In September, Parks New Brunswick welcomed the 2023 Canadian Heritage Rivers System for our Annual General Meeting (AGM). The CHRS Board and Technical Planning Committee members got to meet local river stewardship groups, attend workshops, and discuss next steps for Canadian heritage rivers from the traditional and unceded territories of the Wolastoqiyik, Mi’kmaq and Peskotomuhkati Peoples.
Meeting with local stewardship groups
Photo credit: CHRS
Two heritage rivers are found on the east coast of New Brunswick: the Wolastoq/St. John River and the Skutic/St. Croix River. Representatives of the Canadian Heritage Rivers System from most provinces and territories met with local river stewardship group representatives working on these rivers.
First, we met with Shayelin Braydon, the monitoring coordinator with ACAP Saint John. ACAP Saint John is a community-based non-profit organization. They monitor the health of tributaries of the Wolastoq and restore ecosystems along the river. Shayelin presented on the importance of collaboration to achieve consistent monitoring across large watersheds. Namely, ACAP Saint John works with the St. John River Society to bring local groups together with the goal of protecting the watershed.
The board and Technical Planning Committee members then spoke with Kurt Peacock, from Parks Canada, and Neal Berry, from the St. Croix International Waterway Commission. They conversed on the topic of river management across multiple jurisdictions. The Skutic/St. Croix River is on the Wolastoqiyik and Peskotomuhkati land and flows along the border between Canada and the United States. Kurt Peacock explained an ongoing partnership between Parks Canada and the Peskotomuhkati to bring an Indigenous perspective to the St. Croix Island International Historic Site. Neal Berry, the executive director of the St. Croix International Waterway Commission, explained how the Commission navigates working across those two national jurisdictions.
Sharing best practices for river management
Over the course of the meeting, the group was fortunate to be able to attend two workshops, one on aquatic invasive species and one on ecological grief.
Meghan Bruce from the Canadian Rivers Institute and Kristen Elton from the New Brunswick Invasive Species Council shared best practices on aquatic invasive species prevention and mitigation. Meghan presented her research on Eurasian Milfoil. Then, Kristen updated the group on the management of zebra mussels in New Brunswick, namely along the in the Wolastoq/St. John River. The group explored ways to bring this newly acquired knowledge to heritage river managers across the country. The Technical Planning Committee identified two avenues to do so: 1) this newsletter (look at the article Reporting Invasive Species – Keeping our Rivers Healthy!) and 2) a winter webinar. More details on this webinar will be shared in coming months.
The second workshop, on the impacts of climate change on our mental health, was led by four young professionals from Parks Canada, the Group for Research and Education on Marine Mammals, and the First Nations of Quebec Labrador Sustainable Development Institute. They explained that difficult emotions such as fear, anxiety, and sadness are normal in the face of climate change. The presenters have researched multiple techniques to navigate eco-emotions over the years. The one they find to be the most effective is creating a community of support around us. This can be as simple as finding a few friends with whom you can talk openly about your feelings. The workshop ended with the group sharing an online toolkit full of strategies and resources to cope with ecological grief.
Annual General Meeting
During the Annual General Meeting, our board of directors had many fruitful discussions. They reviewed the work done over the past year, reviewed five- and ten-year monitoring plans, heard a presentation on the proposed North Saskatchewan River designation, and planned for the year ahead. As the group departed, each member left with a full list of action items to bring the Canadian Heritage Rivers System forward in the coming year. The next AGM is planned for the fall of 2024, in Newfoundland.