Peachland’s Water Stewardship Symposium is an interactive conversation that discusses the ongoing issues with our water. From the broken water cycle, continual development and demand for water, degraded watershed, and flawed public policies, our expert panel will highlight solutions, policies, and practices that can give Peachland an more sustainable and resilient future.
Our Expert Panel
Our presenters have a wealth of local knowledge and insight into the Peachland watershed and the bigger Okanagan water regime. It’s time to take action – watershed resilience, watershed restoration, practical water conservation programs and practices will be discussed.
xwestikn (Chris Eneas ) A syilx knowledge keeper and fluent nsyilxcen speaker. Grew up on the land in our territory and is teacher at the enowkin centre and a childrens cultural coordinator for the Penticton Indian Band health department.
Doug Holmes Summerland Mayor. With courage and compassion Doug lead his community through one of the largest disasters in the Okanagan history – the Bald Range wildfire of 2026. He was elected Mayor in 2022 after serving eight years as Councillor. He represents Summerland at the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) and serves on the Okanagan Basin Water Board (OBWB). Doug has long advocated for a culturally and economically vibrant community and has been Council’s liaison to the Chamber of Commerce, Arts Council, and Summerland Secondary School Youth Council. Known in the community for coaching youth tennis and for his work to support Syrian and African refugees, Doug settled in Summerland to raise his family in 2004 after an international career in business and journalism. Based in Paris and London, he worked for Microsoft Corp for 10 years and authored a book on the use of Internet technology in the public sector, which was translated into seven languages. He has been a company director and magazine publisher in the UK, a foreign correspondent in Eastern Europe, a copy editor in Hong Kong, and a newspaper editor and CBC radio reporter in the Northwest Territories. Doug has been to every Canadian province and territory and has visited more than 90 countries. He has a degree in journalism and political science from Carleton University in Ottawa.
Dr. Younes Alila Younes Alila received his B.A.Sc. (1985), M.A.Sc. (1987) and Ph.D. (1994) from the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department of the University of Ottawa. From 1992 to 1996 Younes worked full time as a Project Engineer for the Greater Vancouver Regional District while finishing part-time his Ph.D. program. His M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. research work is on regional hydrology with a main focus on the transfer of information related to low-flows, floods and precipitation from gauged to ungauged sites. He took up his current position in forest hydrology and watershed management in the Department of Forest Resources Management in February 1996.
Younes current research program addresses a number of problems related to watershed management using an approach that combines experimental, theoretical, stochastic, and deterministic hydrology across a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. His research focuses on the understanding and modeling of the physical basis underlying the “nonlinear nature” of hydrologic processes as affected by the geometric, temporal and spatial scaling of stream networks, precipitation dynamics, soil characteristics, land use and land cover. Younes research program is designed to provide scientifically-based information, knowledge and expert advice that promote sound policies, solve urgent operational problems and provide a solid foundation on which to build sustainable forest and water resources management in British Columbia.
Mike Morris Mike Morris has hunted, fished, trapped, and hiked throughout his trapline area northwest of Prince George since the early 1970’s and for fifty years, has witnessed the cumulative impacts to the landscape resulting from resource development. He is a past president of the BC Trappers Association, holding a membership since 1984. He joined the RCMP in 1973 and his first posting was to Prince George. During his 32-year career, he travelled all highways and many resource roads in the northern 75% of the province, visiting every first nation’s community and every town and city. He retired as the District Officer in charge of policing the RCMP’s North District in 2005. After the RCMP, Mike became an adjudicator/mediator with the BC Health Professions Review Board, serving from 2008 to 2013. He also served on the Drug Benefit Council for BC from 2009 to 2013.
Mike was first elected as a member of the BC Legislature in May of 2013, to represent the riding of Prince George-Mackenzie. He was appointed parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Forests with a specific mandate to assess impacts on wildlife habitat from resource development across BC. This work culminated in his 2015 report “Getting the Balance Right”.
Mike served as BC’s Solicitor General and the Minister Responsible for Public Safety 2015 – 2017. He also served on numerous Select Standing Committees including Finance and Government Services and Public Accounts, along with the Cabinet Committee for Environment and Land Use. Mike has lived in Prince George for the past twenty- eight years and spent the majority of his RCMP career in northern communities. He and his wife Chris have been married for 45 years. They have two sons and seven grandchildren.
Mike is a conservationist and wants to change the paradigm on forestry in British Columbia. His goal is to ensure that all future governments of British Columbia recognize BC’s unique and abundant biodiversity as a natural resource and provide it with full and equal consideration in the planning, development, and extraction of all our natural resources.
MEDIA PHOTOS
