Rethinking Our Waterways, a one-day public workshop focusing on a management plan for the watershed was held at the Rock Creek Fairgrounds last Friday.
Graham Watt, project co-ordinator of the Kettle River Management Plan (KRMP) is under contract with the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary (RDKB) to oversee the production of the plan.
There are two regional district committees involved. Area E Rural Director Bill Baird is chair of the Kettle River Steering Committee and Area C Rural Director Grace McGregor is chair of the Kettle River Study Stakeholder Committee, which includes the participation of some 30 interested citizens who will assist in the planning.
The planning department of the regional district and other government offices are also assisting the project.
“Today gives us a broader perspective on what people’s concerns are, how active they want to be, what they see as the issues, what they see as the answers to the issues,” said McGregor.
A draft State of the Watershed Report was released last June, bringing together the known technical data on the watershed. It is available online at kettleriver.ca
Phase 2 of the watershed management planning process will see the rest of this year spent gathering an understanding of watershed issues, values and visions through public meetings and surveys.
The first half of 2013 will be spent developing goals, objectives and priorities, while the latter half of the year will see recommendations developed. A draft Watershed Management Plan is due to be published during the first three months of 2014, followed by three months of implementation planning.
Last Friday’s workshop was entitled Rethinking Our Water Ways, taken from a 2011 document of the same name published by the Fraser Basin Council (FBC).
FBC’s Senior Program Manager Steve Litke shared the experiences and insights of the 15 year-old non-profit group. More information is available from fraserbasin.bc.ca or rethinkingwater.ca
Another speaker/facilitator at the Friday workshop was Nelson Jatel, water stewardship director with the Okanagan Basin Water Board (online at obwb.ca).
He focused on helping identify who was missing from the room, but should be involved in the plan.
After lunch Watt led some exercises to identify and brainstorm specific issues.
Boundary-Similkameen MLA John Slater in attendance and, when asked about the current status of the Modernizing the Water Act initiative, said that legislation is being drafted but he vowed he intends to make sure it will be released to all stakeholders for comment before it is voted on.
He anticipates the draft being ready for comment in the spring, with it going before the House in the fall of 2013.
Those who didn’t attend still have an opportunity to give the steering and stakeholder committees the benefit of local information and local ideas about how to move forward.
A survey was delivered to every mailbox in the watershed earlier this month.
The survey, with a deadline of Nov. 16, is also available online at kettleriver.ca.
– Pat Kelly, Boundary Creek Times