Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance

Kristen Friesen

1 year ago

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The media release for this event:

Peachland Residents gather with experts to discuss Watersheds & Water use in the Okanagan

Peachland- Pick your disaster – prolonged drought, monumental wildfire, shore-line floods, monstrously large urban developments, AI data centres, increased clear-cutting in your watershed – one or more of these are threatening your water source right now. While alarming, there is still hope.

Many of us have been advocating for better water security for years, but (excuse the analogy) the political machine has not turned down the heat and now the frog is boiling. This summer’s wildfires are only the start of the catastrophe. Join community groups including the Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance, the Interior Watershed Taks Force and the Peachland Citizens’ Engagement Group at our community forum in our continued advocacy and action, we can make change.

We have planned Peachland Water Stewardship Symposium is a community conversation with experts about what we as citizens can do to secure our water sources. With municipal elections coming up we need our community leaders to get on the same page, to ACT NOW, together, all of us.

We want to hear your stories and ideas for strengthening and securing your water sources. The expert panel will share their best knowledge about how we can move forward in this unstable climate regime, with many ongoing community challenges that are threatening or already damaging our watersheds. Bring your stories, ask your questions, engage in solutions; our goal is to inform the public and water users so we can, in turn, arm ourselves with the science and get the answers we need from local first nations, academics, municipal, provincial and federal governments. Our speakers and panelists include:
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Dr. Younes Alila, Professor of Hydrology, UBC and researcher who has published scores of journal articles on forest hydrology and groundbreaking peer-reviewed science. He claims, “when it comes to hydrology, and the effects of clearcut logging on hydrology, what we are seeing now is the worst situation that you could possibly have. We have already lost most of our forest cover, the most powerful natural protection against flood risk and drought risk in this province. And that’s exactly what ended up causing the 2018 flood event in the downtown area of Grand Forks, which caused damage to over 400 homes and many businesses.”

Critical of today’s industrial practices and the damage to the land and wildlife, Morris Mike, former BC United Party Minister of Public Safety and outfitter/guide will also be on hand. Morris told us he uses his 45 years as RCMP to investigate the forest and floods connections and “over recent years, wildfires, heat domes, floods, and landslides have taken lives, destroyed livelihoods, and caused billions of dollars in infrastructure loss and billions more in economic loss. As a former BC public safety minister, I am alarmed that government, industry, and industry professionals continue to practice clearcut logging knowing this practice places British Columbians at increased risk.”

Also on the panel is Doug Holmes, Summerland Mayor. With courage and compassion Doug lead his community through one of the largest disasters in the Okanagan history – the Bald Range wildfire this August. Holmes said a key focus now that residents have returned and the immediate fire threat is over is securing Summerland’s drinking water source that was damaged. “We’re just starting to really see the magnitude of it and the damage to our watershed, which is where we draw our drinking water, that’s going to be a big concern moving forward, including fire debris in the water supply, potentially contaminating the drinking source with ash and algae.’’ Along with Peachland, “we’re the only community on Okanagan Lake that doesn’t draw our drinking water from the lake, we draw it all from reservoirs that we hold up in the watershed, and the fire has burnt right through that.”

When asked about water protections, K̓ninm̓tm̓ taʔ n̓q̓ʷic̓tn̓s Wilfred “Grouse” Barnes, a syilx Elder and knowledge keeper residing on Westbank First Nation, claims, ‘’action is better than words, to take action, to really just get out on the land, get your hands dirty picking up stuff — walk and talk, and talk some more.” This is exactly what this symposium intends to do- open up the conversations.

Background

Primary forests in the central interior are in trouble. Fifty years of unrestrained industrial logging has left our communities with degraded water, landscapes and a significant loss in biodiversity. Formed in 2016. This volunteer driven non-profit, Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance is calling on the BC government to legally protect primary forests in the interior community watersheds and transition towards community-based forestry in second-growth forests

The Interior Watershed Task Force is a volunteer coalition of community groups and individuals based in Interior BC, concerned about the state of our watersheds, forests and biodiversity. We apply science and personal experience to inform and advocate for the protection of watersheds and primary forests, and for the recovery of degraded forests. Our advocacy respects and recognizes the rights of BC’s First Nations to their ancestral territories on which we live and work.