been an educator, facilitator, designer, reviewer, and constructor of almost every type of river and stream stabilization/restoration project imaginable,” stated Dave Derrick.

In the 1990s, Dr. Chris May’s seminal research defined the relationship between land use change and stream impacts. To protect and/or or restore stream ecology, and thereby achieve the goal of Sustainable Stream Restoration, communities must address the root causes of ‘changes in hydrology’ (water quantity). Chris May is both an environmental scientist and an engineer. He will open Parksville 2019 with a presentation titled The Science Behind the Whole-System, Water Balance Approach.

In his first book, titled The Restoration Economy (2002), Storm Cunningham included a working definition of restorative development as follows: “the process of adding new value to natural or built assets, ideally in a manner that detracts neither from their other preexisting values, nor from the value of other assets”. His books are meant to launch a new dialogue about the “whole” created by the myriad activities that are already restoring our built and natural environments worldwide.

The Parksville 2019 Symposium is a milestone event on a multi-year ‘convening for action’ journey. A decade of effort on Vancouver Island, by partnerships of local governments and community stewards, is demonstrating success on the ground where it matters. They are on a pathway to reconnect hydrology and ecology. Parksville 2019 will celebrate success stories that are characterized by three attributes: commitment, collaboration and the ‘hard work of hope’. “Vancouver Island success stories are beacons of hope. They demonstrate how a good strategy is the path to success,” stated Kim Stephens.