Image: The GRCA and Collaborative Water Program hosted a half-day workshop on heritage values of the Grand River on October 30th, 2024.
Photo credit: Dustin Garrick
Last year marked the 30th anniversary of the Grand River’s designation as a Heritage River with celebrations ranging from a community play to cycling tours. The highlights also included bringing together knowledge and diverse stakeholders to understand how the heritage values of the Grand River are changing and to support the 10-year monitoring report on the river’s heritage status. The Grand River Conservation Authority collaborated with a group of nearly 20 graduate students at the University of Waterloo’s Collaborative Water Program in the fall term of 2024 to understand how the heritage values of the Grand River have changed over the last decade and to engage with watershed partners to reflect on the priorities for the future.
The Collaborative Water Program started in 2013 to help train the next generation of water leaders through a series of courses and hands-on projects. Students come from diverse backgrounds and collaborate across disciplines from economics to engineering and from architecture to hydrology with 400 alumni to date, and growing effort to collaborate with partners across the Grand River region and globally. Last year the program chose to focus its fall project on a collaborative journey with GRCA and partners.
Image: Lauren McElroy and Will Rauch-Davis take water quality samples near the confluence of the Nith and Grand Rivers.
Photo credit: Scarlett van Berkel
The collaborative journey started with a 3-day tour of the Grand River in early September 2024. After the field tour each student picked at least one heritage value and reviewed research and reports since 2015, applying the framework for natural and cultural values of Canadian Heritage Rivers. The project culminated with a workshop at the GRCA headquarters in late October 2024 where students, community partners, and First Nations met for an afternoon to review the student’s progress and have a discussion with many of the partners involved in the original designation in 1994 and the ongoing stewardship of the Grand’s heritage values. The meeting revealed a deep pride in the “Grand Strategy” guiding the Grand River, and a new moment to energize the next generation to take this vision forward and broaden it to include new values and strengthen Indigenous voices in the strategy, including those of the Six Nations of the Grand River.
Image: Collaborative Water Program students visit with Six Nations of the Grand River for learning and canoeing at Chiefswood Park.
Photo credit: Scarlett van Berkel
Scarlett van Berkel, one of the participating students completing their master’s in environmental studies, reflected on the collaborative journey and captured its spirit: “Participating in the lessons and assessments of the Canadian Heritage Rivers System across diverse knowledge systems, allowed us to come together and explore our varied understandings of River management. By deepening our understanding of these systems and our relationship to them, we can shape inclusive policies that recognize the River as part of a greater Watershed -- one that connects us all.”
Image: Scarlett van Berkel and Lauren McElroy view the Grand at the confluence with Whitemen’s Creek at Five Oaks Retreat Center.
Photo credit: Scarlett van Berkel
The journey is not over. In November 2024, students in the Collaborative Water Program provided 5-page summaries of different heritage values, to help support the 10-year monitoring report. The dialogue supported by the October 2024 workshop is ongoing, including several new projects and activities to support the next 10 years and beyond.