As part of its 10-year, $50-million commitment to watershed conservation and increased access to safe water, the RBC Foundation (Royal Bank of Canada) recently awarded Water Matters a 2010 RBC Blue Water Project Leadership Grant in the amount of $100,000 to support the work of grassroots watershed stewardship groups in Alberta.

The Partnering to Promote Local Stewardship Program will specifically help local watershed stewardship groups and municipalities promote community land-use practices that protect local water supplies.

As the name suggests, a significant component of the program supports partnership development and community engagement in landscape and watershed management at the community level. Joining forces with Water Matters to ensure the success of the initiative is Cows and Fish (The Alberta Riparian Habitat Management Society), an organization with an extensive and successful track record of community engagement (in rural and urban contexts) in riparian habitat management and protection issues.

Since 1992, Cows and Fish has focused on people, watersheds, and communities and the process of moving from ecological awareness to ecological literacy. Their work encompasses various Canadian provinces and territories and has led to the restoration and maintenance of natural systems and the building of ecologically resilient communities.

Building capacity through community engagement

At the community level, landscape and watershed planning does not occur in a vacuum. It happens when community members work together and take action. Very often, communities already possess the motivation and know the goals they want to achieve but may lack access to basic resources, access to strategic partnerships, and knowledge of riparian and watershed management tools and techniques. The Partnering to Promote Local Stewardship Program provides these stewardship groups with the opportunity to meaningfully engage and work with other like-minded groups. For example, Water Matters and Cows and Fish can help these groups with their local issues through the development and implementation of a mutually developed local action plan.

"A lot of groups are voluntarily taking proactive steps to improve watershed health and water quality and our two groups possess the complementary skills to help," said Norine Ambrose, Program Manager at Cows and Fish.

Local stewards who reside in the watersheds are in the best position to care for their watersheds and ensure the clean water and healthy watersheds that all Albertans depend on. The joint efforts of Water Matters and Cows and Fish will provide these local stewards with valuable tools, resources, and guidance.

Sources

Fitch, Lorne. 2010. Working With People - Building Capacity for Community Engagement. Alberta Cows and Fish Program. Unpublished.

Whitfield, Dave. 2010. RBC antes up $100,000 for conservation groups. Rocky Mountain Outlook, July 7, 2010 (accessed August 5^th, 2010).