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Richard Boase

    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Look at all the really important science that we were able to produce. There is a lot to be proud of in terms of all that material that we produced for the region, the network and the country,” stated Richard Boase, career environmental champion within local government in British Columbia


    “When I look back at our history, I think wow, how did we do so much applied research. We had a need and Hans Schreier had grad students who were interested in doing the research. Win-win,” stated Richard Boase. “At a critical moment, members of the Partnership team would have an idea around a research theme that supported our hypotheses. And as often happened, I was the arm that had the energy and willingness to take on the research, apply new science in North Vancouver, and get the work done.”

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Blue Ecology reinforces the attitude change that is necessary to support widespread use of tools and resources that help local governments design with nature,” stated Richard Boase, career environmental champion within local government


    “Think of Blue Ecology as a compass in terms of how it relates to a water-first approach to Water Reconciliation between cultures. The compass points the way forward and to success. Because of the diversity in backgrounds, skills and experiences that we have in the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia, we are positioned to take what Michael Blackstock has created with the Blue Ecology framework and make it actionable in the local government sector,” stated Richard Boase.

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    EAP, THE ECOLOGICAL ACCOUNTING PROCESS, IS AN EXPRESSION OF BLUE ECOLOGY: “Rivers and streams in BC are sending us a message… change our attitude towards them. It is hard to hear their message, from a boardroom or Zoom rooms,” stated Michael Blackstock, co-founder of the Blue Ecology Foundation Institute


    “Blue Ecology is about interweaving two ways of knowing through a collaborative framework that would help facilitate how Indigenous, provincial and local governments work as leaders on a common problem, the climate crisis. Tools like EAP can be used to shape the future, as our new attitude deploys these existing tools in new ways. Has the moment come to reframe ‘ecosystem services’ as ‘gifts of nature’? If it does not get measured, it does not get managed. EAP helps us measure and assess the trade-offs; and helps us understand when it is time to just let the land heal,” stated Michael Blackstock.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Think of Blue Ecology as a compass in terms of how it relates to a water-first approach. We are on a journey. The compass points the way forward,” stated Tim Pringle, a founding director and Past-President of the Partnership for Water Sustainability


    “Streams need a place to be. If we cannot get our heads around that, we are not going to keep our streams. EAP provides a value picture of a stream system as a land use. Because nature is a system, you cannot slice and dice it. EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process, recognizes this and is a financial tool to give streams the support they need to survive in the local government setting. How are Blue Ecology and EAP interconnected? My answer is that Blue Ecology emphasizes the social perspective for protecting watersheds and streams. EAP shows how to achieve that outcome with a financial tool,” stated Tim Pringle.

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    BLUE ECOLOGY OFFERS HOPE AND REMOVES THE FEAR OF RECONCILIATION: “As long as you show a genuine curiosity, the willingness to learn, cross-cultural conversations blossom,” stated Michael Blackstock, Independent Indigenous Scholar and co-founder of the Blue Ecology Institute Foundation


    Michael Blackstock believes that a message of hope is paramount in these times of droughts, forest fires and floods. “Rather than looking through a cumulative effects lens, I also see the concept of ‘cumulative healing’ landing as a way to give back to water and land. Rather than wondering how much more can we take or impact land before we need to stop, instead we should ask how much longer should we let the water and land heal, before we ask for more,” states Michael Blackstock.

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    LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: “Our rivers, our watersheds are connected to many aspects of our lives. A First Nation perspective would recognize water as life,” stated Paul Chapman


    “The earliest inhabitants on the land, BC’s First Nations, settled near rivers. More recent settlements have followed suit, settling near rivers for fresh water supply, travel, commerce, food supply, recreation, and in our built environments storm water and wastewater services. Climate change has compounded the stresses our modern practices and settlements impose on watershed health and healthy functioning. The new normal includes drought, flood and fire on a seasonal basis. A hopeful way forward is found in Blue Ecology,” stated Paul Chapman, Chair of the Watershed Moments Team.

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    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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    BLUE ECOLOGY IS A PATHWAY TO WATER RECONCILIATION AT THE LOCAL SCALE IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: Blue Ecology is about taking responsibility for care of the land. Indigenous scholar Michael Blackstock discusses interweaving Indigenous oral history and Western water science.


    The Blue Ecology video documentary seeds the idea that hope lies within the spheres of influence for local governments…whether they are Indigenous OR non-Indigenous. At its heart, Blue Ecology is about taking responsibility for care of the land and passing on the intergenerational baton. The video also seeds the idea that making it so requires a change in attitude to achieve the five Blue Ecology principles – Spirit, Balance, Harmony, Respect, Unity. The primary audience for the video are people in local governments. The Watershed Moments goal is to help remove their fear of saying or doing the wrong thing.

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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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