"Heart of the Watershed"

a Symposium on Restoring the Courtenay River Estuary

The "Heart of the Watershed" event on Oct. 3-4 was a great success.

Thanks to all for your participation.

If you would like to join the action group, or contribute any further comments, please contact the Project Watershed office through the 'Contact Us' link in the right-hand-side menu.

Click this link below to view videos we made of some presentations, as well as Acrobat Reader (pdf) files of presenters' slide shows:
Videos AND Presentations

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Event Synopsis

If rivers are the veins and arteries of a watershed, and wetlands are the kidneys that cleanse the water, then the central element of the watershed must be the heart:

in the Comox Valley, that heart is the Courtenay River Estuary.

The Courtenay River Estuary is one of the most important estuaries on the east coast of Vancouver Island, with national and global significance. There are many ongoing & recent issues which will impact the sensitive habitat along the estuary's shores including the banks of the Courtenay River. At the same time opportunities are presenting themselves to preserve and restore portions of the estuary.

On October 3-4, 2008, this unique event focused on the "Heart of the Watershed".

The symposium was designed to be of interest to policy makers including elected officials & municipal staff; science & planning professionals; representatives from environmental organizations; and concerned citizens.

The "Heart of the Watershed" event's objectives were to:

increase awareness and appreciation of the estuary, educate, & inspire participants to take action

establish the connection between a healthy resilient ecosystem and a healthy resilient community

create an action group of professionals, policy makers, community environmental representatives, and concerned citizens, to carry forward with management planning, stewardship, and monitoring of the Courtenay River Estuary