September 10, 2016 – Castanet
The interdependence of watersheds was emphasized at the Okanagan Basin Water Board’s annual general meeting, Friday in Kelowna.
Decisions we make here not only affect the Okanagan, but other watersheds outside our boundaries as well, as we are affected by them, the board says.
“Even though a watershed is a geographic boundary useful for managing our waters, we are increasingly finding ourselves affected by things happening outside our watershed, including invasive species, changing weather patterns due to global warming, and population growth,” said executive director Anna Warwick Sears.
“We can’t ignore what’s happening around us, and at the same time we have to be good citizens and recognize that our actions do affect surrounding watersheds, in Canada, the U.S. and the world.”
Keynote speaker Dr. Amber Manfree, from the Center for Watershed Sciences at the University of California, said lessons learned from her state’s five-year drought have influenced policy on drought and flooding, invasive species, species at risk and protection, including fisheries restoration. The same issues affect the Okanagan.