Water-Centric Planning

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Peter Law

    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: The voices of experience remind us that progress is measured in terms of decades.


    The Partnership for Water Sustainability in its present form was birthed in 2003. It was a case of seizing the moment and moving into a vacuum. Timing is everything. At the beginning of 2003, the members of an intergovernmental committee comprised of three levels of government were in place. In September 2003, mere weeks after the Kelowna fires resulted in evacuation of some 27,000 residents, Lynn Kriwoken of the Ministry of Environment asked the committee to spearhead development and implementation of the Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia, released in February 2004.

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    CONTEXT AND HISTORY DO MATTER: “We have had two decades to prepare for the obvious and the inevitable. 2003 was the first of a series of ‘teachable years’, with the full onslaught of a changing climate hitting hard as of 2015,” stated the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC’s Kim Stephens (September 2023)


    “Mother Nature has an amazing sense of timing. On the 20th anniversary of the evacuation of 27,000 people from Kelowna due to forest fires, history repeated itself in August in the Kelowna region, in particular West Kelowna. We have had two decades to prepare for the obvious and the inevitable. Some of us have spent our careers working on solutions to watershed, water and food security issues and challenges. Climate change is accelerating. There is no time to re-invent the wheel, fiddle, or go down cul-de-sacs. Understand how the past informs the future and build on that experience,” stated Kim Stephens.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “We have raised expectations that communities can do a better job of managing land and water. But what happens if knowledge, experience and the lessons we are learning are not passed on or are lost?” – a question posed in 2007 by Jay Bradley, Chair of the Vancouver Island Coordinating Team


    This edition brings to a close the current season (January through June 2023) of the Waterbucket eNews weekly newsletter series. We celebrate the leadership of individuals and organizations who are guided by the Living Water Smart vision. During the past 5-month period, the Partnership for Water Sustainability has published 20 feature stories. This finale edition constitutes our “season in review”. To refresh reader memories about the topics and how much ground we have covered, we have brought forward the headline plus defining quotable quote from each of the 20 storylines.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “We are trying to envision a program where we acknowledge that we are part of fish habitat. We are part of the water cycle. This allows us to really look at our place on the water pollution file,” stated Dr. Peter Ross of the Raincoast Conservation Foundation


    “Right now, I find myself trying to simplify the pollution file because the world has become so complicated. We have a staggering half million chemicals on the high-volume production marketplace. When I as a scientist who has been practicing for decades try to understand what the consequences are for fish or fish habitat or whales or people, I realize that I have my work cut out for me. Instead of trying to capture the science and understanding of half a million chemicals, I am now saying: water as a focal point is very simple,” stated Peter Ross.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “In the integrating matrix, I set out to capture three ‘states of play’ as row headings: naturally functioning, degraded through lack of awareness, and going forward with science-based understanding,’ stated the late Erik Karlsen (1945-2020) when he presented a path forward to tackle the Riparian Deficit


    Circa 2000, legendary civil servant Erik Karlsen had the lead role in developing the language that operationalized British Columbia’s Streamside Protection Regulation. In 2015, his last contribution before his health declined and he passed was creation of a matrix to explain how to integrate two foundational concepts that provide a path forward for designing with nature restore a desired watershed and stream condition.. These are Daniel Pauly’s “Shifting Baseline Syndrome” (1995) and Richard Horner and Chris May’s “Road Map for Protecting Stream System Integrity” (1996).

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: Peter Law has put his time and energy into Shelly Creek, as do many other stream stewards in their watersheds around BC, such that Shelly Creek has become a “living laboratory” for the local Parksville community to enjoy.


    Peter Law’s experience informs his science-based approach to developing solutions. “The folks responsible for land development need to understand the risks and consequences associated with loss of riparian integrity. So protect it! Do what Parksville did with the enhanced riparian area for Shelly Creek Park. Look beyond the stream channel. Understand hydrology and how water reaches a stream. Municipalities simply must make a concerted effort to maintain the seasonal water balance if neighbourhoods are to sustain these wild populations of fish that are in their back yards,” stated Peter Law.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Over the long-term, I believe local stewardship groups have an essential role to play in refining the water balance numbers and our understanding of what they mean,” stated Peter Law, Chair of the former Guidebook Steering Committee, on the 20th anniversary of Guidebook publication (June 2022)


    “Stewardship groups have local knowledge about local water resources, and are the most invested and most connected to the land base. It is in the small tributary streams where the impacts of changes in the seasonal water balance are being felt most. Small streams are now going dry and have zero levels of riparian protection . Now that I am the one standing in the creek to take the flow measurements, I appreciate just how much variability there is around hydrology. So, I can see why it take 10 years to have confidence in computer model results,” stated Peter Law.

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    SHELLY CREEK ON VANCOUVER ISLAND: “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 of the Mid Vancouver Island Habitat Enhancement Society, in a session on ‘Watershed Health and You’ at the Parksville 2019 Symposium (watch on YouTube)


    “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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