1. Drumheller says no to supplying water to the Balzac development
A controversial proposal to pipe water from the Red Deer to a development in the Bow River basin has run into a major stumbling block. On April 3, 2007, Town of Drumheller Council denied Municipal District of Rocky View's request to use Drumheller's water intake structure and works to withdraw water from the Red Deer River that would supply the United Horsemen's new development near Balzac, a few miles north of Calgary. The vote was unanimous.
Read more: http://www.bowriverkeeper.org/node/121
2. Bow Riverkeeper announces first in series of free online workshops: May 17th: "Deepening our capacity to think about water."
Alberta's Water for Life strategy contemplates its implementation to occur through "shared governance" among government, industry, and the public. But we have yet to define exactly how "shared governance" would be implemented. Our first online workshop will be dedicated to this issue. University of Calgary professors, Mary-Ellen Tyler and Mike Quinn, and our very own Danielle Droitsch will share their thoughts about shared governance in the watershed context.
Read more: http://www.bowriverkeeper.org/node/120
3. Rallying for better land and water use in Alberta!
Bow Riverkeeper staff Meghan Beveridge called for stronger government action at a rally calling for more responsible land and water use hosted by MLA David Swann and fellow Liberal representatives on April 13th. This rally followed the day after a similar one in Edmonton. The rally highlighted the past and current mismanagement of Alberta's land and water resources.
Read more: http://www.bowriverkeeper.org/node/119
4. Small but important steps made toward province-wide water conservation plan
Recently, a subcommittee of the Alberta Water Council (with representation from Bow Riverkeeper) released a report addressing water conservation, efficiency, and productivity. The report is the first step toward a province-wide water conservation plan where large water using sectors will improve the efficiency and productivity of water use.
Read more: http://www.bowriverkeeper.org/node/118
5. Lorne Fitch challenges our thinking: "Will we get the future we planned for or the one we didn't?"
Lorne Fitch (P. Biol. University of Calgary, and Cows and Fish program) offers a slice of hope for integrated land management in Alberta. At the January 2007 Integrated Land Management workshop, "Integrating Today for a
Better Tomorrow", put on by the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Development, Lorne Fitch observed that a number of previous attempts to integrate land management in Alberta have been made unsuccessfully. But, now
that we're finally running in to some limits, there's hope that integration might work this time. Here we offer his speech of optimism [PDF] for Alberta. We thank Lorne Fitch for allowing us to disseminate his words. It's
worth the read!
Lorne's speech is available in PDF format: http://www.bowriverkeeper.org/docs/fitch-challenging-our-thinking.pdf
6. Join Bow Riverkeeper on Mother's Day to Clean up the Bow River!
Bow Riverkeeper and Andrew Stiles would like to invite you and your family and friends to an afternoon that promises to be filled with fun, good memories, and garbage. Please join us on May 13 for our first Spring Garbage Clean Up along the Bow River just outside of City of Calgary limits-the Bearspaw Reservoir. It is a beautiful safe area that is often neglected and requires some much needed TLC. Read how you can get involved!
Read more: http://www.bowriverkeeper.org/node/116