Category:

“At Kitsap County we have applied this Whole Systems concept to develop our strategy for watershed retrofit and rehabilitation – it is not sufficient to do only a single (or even a few) things – it is necessary to do everything! We know we need to work at multiple scales and multiple levels to improve conditions in our small stream watersheds – that’s our strategy,” states Chris May. “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.”

“Drinking Water and Watershed Protection program implementation has been characterized by numerous accomplishments, as documented in a third party review, completed in September 2018. The focus has generally advanced from an initial emphasis on education and outreach, proceeding to expanded effort in water science and data collection. More recently, as the program has progressed, policy and planning and refining science processes and data management has been given more attention,” stated Julie Pisani.

“It really is a long-term objective to build stewardship sector capacity to do flow measurement. The people who are involved in this grass-roots program are all volunteers. They are doing the field work because they are passionate about it, and most importantly, they have the time,” stated Neil Goeller. “My vision is to develop relationships and partnerships with stewardship groups, local governments, federal government and First Nations to expand our collection and understanding of data. MVIHES and the Friends of French Creek are the first two groups to participate.”

“Once upon a time, a conversation between an RDN Electoral Area Director and RDN staff resulted in a proposal to create a drinking water and watershed protection function and service area in the RDN Electoral Areas,” recalls John Finnie. “Subsequently, over 10 years ago, the Regional District of Nanaimo Board and Electoral Area residents supported a referendum to create this function.   Barely.  It was a challenging process and a very close decision, and could have been defeated. But the right decision was made.”

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.

“A long time ago, I had a conversation with the University of British Columbia’s Bill Rees. He is known world-wide for creating the ecological footprint concept,” recalled Storm Cunningham. “The whole idea of reducing our footprint is great, I said to Bill, but what about the flip side? Shouldn’t we also be measuring the restorative effects that our society, and our economy, are having? My point was that, at the same time as we are decreasing our destructive footprint, we can also be increasing our restoration footprint. That is a core message of restorative development.”