Water-Centric Planning

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International Year of Salmon

    IN MEMORIAM: “Kim Hyatt’s profound understanding of the complexities of ecosystems and the myriad interconnections in our greater environment that sustain all life including humanity was rare, insightful, and valued,” stated Dr. Peter Tschaplinski, a peer in the BC Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, when he reflected on how the late Dr. Kim Hyatt would translate scientific knowledge into understandable, relatable terms (June 2021)


    Kim Hyatt made significant contributions to DFO in significant and lasting ways, including his work on the Wild Salmon Policy, advice relating to salmon restoration and recovery under the Columbia River Treaty and climate change impacts to salmon populations. His passion for discovery and excitement for innovation resulted in a number of long-standing relationships with First Nations and external organizations—relationships that Kim built on trust, commitment, and honest communication.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “The study looked at the existing policies, rules and practices used to protect salmon in the Lower Fraser Watershed. Then it compared Indigenous, federal, provincial and local government policies with standards used in the Fraser Basin Council’s Salmon-Safe Urban B.C. program,” stated Andrea McDonald, author of Creating Safe Cities for Salmon (May 2021)


    Creating Safe Cities for Salmon seems straightforward as a vision and a goal. But creating this outcome depends on bringing together a myriad of small pieces to create the big picture. This takes a career and requires enduring commitment. “I am inspired. I feel like I know the direction that I will take and that is local government. And I am passionate about having a career in local government because that is where I see the needed changes happening. It is where I see bringing my environmental perspective to both policy making and implementation,” stated Andrea McDonald.

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    CREATING SAFE CITIES FOR SALMON: “Using the Salmon-Safe Urban eco-certification as an evaluative framework for policy comparison, the study showcases the many efforts being made across the Lower Fraser region to develop cities more sustainably with wild salmon populations in mind,” reported Andrea McDonald, author of the joint research study by the Pacific Water Research Centre and the Salmon-Safe BC team (May 2021)


    “Protection of salmon and their habitat from the adverse impacts of urban development is a challenging task that requires an all-of-government response. Findings from this research highlight the variable involvement and guidance provided from the higher levels of government in Canada. As one expert noted, the province must provide more clarity on direct regulatory obligations which have compliance initiatives in place to enforce them. Inadequate statutory foundations and enforcement of current regulations have only hindered the implementation of nature-based solutions to protect salmon in cities,” stated Andrea McDonald.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “The lack of communication between different government agencies and between governments and stewardship groups is concerning,” stated Nikki Kroetsch, DFO’s Community Engagement Coordinator with the Pacific Science Enterprise Centre in West Vancouver, when she explained why the current state of environmental monitoring in BC communities is a call to action (May 2021)


    “The Pacific Science Enterprise Centre, known as PSEC, as a whole is addressing the ‘lack of collaboration’ issue quite simply by embracing and facilitating collaboration, but in my role as Community Engagement Coordinator I’ve also been specifically attempting to address the lack of communication regarding environmental monitoring; albeit slowly and methodically, as I’m only one person! Specifically I’m doing this through the PSEC Community Stream Monitoring project, which we call CoSMo for short,” stated Nikki Kroetsch.

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    DOING SCIENCE DIFFERENTLY IN LOCAL CREEKSHEDS: “Stewardship groups are such an underutilized resource right now. My Masters research looked at how governments can better collaborate with stream stewardship groups on environmental monitoring initiatives,” stated DFO’s Nikki Kroetsch, Community Engagement Coordinator with the Pacific Science Enterprise Centre in West Vancouver


    “According to the federal, provincial, and local government employees and the stewardship group volunteers I interviewed for my Masters research, data collection is currently siloed and unorganized. Many people are collecting essentially the same data, but because there’s very little communication and data sharing going on between them, it means a lot of duplicated efforts, which is a huge waste of resources given that monitoring is often time consuming and expensive to conduct,” stated Nikki Kroetsch.

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