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Peter Law

    SHELLY CREEK PARK IN PARKSVILLE IS A LIVING LABATORY: “Coastal Cutthroat Trout populations on Vancouver Island will perish unless there is ‘rainwater balance’ as watersheds are developed. The message for local governments is… GIVE STREAMS SPACE TO LIVE,” Peter Law, Past-President of the Mid Vancouver Island Habitat Enhancement Society (MVIHES)


    “Shelley Creek is typical of small streams on the east coast of Vancouver Island. Of the 5.5 km channel length, a mere 300m exists in its natural state. And this is only because the City of Parksville created an enhanced riparian zone for park purposes when the surrounding area was subdivided in 1998. We wanted to understand what factors influence the movement of resident cutthroat trout over their life history in Shelly Creek. We investigated how a small population of resident fish survives in a stream that undergoes significant changes to water flows over the seasons,” stated Peter Law.

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    THE TALE OF ONE URBAN CREEK ON VANCOUVER ISLAND: “This Shelly Creek art exhibit is such a unique project as we look at these environmental conversations through artists’ lenses and what happens is a very dynamic and exciting experience,” stated Jennifer Bate, Executive Director of the McMillan Arts Centre in Parksville (July 2022)


    Shelly Creek is a tributary of the Englishman River, a major watershed system on the east coast of Vancouver Island. Shelly Creek is important to salmonids. In 1999 the Englishman River was first declared to be one of the most endangered rivers in BC. Extinction of the fisheries resource was viewed as a very real possibility. “With 8 local artists collaborating on this singular exhibit, we are then able to have an important conversation about Shelly Creek, water conservation, and rain gardens through an artist lens. We are privileged to have the 8 artists come together for a single purpose but with 8 very different art mediums,” stated Jennifer Bate.

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    FLASHBACK TO 2013: “Collaboration among Vancouver Island local governments, and with Metro Vancouver and its member municipalities, has grown steadily since 2007. The Inter-Regional Educational Initiative provides a framework for consistent application of tools and understanding on both sides of the Georgia Basin. Everyone benefits from sharing information and experiences,” stated Kim Stephens, Partnership for Water Sustainability


    “Collaboration is the pathway to a consistent approach to implementation and integration of water sustainability and green infrastructure policies and practices within and between regions. Yet there is no formal mechanism to enable or facilitate inter-regional collaboration. The Partnership fills this gap. At the heart of the IREI is ‘Beyond the Guidebook’, an ongoing initiative to provide local governments with the tools and understanding necessary to integrate the Site with the Watershed and the Stream. The IREI will help all local governments bridge the ‘implementation and integration’ gap,” stated Kim Stephens

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    SCIENCE OF LAND USE CHANGE AND STREAM SYSTEM INTEGRITY: “Twenty years after release of BC’s Stormwater Planning Guidebook, how water gets to a stream and how long it takes, is still not widely understood. Parksville’s Shelly Creek is an ongoing test case for the Water Balance Methodology to raise awareness of what needs to be done to reconnect hydrology and stream ecology,” stated Peter Law, Vice-President of the Mid Vancouver Island Habitat Enhancement Society (June 2022)


    “Small streams are now going dry and have zero levels of riparian protection, mostly because in the early days of streamside protection they weren’t seen as worthy of protection. We need more than a setback to protect aquatic habitat. The science shows that communities also need to tackle what is happening on the land that drains to streams. To reach consensus on a shared vision of what is desirable and achievable for watershed protection or restoration, people need a picture of what a stream corridor could and/or should look like. Often, the visioning process boils down to whether or not a stream corridor will have a functioning aquatic ecosystem,” stated Peter Law.

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    VALUATION OF ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS AND SERVICES: “A common history of land uses on the east coast of Vancouver Island and other regions in BC has been the fragmentation of the riparian network in both rural and urbanizing landscapes,” stated Peter Law, President of the Mid Vancouver Island Habitat Enhancement Society, when reflecting on application of the Ecological Accounting Process to Shelly Creek


    “Over decades of disturbance, a landscape’s ecological links/services decline as it’s economic (land use) linkages increase. Thus, a descriptive way to visualize these outcomes is this: riparian ecosystems (networks) have become reduced to riparian zones as shown on the maps of today,” stated Peter Law. “An alternative term, riparian network, could also be used to describe a system composed of a physical stream channel and adjacent riparian (vegetated) corridor. This system provides a critical ecological function in linking terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in a watershed or creekshed.”

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    FINANCIAL VALUATION OF SHELLY CREEK ECOLOGICAL SERVICES IN THE CITY OF PARKSVILLE AND REGIONAL DISTRICT OF NANAIMO: “We can now see how our ongoing investments, as stream stewards, not only can improve the worth of a creekshed’s biophysical functions, but also improve riparian land values as well,” stated Peter Law, President, Mid Vancouver Island Habitat Enhancement Society (MVIHES)


    “The members of the Mid Vancouver Island Habitat Enhancement Society have devoted over 10 years of time and energy towards restoring the health of Shelly Creek for salmon and trout. Our volunteers have contributed over $90,000 to the ‘maintenance’ of the creek and its’ fish populations. That is like spending $10,000 per year to support monitoring of water quality, flow gauges, riparian planting, downstream smolt trapping and of course, community engagement! We do it for free, because we can see this creek needs help,” stated Peter Law.

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    Parksville 2019 on YouTube > Watershed Health and You – “This is a story about how a local group of streamkeepers has morphed from a focus on salmon and trout habitat restoration, to advocates for ecosystem monitoring of watershed functions… the Whole System Approach,” stated Peter Law, President, Mid Vancouver Island Habitat Enhancement Society (April 2019)


    “Since 2010, Our volunteers have embraced the idea of monitoring aquatic ecosystems and habitats in our watershed, often times partnering with agencies, local governments or private landowners to identify the status of certain indicators. We called the program ‘Watershed Health and You’,” stated Peter Law. “We are engaging our neighbours who live in the watershed, to discuss how the community can help restore Shelly Creek. The legacy of Faye Smith, and her mantra of engaging the community continues.”

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    Parksville 2019 on YouTube > Watershed Health and You – “After the Arrowsmith Dam was built, most of the time we have been able to stay above the minimum fisheries baseflow requirement which establishes an operating rule for the Englishman River Water Service,” stated Vaughan Figueira, City of Parksville’s Director of Engineering (April 2019)


    “The EWRS is a joint venture between the City of Parksville and the Regional District of Nanaimo. It comprises the 20-yr old Arrowsmith Dam, a new river intake and water treatment facility. System operation is guided by this statement: An environmentally sensitive use of water to improve fish habitat and domestic water supply,” stated Vaughan Figueira. “The impact of wetter winters and drier summers on the seasonal water balance creates operational challenges in sustaining environmental flows.”

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