Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC

In government, Lynn was a leader who made a difference behind the scenes with her vision and ability to make things happen. She was the Living Water Smart champion, and her passion and leadership drove it. “Living Water Smart is a timeless story about the value of water in all its forms and its message continues to resonate with people today. Living Water Smart is an idea that has a life beyond a date-stamped plan,” says Lynn Kriwoken. In rewirement she continues to draw on those same messages to inspire and educate others about water.

“waterbucket.ca has matured into a legacy resource. In 2004, we were thinking about where we are now. We have adapted over the past 20 years. We have changed when we have had to. We have always gone where there is interest and energy. We have done all this and that is a big part of our continuing success. When people say I saw it on waterbucket.ca, that is our ultimate measure and testament of success. Hopefully that will continue to be our story for another twenty years and beyond. That will be the legacy of the Waterbucket Website Partnership founders,” stated Mike Tanner.

“When local governments obtain a financial value for streams as spatial assets, they can include them in their asset management plans and budgets. If land use intensity increases to levels that destroy the conditions of the stream, then there will be no stream asset to produce ecological services. Communities need streams to be there! We are moving EAP from a primary emphasis on Asset Management to use by planners for spatial analysis related to streams and trees,” stated Tim Pringle.

In “Views of the Salish Sea”, Howard Macdonald Stewart documents that, too often in his career as an advisor to the United Nations, he experienced a vital paradise that had become an environmental desert due to ‘business as usual’ decisions. He wrote the book to help readers better understand past decisions and their consequences. “The pressure on this ecologically vulnerable area will only intensify. Will we continue with Business as Usual or implement Wise Use in the Salish Sea? The first step is to understand the complex story of the region,” stated Macdonald.

“Climate change has aggravated an existing vulnerability related to seasonal supply of water in British Columbia. Over time, and as the population has grown, the safety factor has been shrinking. While it rains a lot, we do not have an abundance of supply when demand is greatest. This creates risks. In 2015, Western North America clearly crossed an invisible threshold into a different hydrometeorological regime. Over the past decade, it has been one drought after another, dramatized by the extremes that impacted BC communities in 2021 and again in 2023,” stated Kim Stephens.

“In a nutshell, we chose a compelling title… Melting Glaciers, Watersheds and You…that ties watershed health to personal responsibility. It is inevitably a bad news/good news story that we want to end with hope. And a call to action. we have an all-star panel in Dr. Brian Menounos, Dr. Peter Ross and Michael Blackstock. Each has a powerful message to share. These people are good scientists, thought leaders and story tellers who care about our planet. Aiming to inspire action, their message is provocative and hopeful for future generations,” stated Lynn Kriwoken.

“Once you start understanding where your food comes from, and what you are eating, it opens conversations into all kinds of water and land issues. Almost always, Canada’s own exposure to weather extremes are lower than the other places we depend on…especially the USA. When we look at trade and food coming into a country, we always look at the national level. This is the first time it has been done at a provincial scale. And we know where food is coming from within the USA. Our food systems need to be transformed,” stated Kushank Bajaj.

“Not everyone gets to plan a brand-new community on top of a mountain as I did at Simon Fraser University. To everybody embarking on these gentle densification projects to construct 4 or 6 homes on single-family lots, you must get the drainage right. Get it wrong and it can be expensive to fix the problem,” stated Michael Geller. “One of the real advantages we had at UniverCity is that I was able to try out new ideas. Whenever people would say, we cannot do that, I could say: I will give you written assurance from the university that if this idea does not work, we will fix it.”

“I see myself as merely a narrator speaking about a shared experience that we all had in planning the Cowichan Region Climate Gathering. We just know that ultimately, the network of networks can help us to work together towards a common vision,” stated Keith Lawrence. “It was recognized from the beginning how important it would be to ground the event in the traditional ways of the local First Nations communities and people in the region. And we recognized that we needed to have this big space discussion about climate action to connect a network of networks within the region.”

“Nature-First Cities is not a heavy academic book. We wrote it to be inspirational…and we challenge readers to understand why we have become so disconnected from nature and what happens when we start to rebuild that connection. What happens ecologically? What happens socially? Equity is a huge component of the book and one of the pillars around what makes nature-directed stewardship work. So, there is that broader picture around rehabilitating that sense of connectivity with people and nature in cities,” stated Sean Markey.