Creating a “Watershed Wise© “Community

Year 2008
Proponent Como Watershed Group
Project type Engagement
FSWP funding source Living Rivers
Grant amount $23475
Total project value $60650
Other project funders

City of Coquitlam, Como Watershed Group, Scott Creek Middle School, Centennial Secondary

ID number EELR36

Location: Fraser Valley, The Como Creek watershed, south Coquitlam BC

Project Summary

What does creating Watershed Wise Community really mean, what is needed to achieve and sustain such a concept? Over the coming year the Como Watershed Group, with support from the Fraser Salmon and Watersheds Program, the City of Coquitlam and educational institution partners (School District 43) will be working to address those questions. Watershed Wise is an ecological literacy program born out of the experience of local stewards in the Como Creek watershed of Coquitlam who have been working for over a decade to educate and engage citizenry about the value of urban watersheds and wildspaces. The Como creek watershed is one of the few urban systems in the Lower Fraser still supporting a population of wild salmon. As populations grow and the living landscape is transformed to a built environment, our relationship to what was once wilderness becomes more distant. Watershed Wise has been developed using the principle that mentorship and interaction at the community level is the most effective means of instilling an environmental stewardship and conservation ethic.

The term “wildspace” a keyword in the principles of Watershed Wise is employed to reaffirm that those special places are still close to home in our urban environment. Though our notion of wilderness may no longer be the same in our towns and cities, from backyards to corner woodlots to neighbourhood creeks we can still connect back to a sense of the wild.

The Goals of Watershed Wise:
-To impart a lasting awareness of how fragile and critical urban watersheds and associated wildspaces are;
-To develop skills and tools that can be used to conserve these important areas; and,
-To emphasize the benefits to all of us of conserving, restoring and preserving healthy ecosystems.

The Watershed Wise Program was originally developed in 2002 and has had limited implementation on the community over the last 6 years. With the support of the FSWP, the program will be able to go through the necessary refinement and evolution processes to become the key citizen engagement tool for urban watershed conservation it was designed to be. For further information, contact the Como Watershed Group at: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or check out the WWP at: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/cwg


See also:

http://www.vcn.bc.ca/cwg

Interim Progress

The project team has met with the City of Coquitlam and FSWP staff to kickstart the project and refine deliverables and objectives.


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