AFFORDABLE, EFFECTIVE AND PRAGMATIC NATURAL ASSET MANAGEMENT: “Moving forward with natural asset management is one of the key drivers for Nanaimo. This is why the City is all-in for EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process,” stated Bill Sims, General Manager of Engineering and Public Works with the City of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island
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The edition published on October 15, 2024 is the first installment in a 4-part series that showcases a successful precedent to pass the intergenerational baton and build long-term capacity within local government to implement Natural Asset Management. Anna Lawrence, project coordinator for the EAP Transition Strategy Partnership is the guest editor for a conversation with Bill Sims, general manager of engineering, about the City of Nanaimo’s experience in advancing EAP.
Affordable, effective, pragmatic Natural Asset Management
In this edition, we swing the spotlight from the Lower Mainland to the east coast of Vancouver Island. Common to both is that they drain into the Salish Sea from lands that comprise the Georgia Basin bio-region. Also common to both is this theme… leadership that takes the long view.
Through November, we are featuring alternating series. One is building to release of the Synopsis for the Chronicle of Green Infrastructure Innovation in the Metro Vancouver Region from 1994 through 2024. The other celebrates a unique partnership that is pioneering a pragmatic path forward for Natural Asset Management within the local government setting.
Local governments invest in youth to apply and evolve an affordable and cost-effective approach to Natural Asset Management
Supported financially by UBCM, three Vancouver Island local governments are founding members of the EAP Partnership which also includes the Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region Research Institute (MABRRI), Vancouver Island University and the Partnership for Water Sustainability. In 2022, the partners committed to a 3-year transition strategy to embed in MABRRI and operationalize EAP. Nine other local governments are “mentor members”.
“The City of Nanaimo is all-in with our commitment,” emphasizes Bill Sims. “It derives from the Community Charter where one of the Council’s primary duties is stewardship of the community’s assets. We are getting better and better all the time at stewarding the gray infrastructure assets such as our pipes and buildings. Now we must do the same with natural assets.”
“We have seen the value of natural asset management ever since we did Buttertubs Marsh in 2016 and Millstone River in 2020. Moving forward with it is a key driver within City Plan: Nanaimo Reimagined. Like all local governments, we are under a squeeze to get this done.”
GUEST EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE /
CONTEXT FOR BUSY READER
“The inaugural meeting that launched the EAP Transition Strategy Partnership was on October 27, 2022. That is the moment when EAP Chair Tim Pringle and Kim Stephens handed the intergenerational baton to Graham Sakaki and me to lead the next phase of EAP evolution. It is a 3-year transition,” states Anna Lawrence of the Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region Research Institute (MABRRI) at Vancouver Island University. Anna is the Project Coordinator for the EAP Transition Strategy Partnership.
“I came into the EAP process with a completely different background because my master’s degree is in Sustainable Leisure Management. So, it was a journey to get my head around the jargon and the different viewpoints and ways of thinking. This applied not only to the development of the EAP methodology but also to the different stakeholders.”
For the Year One project, the City of Nanaimo chose Departure Creek, an urban catchment
‘”The Departure Creek project 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.”
Financial plus in-kind investment is a measure of worth to the community:
“Jean-Michel put together such amazing, exhaustive information on previous expenditures over the past ten years. This enabled us to put together an educated number for financial expenditures on maintaining the creek.”
“This covered the city side as well as grants and stewardship hours spent on the streamkeeper side. Having this measure validated our estimate of the baseline value for annual maintenance and management, M&M, using the EAP methodology.”
Social perception of the worth of Departure Creek to the surrounding community
“A common thread in the feedback of that survey…in terms of gauging the community relationship to the creek…was that people get a lot of value from the ecological system.”
“Annette Noble, former principal of Departure Bay Elementary School, was kind enough to speak with me and provided insight into some of the ways students have been interacting with Departure Creek.”
“Students receive education about lifecycle of salmon, biodiversity of Departure Creek, and the water cycle. This conversation further emphasized the intrinsic value of WORTH.”
