Solutions: Watershed Boards

CREATE

Local Watershed Boards

Right now, BC is one of the few provinces without a system of local watershed boards or agencies. This needs to change. By embracing collaborative watershed governance, BC can chart a positive path forward — a path that bridges divides, empowers local decisions, advances reconciliation, and harnesses the ingenuity of the people who know their watersheds best.

WHAT IS A WATERSHED BOARD?

Watershed boards foster cooperation and mutual understanding by bringing local people together around shared goals for the watersheds they call home. These boards facilitate difficult but respectful conversations between neighbours — such as between chiefs and mayors, farmers and salmon advocates, and business leaders and stewardship groups. These boards build on the strengths of Indigenous knowledge and Western science to deepen understanding of watershed health, advance reconciliation, and implement locally designed solutions.

Crucially, with a mandate from authority holders—such as the provincial government, First Nations, and local governments—Watershed Boards ensure local people are either making the decisions or directly informing them.

Benefits of Local Watershed Boards

  • Targeted Action – watershed boards take a proactive, coordinated approach to solve water issues at their source based on local expertise and collaborative planning.
  • Community Voice – boards build trust, reduce conflict, and bring people together around a shared vision through deep and meaningful engagement with local residents and stakeholders.
  • Reconciliation in Action – boards embed shared governance between First Nations, local governments and provincial decision-makers and ensure that everyone is at the table putting reconciliation into practice.
  • Local Economic Engine – Boards leverage investments, create quality jobs, and attract external funding—all while delivering better watershed outcomes at a fraction of the cost to senior governments.

What Will it Take?

  1. A Provincial System of Watershed Boards – the BC Government needs to work with First Nations and Local Governments to develop a provincial system of Watershed Boards as the cornerstone of a modern watershed governance framework. This system should provide a clear structure for local decision-making that reflects each region’s unique geography, history and watershed priorities.
  2.  Stable Funding – the province needs to resource these boards with the financial, technical, and logistical resources required to succeed. Growing the Watershed Security Fund is one pathway to support funding for  local watershed collaboration, planning and boards.

74% of British Columbians support the creation of local watershed boards as a means of giving people more say over their watersheds and fresh water sources.

Campagins

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