Making Waves: World Water Day Symposium
Maude Barlow & Jenny Vega Cárdenas featured speakers
World Water Day Symposium
The West Kootenay Watershed Collaborative invites everyone to participate in a symposium to network, share insights, build partnerships, and commit to protecting our watersheds. The event will feature speakers Jenny Vega Cárdenas of the International Observatory of the Rights of Nature, and Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians, alongside additional guest speakers who are working at the intersection of water, law, ecology, community, and activism. Daniel J. Pierce’s film, Trouble in the Headwaters, will also be screened.
To register, email admin@westkootenaywater.ca and send an etransfer to wkwccontribute@gmail.com.
If you are interested in hosting an information table for $10, submit your proposals to admin@westkootenaywater.ca by February 28th.
Date: March 22, 2026 SUNDAY
Time: 10 AM to 6 PM (Doors open at 9:30 AM)
Location: Nelson District Rod and Gun Club, 801 Railway St., Nelson
Cost: $15 members, $20 non-members
Follow up
Our Symposium was a success; we filled our venue with 11 organizations and a contingent of enthusiastic locals who were eager to participate in finding solutions to the major issues affecting the health of our watersheds. It was inspiring to take in the many different talks, with diverse voices: sharing the big idea of legal rights of Nature (Yenny Cárdenas); Maude Barlow’s sobering forecast of the predicament we are in; Save What’s Left (Joe Karthein) delivering a rousing speech (‘Going for the Jugular’) about grassroots activism and delivering the message in such a way it cannot be ignored; First Nations’ stewardship (Isaak Dekker and Rick Desautel) highlighting the immense value, growing momentum and increasing need for Indigenous ways to be integrated into conservation and environmental management; and stewardship success stories from local organizations (presentations given by Friends of Kootenay Lake, Salmo Watershed Streamkeepers Society, and Slocan River Streamkeepers) and devoted teams who are positively impacting ecosystems for the benefit of the more-than-human beings who live there.