With a different context, different people and a different story comes a different angle
At the end of Year Two, the Partnership for Water Sustainability, MABRRI and VIU will have completed more than a dozen EAP projects. We are really getting into the different angles of how EAP is usable and transferable.
And so, 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.
EAP makes Natural Asset Management real in a variety of applications:
There are all these different ways EAP can be applied and used. There is room for creativity in where it can take us. That inherent flexibility also comes up when we present EAP because people have different perspectives.
This is a beautiful thing to observe because EAP offers so many different angles for ways of looking at how to address the complex challenges that each local government faces. The methodology to calculate the EAP number is universal but how that number is used can go in any direction depending on the question.
EAP project experience to date shows the breadth of roles that EAP can play in making Natural Asset Management real to local governments. This then further positions EAP in the world of municipal asset management budgets…which it is working to do.
STORY BEHIND THE STORY: Reflections on the 3-year transition strategy for embedding EAP at Vancouver Island University – extracts from a conversation with Bill Sims about the City of Nanaimo experience
At the midway mark in the 3-year transition strategy for embedding EAP at Vancouver Island University, Anna Lawrence and Bill Sims had a conversation to take stock of the journey. A set of four questions provided a framework for reflections by Bill Sims.
Why is the City of Nanaimo all-in with its 3-year commitment to the EAP Partnership? Midway through, how does Bill Sims describe his view of the journey to date? What was in his mind when the City selected Departure Creek as the 1st case study? How will City staff use what they have learned?
THREAD ONE: Why the City of Nanaimo is all-in with its commitment to the EAP Partnership
“Moving forward with natural asset management is one of the key drivers for Nanaimo. This is why the City is all-in for EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process. This is one way to getting an inventory happening. Most importantly, we saw the EAP Partnership as a timely opportunity to leverage collaboration with other local governments,” explains Bill Sims.
“We hire consultants oftentimes out of necessity because we simply do not have capacity, expertise or time in-house. When the EAP Partnership idea came up, the most attractive element was the ability to pass on the torch to the next generation of local government staff without losing the experience and knowledge that we have intrinsically built up.”
Storytelling and oral history is a foundation piece for Natural Asset Management
“We talk a lot about the need for oral history and stories. This partnership, this collaboration, has the opportunity to enshrine it and perpetuate the acquisition and evolution of knowledge around natural assets.”
“That is what I immediately really liked about the whole idea of the EAP Partnership. And then setting it up within the research chair at MABRRI gave it that sense of permanence. You knew it was going to be safe. We could entrust it there.”
Pass on knowledge and evolve understanding:
“If I retire tomorrow and my successor does not pick up the torch, then the EAP Partnership fizzles from my point of view But it will not fizzle if this program starts to perpetuate. Doing singular projects is all well and good. When we do one and then put it down, however, time passes and memories fade. But turning it more into a program makes it habitual.”
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“And we have observed that the Departure Bay Neighbourhood Association, not just the stewardship group, has a history of being a very engaged and active neighbourhood association. So, the people of that neighbourhood are engaged in community-building. This is really quite gratifying for me to see as a manager at the City.”
“Departure Creek is also one of the very few creeks on the east coast of Vancouver Island that does not dry up. There obviously some value, there is a salmon return frequently. There has been encroachment on the creek. There has also been riparian repair along the creek.”
THREAD THREE: How the City of Nanaimo will use what they have learned from Departure Creek
“Halfway through, it is quite exciting to see how the research work is unfolding. You would not have predicted this 1½ or 2 years ago when we started. What we are learning is so much bigger than just saying we are going to do this research project, come up with a number, and away we go. It is going way beyond that simple way of looking at things.”
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“That exercise will then form part of our Asset Management Plan and our natural asset inventory. As I have said many times…it may not be perfect but it is something. It is a starting point.”
Understand WHY we are making the financial case for investment in streams
“From there, we can start to demonstrate that the creeks in Nanaimo have a value of X millions of dollars. We really should be investing in their maintenance and management. By being pragmatic and making the financial case using real numbers, we answer the question of why we should be investing,” concludes Bill Sims.
Living Water Smart in British Columbia Series
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