Vancouver and Victoria are among a minority of watersheds ( yet a majority of the population of BC) that have long ago banned any activity in their boundaries. Everywhere else in B.C., people are told they must balance the needs of industry and the environment.
Today, resource extraction and other industrial activities are permitted in community watersheds — the place where you get your drinking water — and this includes commercial logging, the construction of logging roads as well as legacy roads, mining, ATV’s, cattle ranching, unregulated recreation and hunting use.
We believe that it’s time this double standard ended; it’s time to take action to protect our publicly owned land and all the values of our watershed, especially our water.
An intact forest protects our water and wildlife, and helps mitigate against climate change.
We believe that forestry jobs can mean replanting and restoration, not just harvesting. Jobs can be maintained by logging selectively; utilizing trees instead of burning them in slash piles; planting a variety of trees, plants and shrubs; saving trees from disease; and wildfire mitigation work around cities and towns. These are just a few examples of ways in which we can keep the forest healthy while keeping the foresters employed. The status quo has closed 200 mills in B.C. the past 20 years with over 22,000 jobs lost due to mismanagement and automation; this cannot continue.
Many members of the Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance know this land. They see the industrial impacts – most of them with no mitigation or restoration requirements – are causing soil erosion and heavy run off, resulting in undrinkable water and increasingly, flood conditions.
OUR MISSION
The Peachland Watershed Protection Alliance (PWPA) is dedicated to the
protection of the ecosystem of the District of Peachland’s watershed and the water it provides including its
quality, quantity and timing of flow both at the source and through our taps.
OUR VISION
A universal understanding that water is the planet’s most precious entity and deserves protection.
OUR VALUES
We acknowledge that all our watershed advocacy takes place on the unceded traditional territory of the Okanagan syilx people.
We endeavour to care for the land and our community, with respect; to be inclusive; open and transparent; and use best-possible research and science-based information, including traditional ecological knowledge in our decision making process.