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    WATERSHED MOMENTS, THE VIDEO TRILOGY: “In 2020, the Watershed Moment team succeeded in our mission to create a broadcast quality legacy resource. We are thrilled that Shaw Cable has televised the trilogy multiple times across Vancouver Island. It is the resource that keeps on giving,” stated Paul Chapman, Chair, Vancouver Island Symposia Series on Water Stewardship in a Changing Climate


    COVID has changed and challenged how everyone does outreach and peer-based education. The Watershed Moments team turned COVID into an opportunity to create a legacy educational resource – the Watershed Moments video trilogy. In 2021, the 3-part series was broadcast twice by Shaw Cable – first in January-February and then again in August-September, reported Jocelyn Matwe, producer with the Shaw Spotlight Nanaimo team. Each time the broadcast cycle was three times.

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    BOWKER CREEK BLUEPRINT IS A BEACON OF INSPIRATION: “It is exciting. Who gets to have a job where part of your job is to try and figure out how to get a creek out of pipes? Who gets to do that? Not too many! I feel so fortunate, and to be able to play a leadership role,” stated Jody Watson, Past-Chair (2005-2018) of the Bowker Creek Urban Watershed Renewal Initiative


    “The BCI is more than the people sitting around the BCI table. They are representatives of an extensive network that includes three Councils, every department, 11 community associations, and the CRD too. This network is a true community-driven collaboration made up of people with a lot of heart, grit, commitment, and dedication. They are dedicated to achieving the Bowker Blueprint vision. That is what makes it the best. We are watching it implement organically and operationally. We can be proud of our accomplishments. We have done good. We have done good,” stated Jody Watson.

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    BOWKER CREEK BLUEPRINT IS A BEACON OF INSPIRATION: “I used to ride my bicycle to school and cross Bowker Creek twice a day on Richmond road. In 1971 or 1972, the City of Victoria culverted that section of the creek. Here we are 50 years later, and we have this game-changing daylighting feasibility study. Within the next decade, I am hoping to see that same culvert removed. It is now mission possible,” stated Ian Graeme, founder of the Friends of Bowker Creek


    “Oak Bay, Saanich and Victoria have all issued proclamations supporting the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. This is a rallying cry to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems caused by current and past generations. The Bowker Blueprint is a great example of something that is tangible and aligns with the overarching policy commitment in the municipal proclamations. We need agility because we do not have the time and resources. Given the challenges posed by the issues of the day, we need to move on opportunities very quickly,” stated Ian Graeme.

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    BOWKER CREEK BLUEPRINT IS A BEACON OF INSPIRATION: “My interest is community organizing, taking care of volunteers, and empowering working groups. You trust people because their hearts are in the right place. Find out who can work together. Let them do it their own way and develop their own roots,” stated Soren Henrich, Chair of Friends of Bower Creek society, when describing his vision for community-based action


    “My involvement in the Bowker Creek Initiative began as a representative of a neighbourhood association. With re-incorporation of the Friends of Bowker, our structure includes five working groups, and we are connected to 11 neighbourhood groups. The broad nature of this representation raises an obvious question: Who is the community voice on the steering committee? The FoBC is already the de facto representative. A reasonable and logical next step would be to formalize this role,” stated Soren Henrich.

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    FINANCIAL CASE FOR BOWKER CREEK DAYLIGHTING: “Asset management and ecological frameworks are merging closer than ever before,” stated Lesley Hatch, Senior Manager of Water Resources with the District of Saanich, when the Partnership of Water Sustainability released its report on the sixth in the series of EAP demonstration application projects undertaken as part of a multi-year program of applied research (October 2021)


    EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process, has been applied to the 100-Year Action Plan for daylighting Bowker Creek. “This is good news as Saanich continues to catalogue and valuate storm water natural assets with the intent of establishing resources to steward both hard, linear infrastructure and natural systems alike. Modern asset methodologies can sync well with other frameworks, such as EAP, which provides additional tools and metrics to improve maintenance and management across the District, and in collaboration with our regional partners on such initiatives as the Bowker Creek Initiative,” stated Lesley Hatch.

