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    APPROACH TO LAND DEVELOPMENT IN NORTHEAST COMOX IS PRECEDENT-SETTING: “As we proceed with next steps, the most challenging will be educating staff, developers, consultants, and home owners of the new standards, procedures, policies and guidelines,” stated Shelley Ashfield, Municipal Engineer, Town of Comox


    The time, effort and energy it takes to change the standard of engineering practice is substantial, as the Town’s journey clearly shows. Implementing effective water balance management requires a systems approach on all levels. Ripple effects are cascading. “Changing engineering standards is a journey in itself. To ensure success, the Town will need to adopt the design standards, update existing subdivision servicing specifications, establish a number of bylaws, and implement a cost recovery program,” stated Shelley Ashfield.

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    FLASHBACK TO 2015: “The Comox Valley consists of 26 watersheds. Each of us has a role to play to ensure these watersheds remain healthy for generations to come,” stated Judith Walker, Village of Cumberland planner, at the Joint Staff Training Workshop hosted by the Comox Valley Regional District


    In 2008, the four Comox Valley local governments volunteered to be a ‘demonstration application’ for exploration of a regional team approach to ‘designing with nature’, guided by the watershed health target in Living Water Smart, British Columbia’s Water Plan. “It does not matter how far away you live or build from a creek, lake, bog or the ocean – you are in a watershed,” stated Judith Walker. “The four local governments in the Comox Valley are striving for consistent application of outcome-oriented actions.”

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    Parksville 2019 on YouTube > The Whole-System Approach – “The City of Parksville recognizes the importance of sharing a vision in order to get things done; and commends the Symposium organizers for recognizing the power of partnership and collaboration,” stated Mayor Ed Mayne when he welcomed delegates to Parksville (April 2019)


    “We are just seeing the tip of the iceberg as far as where water is going to be going over the coming years. We have to start turning this situation around NOW. Not in 5 years. Not in 10 years. It needs to start today. We need to start making things better,” stated Mayor Ed Mayne. “Operation of the Englishman River Water Service is guided by the mission statement which reads: An environmentally sensitive use of water to improve fish habitat and domestic water supply. At a time when the climate is changing, it is a delicate balancing act to achieve both outcomes when summers are getting longer and much drier.”

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    Parksville 2019 on YouTube > The Whole-System Approach – “We like to engage streamkeeper groups to give them the knowledge to begin asking the tough questions of the people who regulate and look after their communities and their watersheds,” stated Richard Boase, Water Stewardship Symposium Series Moderator, when he shared his local government perspective on the value of citizen science to launch the Day One program at the Symposium (April 2019)


    “In Metro Vancouver, groups such as the North Shore Streamkeepers (NSSK) are making a difference. NSSK collaboration with the District of North Vancouver underpins a water quality monitoring program. The District purchased state-of-the-art equipment and trained 10 volunteers who conduct sampling close to their neighbourhood,” stated Richard Boase. “Monitoring sites are located at strategic locations. Streamkeepers are collecting data and bringing it back to the District to look at and store in our database.”

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    Parksville 2019 on YouTube > The Whole-System Approach – “Engagement of community through stewardship is a credible formula to be encouraged and mainstreamed at every opportunity,” stated Kim Stephens when he explained how the symposium program built on Nanaimo 2018 takeaways


    Collaboration, teamwork and a recognition that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts is the energy that stokes creativity and determination. When this combination of citizen talent is aligned with a local government that is both visionary and focused, outstanding achievements are not only possible, but realistic. “Expressed as a formula, Community Empowerment + Sustainable Partnerships with Local Government = Foundation Piece for Restorative Development,” stated Kim Stephens. “An informed stewardship sector is a catalyst for action.”

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    Parksville 2019 on YouTube > The Whole-System Approach – “Dear rain, may you fall in abundance, but not in excess. Wet the ground, water the trees, and continue throughout the seasons – preferably at night, while I sleep,” stated Paul Chapman in setting a humourous tone in the opening module of the Symposium on Water Stewardship in a Changing Climate (April 2019)


    “Galvanized by what they learned at the Nanaimo 2018 Symposium, a diverse group of stewardship groups out to do the hard work to become another collaboration success story,” stated Paul Chapman. “The time was right – a civic election was on the horizon, and the energy of the symposium was sparking ideas. We gathered as a group of like-minded individuals, and began to plan. out to do the hard work to become another collaboration success story,” stated Paul Chapman. “Branding is very important. And so, we came up with the Nanaimo Watershed Health Community of Practice as the name of the initiative.”

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    Parksville 2019 on YouTube > The Whole-System Approach – “It is not a sprint. We are in it for the long haul; and we all need to recognize that we are in it for the long haul. I wonder what Ian McHarg would think if he could be with us today, 50 years after he wrote Design with Nature,” stated Bill Derry when he delivered the opening keynote on behalf of Kitsap County’s Chris May, Surface & Stormwater Division Director (April 2019)


    The ‘salmon crisis’ in the 1990s was the driver for pioneer research at Washington State University that correlated land use changes with impacts on stream health. The resulting science-based understanding opened the door to the Water Balance approach to rainwater management in BC. “Data are fine, but you must be able to show decision-makers and the public that we are making a difference and being cost-effective with funding,” stated Bill Derry. “You must be able to develop and tell stories. If you can tell stories well, that is how to make the biggest difference.”

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    Parksville 2019 on YouTube > Watershed Health and You – “We engage with volunteers in the Englishman River watershed and other watersheds across our region,” stated Julie Pisani, Regional District of Nanaimo, when she explained the region’s partnership-based water quality monitoring program (April 2019)


    “Through the efforts of stewardship volunteers, the RDN’s Community Watershed Monitoring Network has successfully completed 7+ years of monitoring surface water quality. A recent study has analyzed the data region-wide, modelling land use factors and their connection to water quality results, including for the Englishman River,” explained Julie Pisani. “We have worked very closely with Ministry of Environment staff who helped us to decide what the key parameters are to monitor in order to get a baseline understanding of watershed health.”

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    Parksville 2019 on YouTube > Understand How Rain Reaches a Stream – “Prominent scientists say 2018 marks a turning point in human history. We may have crossed an invisible threshold into a new climate regime,” stated Kim Stephens, Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC, when he provided a whole-system context for the mini-workshop on surface and groundwater interaction (April 2019)


    “The new normal in BC is floods and droughts – along with longer, drier summers and warmer, wetter winters. What happens on the land matters to streams. To make better decisions, we must first understand how rainwater reaches a stream. Not many people have that understanding. And that includes engineers,” stated Kim Stephens. “Only when everyone involved has that basic understanding of what happens when that rain drop reaches the ground, will we be able to do the things that we need to do to reconnect hydrology and ecology, and in so doing, go ‘back to the future’!”

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    Parksville 2019 on YouTube > Understand How Rain Reaches a Stream – “Stewardship groups have local knowledge about local water resources; and are the most invested and most connected to the land base,” stated Neil Goeller, when he and Sylvia Barroso conducted a mini-workshop on surface and groundwater interaction (April 2019)


    “Participation in streamflow data collection is a way to educate streamkeepers about creekshed hydrology, in particular correct data collection techniques and their importance for refining the water balance and understanding what the numbers mean. This would create understanding that would enhance their effectiveness as champions for reconnecting hydrology and ecology,” 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.”

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