Showcasing of the Cowichan Valley experience creates an opportunity for inter-valley sharing. “The valley has experienced many flood events resulting from high flows in the Cowichan River and its tributaries, and from ponding in low-lying areas during heavy rain events,” states Kate Miller.
“the fall of 2009, there were more pink salmon in the river than had been seen in 50 years. The exciting thing about this is that now we can go to work and repair the ecosystems. We can actually restore fish habitat and end up with a system that’s going to be self-sustaining,” stated Jack Minard.
“The Tsolum story underscores the value of community stewards working collaboratively with government agencies and the private sector towards a common vision. It also highlights the need for dedicated insiders within government who ‘stay the course’ and remain committed,” wrote Eric Bonham.
“What we’re finding is that preliminarily, the Tsolum is not responding any differently than other watersheds on the east coast in terms of increased floods. What we do in terms of how we manage forests is we manage to very low risk of increasing peak flows by spreading our harvest around the watershed,” reported Domenico Iannidinardo.
“Mitigation and adaptation are both necessary and complementary strategies to cope with the climate change challenge. If mitigation is about CARBON, then adaptation is about WATER. Designing with nature captures the essence of climate change adaptation” stated MLA John Slater.
“A key goal of the Convening for Action program is to record our history as we create it. Hence, we place emphasis on preparing articles that will capture the thinking of those who are generating the curriculum content for the annual Learning Lunch Seminar Series,” explains Kim Stephens.
“The theme for the 2011 Series is A Regional Response to Infrastructure Liability. This is a driver for a change in the way local governments plan, finance, implement and over time replace infrastructure. The focus of the 2011 Series is on why and how all those involved in land development have a role to play in achieving Sustainable Service Delivery,” notes Derek Richmond.
The phrase “design with nature” is borrowed from the title of a seminal book by Ian McHarg, published in 1969. He was a renowned landscape architect and writer on regional planning using natural systems. He pioneered the concept of ecological planning. Ian McHarg’s premise is simple: “that the shaping of land for human use ought to be based on an understanding of natural process.”
“The Brooklyn Creek experience epitomizes how stripping away the water storage capacity of the watershed landscape impacts on stream health in two ways: loss of baseflow…that is, too little water in dry weather; and channel instability and erosion…that is, too much water for too long during wet weather,” observes Jack Minard.
“Alignment of efforts at a watershed scale is a way of thinking. The ultimate goal of the regional team approach is to create linkages among the different areas of action, thereby helping to create a stronger implementation plan – that is, what all the plans will achieve,” says Kevin Lorette.
