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Elk River Community Information Session Dec. 8
The Elk River Watershed Monitoring Collaborative (ERWMC), a partner-led organization spearheaded by the Elk River Alliance, is hosting its first public event open to the community.
The event will start with a presentation on land-uses in the valley, and how they impact the Elk River watershed, and finish with a question and comment period where citizens will have a chance to voice their concerns regarding river health.
The event will be held at the Fernie Arts Station on Thursday, December 8, from 7-8 p.m. Evgeni Matveev, the Elk River Alliance Communication and Outreach Coordinator will present on current knowledge of land-use impacts on the watershed.
“Most people have a general awareness of environmental issues facing our water,” said Matveev. “However, we always hear questions like: what are the selenium levels in the water? How is forestry impacting the water? Is the river healthy? We want to address these questions and provide some ideas for future steps we all need to take.”
The ERWMC had its inaugural annual forum almost a year ago, and spent this year bringing together partners to decide on priorities for monitoring. Current partners of the program include Teck Resources, Yaq̓it ʔa·knuqⱡi ‘it, Living Lakes Canada, Canadian Wildlife Federation, North Coal, Collaborative Monitoring Initiative, BC Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, Elk River Guiding Co., and Elk River Alliance.
“Our program is focused on working together to ensure the best data is available to decision-makers, and we want to share our vision with the community,” said Anne-Caroline Kroeger, program manager for the ERWMC, “this is also a chance for us to hear the concerns of Elk Valley citizens so we can address them with our programming.”
The following day the second annual forum will take place, where partners will discuss future steps for the collaborative. Some future prospects include deciding on monitoring priorities and conducting fieldwork to get a big picture understanding of watershed health.
To find out more about the event, follow up on elkriveralliance.ca or go to the Elk River Alliance Facebook page.
Photo submitted
Elk River Alliance