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    WATER RECONCILIATION IS ABOUT INTERWEAVING INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE & WESTERN SCIENCE: “Interweaving is not integration, just as equality is not about assimilation and creativity is not empirical. Interweaving is collaborative and incremental rather than a revolutionary process,” stated Michael Blackstock, Independent Indigenous Scholar and founder of the Blue Ecology Institute (October 2021)


    “Blue Ecology is meant to be a companion because it augments existing Western science hydrology rather than displacing this knowledge. Collaborators identify packets of knowledge that would benefit from the interweaving process. My question for the Western science world is this: Are you prepared and willing to change your definition of water in science? This is what reconciliation really gets down to when we are talking about interweaving Indigenous knowledge and Western science,” stated Michael Blackstock.

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    HISTORICAL CONTEXT FOR WATERSHED MOMENTS 2021 / BLUE ECOLOGY VIRTUAL SEMINAR: “While international recognition gave Blue Ecology early credibility and profile, there was limited awareness within British Columbia of what Michael Blackstock had accomplished on the global stage,” stated Kim Stephens, Partnership for Water Sustainability, when explaining the Partnership’s commitment to mainstreaming Blue Ecology (October 2021)


    “Blue Ecology has been a two-decade long journey of discovery for Michael Blackstock, highlighted by his appointment to a UNESCO Expert Panel for a 4-year term in 2008. His work on the Expert Panel resulted in an invitation to share his Blue Ecology message at an international symposium. In 2021, the Watershed Moments team embraced the Blue Ecology idea, and committed to the vision for Water Reconciliation as an outcome. This means going back to the headwaters of where we got our relationships with water and with one another wrong,” stated Kim Stephens,

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    SCHOOL WATER STEWARDS IN THE NANAIMO REGION: “The program provides grade-appropriate curriculum-linked lessons and stewardship activities connecting students to our local freshwater resources and associated ecosystems,” stated Linda Brooymans, Stewardship Coordinator with the Nanaimo & Area Land Trust, and a panel member for the Blue Ecology Virtual Seminar on January 20, 2022


    In late 2017, NALT was approach by a grade 7 teacher and challenged with devising a way to include a marsh adjacent to the school grounds in the stewardship education of the students. “Now embedded as a core component of NALT outreach and education, it is our hope to foster a culture of stewardship through our program by giving students as many opportunities as possible during their time at their school to learn about and explore their local streams and wetlands,” stated Linda Brooymans.

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    BEST WATER WAYS IN THE COWICHAN REGION: “It is so satisfying working with schools and groups to nurture an active relationship with the local watershed, and empowering youth with knowledge and skills to restore and care for the watershed is vital for our collective future,” stated Stephanie Cottell, Executive Director with the Cowichan Community Land Trust, and a panel member for the Blue Ecology Virtual Seminar on January 20, 2022


    “It is vitally important that youth learn about their local watersheds, and how to protect, steward, and restore them. And so the Best Water Ways: Watershed Literacy, Stewardship, and Restoration initiative was born. The learning suite was inspired, designed, and developed within the Unceded Traditional Territory of several Hul’qumi’num speaking communities that are part of the far-reaching Coast Salish Nation. Local Indigenous Ecological and Cultural Knowledge in today’s classrooms is invaluable,” stated Stephanie Cottell.

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    SALTAIR WATER SYSTEM FILTRATION GRANT SUCCESSFUL: “I wanted to run up and down the streets knocking on everyone’s door to spread the amazing news. This grant application has been quite the roller coaster,” stated project champion Lynne Smith, Cowichan Valley Regional District Director


    “I thank everyone who helped bring this about, particularly the Saltair Water Advisory Committee, which provided a needed perspective and helpful advice. I also specifically thank the local, provincial and federal bureaucrats and politicians who patiently listened to my pleas for support and who ultimately caused our application to succeed. It is full steam ahead to bring our water system into compliance and to meet the Island Health installation deadlines,” enthused Lynne Smith. The Saltair grant was a decade in the making, and resulted from the determined efforts of a band of community volunteers.

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