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Living Water Smart: The Series

LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “If we apply EAP to land owned by the RDN to help prove that Natural Asset Management is meaningful, and the Regional Board accepts it, then I see that as the trigger to influence other people who also have land to behave in a similar fashion,” stated Murray Walters, Manager of Water Services with the Regional District of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island


“The Regional District of Nanaimo had an early interest in EAP. We selected French Creek as its first project under the EAP Partnership umbrella because it will feed into the needs analysis for the ongoing provincially community issues study in the French Creek electoral area. EAP is especially relevant to a drainage and riparian corridor protection strategy. French Creek has multiple, notable characteristics, one of which is that it is a large creekshed. And so it was decided quite early on that it should be a two-year study rather than one year,” stated Murray Walters.

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LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “The 3-year transition strategy for embedding the Ecological Accounting Process at Vancouver Island University has multiple layers and partnerships and there are many moving parts to keep in balance,” stated Anna Lawrence, Program Coordinator for the EAP Transition Strategy Partnership


‘”The Departure Creek project in the City of Nanaimo was an exciting analysis because we gained insight into social perceptions of the worth of the creek. This was an add-on layer to the EAP technical analysis. We were fortunate that Departure Creek has a strong stewardship group,” stated Anna Lawrence “During this 3-year transition strategy, we are really delving into how can EAP be used, and why and how it is useful. Now that I am immersed in it, I like the fact that each creek has a different angle that you can work with…each with a different context, different people, different story.”

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LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “An airplane analogy is one way to describe the relationship between council and staff. Think of one wing as political and the other as administration. If either wing is not functioning properly, the plane will crash,” stated Pete Steblin, former City Manager in the Metro Vancouver region


“When I reflect on the organizational amnesia that I am currently observing in local government, the word FEAR comes into my mind, although it is not said out loud. You hear the term CAO roadkill at lot. With the high turnover at the top, and the exodus of experienced people, the situation is fragile. Yet there is a reluctance to ask for help from those with experience, knowledge and… yes, wisdom. In fact, there seems to be a fear of independent advice unless it is totally supportive of the direction that the people at the top want to go in,” stated Pete Steblin.

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LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “The history of green infrastructure innovation in Metro Vancouver over the past three decades is defined by four distinct eras, with the period of time for each varying between 6 and 9 years,” stated Kim Stephens, Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC


“Three decades and counting! Being in the room when ideas were conceived and decisions made is a core part of my lived experience,” stated Kim Stephens. “For the past 21 months, my time and energy have gone into interviews and writing the Chronicle, with the goal of distilling the history to answer a 2-part question. In a journey defined by collaboration and a regional team approach…What did we learn at each stage from 1994 through 2024? And how can the next generation of elected and aspiring leaders use this knowledge as a launchpad to do better?”

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LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “How might our understanding of nature change if we recognize non-human stories conveyed in codes, signs, colors, body language, gestures, and signals, as stunning narratives,” wonders Dr. Serpil Oppermann, co-editor of The Bloomsbury Handbook to the Blue Humanities (scheduled for publication in 2025)


The Bloomsbury Handbook to the Blue Humanities includes a 6000-word chapter by Michael Blackstock on Blue Ecology. Turkish academic Dr. Serpil Oppermann is the catalyst behind the handbook and one of four co-editors. “I am very happy to have Michael Blackstock in the Bloomsbury Handbook to the Blue Humanities. I was overjoyed when he accepted our invitation,” she said. “ Her work explores the intersecting perspectives of natural sciences and environmental humanities. Her mission is to be a bridge between humanities and science studies.

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LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “The task at hand is about how to redefine things in a new political environment so you would be able to get a new vision and new political commitment,” stated Ray Fung, stated Ray Fung, a retired Director of Engineering in local government, and former Chair of the Green Infrastructure Partnership


“With the housing issue dominating the conversation, how will you reframe the goal and objective for restoration of stream systems in a way that restores political commitment and rebuilds the coalition? What combination of public self-interest and political lever will it take to effect change? What would leveraging political commitment and self-interest look like for rainwater management and riparian forest integrity in today’s context? What combination will it take to effect change? Learn from past experience. There is no time to reinvent the wheel,” stated Ray Fung.

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LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: Robert Hicks is skilled at providing historical context and perspective for “the big picture” of today


Robert Hicks co-created the “streams and trees component” Integrated Liquid Waste and Resource Management Plan for Metro Vancouver. “There was a time when the value of managing drainage on a watershed basis within a broad framework of land management and ecosystem planning was not yet apparent. Research on stream health changed all this,” stated Robert Hicks. “In recent years, I have been advocating about the connection between rainwater management and groundwater. It is a slow process. You just have to say it enough times: groundwater and infiltration!”

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LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Those who forged their career on the basis of the old will never admit to the wrong precedent. These are the counter-revolutionary forces!” stated Dr. Younes Alila, professional engineer and professor in the UBC Faculty of Forestry


For more than a century, Dr. Alila explains, scientists have clung to a “deterministic” analysis. To use a strategic board game analogy, this is like looking at each move in isolation and thinking, “If I move here, then I should win.” It fails to account for the roll of the dice, the cards you draw, and what your opponents might do—all of which can change the game. “The risks are greater than we were led to believe by government, industry, and professionals. But scholars in the philosophy of science will tell you that scientists will never admit to erroneous precedents,” stated Younes Alila.

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LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “The 2000s was a really exciting time around the regional table in Metro Vancouver,” stated Ray Fung, a retired Director of Engineering in local government, and former Chair of the Green Infrastructure Partnership


A confluence of events and circumstances brought a mix of key players together in 2003. It was a teachable year because of the impact of drought, forest fires and floods on public consciousness. This was a once in a generation reachable moment because minds were open and receptive to the message, “we must do better”. Between 1996 and 2020, Ray Fung sat at several local government regional tables in Metro Vancouver. During this period, he followed in the footsteps of Chuck Gale and Paul Ham and served as chair of the Green Infrastructure Partnership from 2008 until 2010.

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LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “It became clear that if one did not have a way of building confidence amongst practitioners, the rate of innovation would be slow,” stated Dale Wall, former Deputy Minister of Municipal Affairs


“We were looking in a new way at infrastructure innovation. We needed quite a lot of innovation to achieve some of the things that we hoped to achieve through regional growth strategies. The convening for action process that built confidence among practitioners to introduce new approaches. We realized that we simply had to have practitioners having discussions so that they would become more comfortable with innovative approaches. A peer learning network was one of the strands to introduce infrastructure innovation and build more sustainable regions,” stated Dale Wall.

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