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“The June 2008 release of Living Water Smart provided a timely provincial frame-of-reference for the Learning Lunch Series. The City collaborated with the CAVI team to explore a bottom-up approach that would inform implementation of Living Water Smart. Our goal was to demonstrate how we can all do business differently and thereby make green choices that create liveable communities and protect stream health,” stated Kevi Lagan.

“Living Water Smart creates the opportunity/potential for real dramatic change at a local level. Good policy is knowing where the horizon is, so that you know where you want to get to. Success depends on cooperation across jurisdictional boundaries. We must hold the provincial government accountable too. They have given us the long-term vision; and we are looking to them to be accountable for the support that we now need,” stated Ron Neufeld.

State of BCs Water – Rowena Rae (120p)
The State of Environment Reporting Unit at BC Ministry of Environment is leading the development of a report on the State of BC's Water for publication in 2010. The report will fulfil the commitment in Living Water Smart: BC’s Water Plan to publish a report on the state of our water by 2012.

The Township of Langley, in cooperation with the Ministries of Environment and Agriculture and Lands, is developing a water management plan to protect local groundwater and promote its sustainable use. This is the first plan to be developed in British Columbia under the Water Act, and it is expected to protect local groundwater quality and quantity.

Oliver Brandes
Since 2000 the POLIS Project on Ecological Governance at the University of Victoria has filled a unique niche on campus as a place where academic and policy research meets community action. The Water Sustainability Project began at POLIS in 2003. It focuses on reorienting Canadian water management from a supply development approach toward stewardship and managing demand as priorities for governments and decision makers.

At the final seminar in the “2008 Comox Valley Learning Lunch Series” Jack Minard of the Comox Valley Land Trust, connected the dots between the Living Water Smart provincial initiative and the Comox Valley Conservation Strategy. “It is an exciting initiative to create a region-wide strategy for land conservation in consultation with the community and decision-makers in the Comox Valley,” he said.

report cover
According to a new federal report by the Untited States National Research Council titled “Hydrologic Effects of a Changing Forest Landscape,” forest management in the future may be as much to achieve a sustainable supply of clean water as it is for any other goal. Forest management will not increase water supplies, but it can help sustain water supplies and water quality.

“While there may be general consensus on climate change predictions at the global scale, real discussion of climate change impacts in our own “backyard” – be it a city, a watershed, or a particular project site – is just getting started. In most cases, the emergence of “best practices” – or even “standard practices” – is still on the horizon,” states Eric Bonham.

“More and more thoughtful people are concerned that climate change, in combination with a number of contributing environmental circumstances, is poised to create a perfect storm of economic, social and political consequeces,” stated Bob Sandford.

“There are two responses to climate change: mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation is alleviating the effects of climate change through reducing greenhouse gases. Adaptation is responding to the changes that will inevitably occur. If migation is about CARBON, then adaptation is about WATER,” stated Jim Mattison.