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Introduction
History of Stream Stewardship Atlas
Discovery Coast Stewardship Atlas
Developing Community Capacity
Local Mapping Centre
Headwaters to Oceans
Creating a Coastal
Community Atlas

History of Stream Stewardship Atlas
Before 1995 over 30% of streams were unmapped in B.C.
Fisheries staff and planners were using:
Small scale 1:50,000 NTS (National Topographic Service Maps)
1:20,000 TRIM maps which did not show all streams or
Cadastral maps which had little accurate stream information.
Getting local information onto maps was difficult & expensive.

History of Stream Stewardship Atlas
In 1997 the Regional District of
Comox Strathcona began a pilot
project in the Comox Valley to
produce a Sensitive Habitat Atlas.
It did include streams outside of the RDCS.
Funding was not sufficient to extend coverage to
Campbell River or Quadra Island.
Getting new information added into the atlas was a lengthy and difficult process.

History of Stream Stewardship Atlas
To get the maps that we needed, we had to develop local
GPS/GIS capacity.
Stream mapping was completed, but there was still no funding to produce a Sensitive Habitat Atlas for Campbell
River or Quadra Island.
No agreements in place between community and government on data publication.

History of Stream Stewardship Atlas
Our stream data was sent to all levels of government
Available to stewardship groups for planning, reporting and public education
Development of the Discovery Coast Stewardship Atlas
Series of maps for each
watershed, easily accessible,
a flag for decision making

Oyster Bay
Storie Creek
Simms Creek
Nunns Creek
Woods Creek Detweiler Creek
Willow Creek Cold Creek
Quinsam River Casey Creek
Campbell River Quadra Island
Menzies Creek Sayward
Haig-Brown’s Kingfisher Creek

Developing Community Capacity
Funding for a GIS technician.
Formed a network with support from Project Watershed and the Inner Coast Natural Resource Centre.
Brad Mason (DFO) and the CMN provided assistance and training opportunities.

Developing Community Capacity
Our mapping center is now equipped with Pentium 4 computer with GIS software, large format printer, an HP plotter, a digitizing table and a Trimble ProXR GPS unit.

Developing Community Capacity
Local knowledge
Partnerships & Information Sharing
Local priorities & Fund raising
Proven ability
Expertise & Training

Developing Community Capacity
Our map products are
currently being used for:
Education Programs
OCP Review
Streamkeeper Activities
Habitat Protection and
Incident Reporting

Headwaters to Oceans
Expanding our focus to include ocean environments
Campaign to de-industrialize
the Campbell River estuary
• Purchase of Baikie Island
• Campbell River Estuary
Management Plan

Headwaters to Oceans
Historical analysis of the estuary spanning
57 years.

A lot of plans never make it off the shelf.
Changing government priorities and differing
Provincial &
Federal priorities result in no followthrough.

Commitment is with Community
“ Oceans Planning” could easily become another “flavor of the day” unless there is community commitment to carry the plans through.
We know that there is a lot
of learn and a lot to reconcile
before we can plan together.

We do not know nearly enough about the ocean to understand how proposed and present developments are affecting it.
We do know that we can work together to collect piece by piece the information that we need.
As we did with our home streams, we can do with our beaches and estuaries.

We are beginning with the estuaries.
These are the most fragile and threatened coastal areas.
They are accessible, and many of the land use issues and landowner contact skills that were applicable to freshwater are also applicable here.

To extend the community capacity that we have developed from the headwaters to the ocean.
To ensure that our data is trusted by community and government.
To make this information available through our community mapping centre.

Developing Partnerships
Securing Funding
Developing a shoreline atlas with a community focus.

In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create, but by what we refuse to destroy .
John Sawhill,
The Nature Conservancy