Nov 2017 Roundtable Central Interior Boston Bar to 100 Mile

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Roundtable Report

Nov 2017

Lee Hesketh Central Interior S of 100 Mile

 

  • Over the past summer and into the fall we have continued to have impacts from flooding, drought, water quality and last week wind here in the southern interior. Bring in the fact that the plan for SEP was to turn off the lights on education and habitat restoration it has been a challenging summer. Some might even call it a disaster. 
  • The regular issues haven't changed with lack of funding, staffing and permitting but ironically awareness by government and the general public of impacts created by our society's own ignorance with the environment seems to at least be starting conversations on change again.
  • My new mantra though is "why waste a good disaster! " 
  • In my roll with FRISP and as a steward, I've been engaging in helping as many situations as possible to find solutions around resource management.  This has pulled me into the world of ground water licencing, utilization, quality, quantity and flood preparation dealing with all levels of government brought on by these disasters. With the changes in government we've also seen a new agenda in Victoria and promises made. Always looking to the positive, I'm hoping some of the situations have been shaken up that we will see:
  • new provincial agricultural waste regulations implemented sooner than later. These should help address issues related to conflicts between agriculture and the environment  
  • ground water licencing being further implemented and monitoring occurring to better understand the connections with surface water. 
  • discussion moving ahead addressing fish passage on a number of interior dams by BC Hydro. 
  • flooding and drought has brought back the discussion of water storage and conservation flows to sensitive watersheds between different levels of government.  
  • damage created last spring may generate opportunities to restore flooding capacity through habitat restoration. Have to move suburbanites to focus away from confinement and protection from the creeks to allowing the creeks to function by giving them room.