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Last month a community education and resource space was returned to the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve (LSCR). A brand new Seymour Watershed Centre opened its doors to host future education and school groups.

Education to foster respect

The new Seymour Watershed Centre is a dual space housing some LSCR/Water treatment administration as well as acting as the home base for Metro Vancouver’s educational programming in the LSCR. Building on the legacy of the past Learning Lodge, Metro Vancouver is hoping public education brings a deeper understanding of our protected public lands. 

Heidi Walsh
(courtesy Metro Vancouver)

“We really want people in the region to understand where their drinking water comes from and the relationship between a closed protected land and source water quality,” said Heidi Walsh, director of watersheds and environment, reflecting on the building’s unique position between the mountains and the filtration plant. “It’s easy to make the connection between the rain falling in the mountains then going through the filtration process and out to our taps.” 

The new facility was created with an intentional educational design. Architects Local Practice aimed to nestle the building into the landscape while incorporating practical and educational features like cisterns.

“The way we have built it is to have a lot of the interpretive features outside the building,” said Walsh. “The map, the cisterns, and we have tried to incorporate some pipe into the seating. It is partially an outdoor classroom, so any member of the public passing by can learn about the watershed.”

Local Practice’s website explains the intention behind the design. 

“The building is an educational tool for visitors to understand the relationship between our water source and water use. Rainwater is collected off the north side of the roof into the educational cistern, which overflows into channels for visitors to engage and play in the educational area. The rainwater from the south side of the roof is collected into the greywater cistern and it is used for toilet flushing to directly reduce the water consumption of the building. Any overflow water from either cistern travels through the bioswales and is returned to the natural hydrological cycle in the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve.” 

Ripple effects

Every year more than 6000 people come through Metro Vancouver’s education programs at Capilano, Coquitlam and Seymour watersheds. 

“It’s about a 50/50 split between student classes and public watershed tours,” said Walsh. 

(courtesy Metro Vancouver)

One of Metro Vancouver’s key education goals, says Walsh, is to foster respect and understanding of its ‘closed’ watersheds. 

“A closed watershed is protected from pollution, development, from wildfire – which is a really big risk to the integrity of our watershed system,” said Walsh. “There are lots of people who think other water comes from wells or somewhere else. 

“Our treatment design is based on the source water it gets. This design and infrastructure needs to treat water in our closed system. It is different from the infrastructure needed to treat water from a river or water that was open and people were boating, has cabins and septic fields. Protecting the land helps to simplify the process of our treatment.”

There are numerous reasons that Metro Vancouver developed the drinking water system using a closed system. Education is important to help residents understand the reasons there are substantial pieces of land set aside and protected. Top of mind this season is wildfires. 

“There is a 65/45 split of lightning versus human-caused fires. If we lost the trees in one of the watersheds it would be devastating to the system,” said Walsh. “Our plants wouldn’t be able to keep up with ash and it would have to go offline and put pressure on the system that is designed to have all three watersheds functioning. 

“We can keep that under really tight control when we can control who is coming in and what kind of activities are taking place. When our wildfire risk goes up, our activity level goes down.”

Walsh said she hopes that tours and facilities like the new Watershed Education Centre provide more people with understanding and respect for the reasons the areas are closed to the public. 

The new Watershed Centre can be found adjacent to the bathrooms at the Rice Lake parking lot in the LSCR. Tours and education program listings can be found here. Walsh says there is hope the snowpack will allow for the return of snowshoe tours this winter.

Looking for more?

There’s always something fun and exciting happening in Lynn Valley. Check out our Community Events Calendar or learn more about Local Activities, Mountain Biking or Hiking and Walking Trails.

Maple Leaf Garden Centres and the District of North Vancouver Fire Rescue Service have partnered with British Columbia FireSmart British Columbia to offer advice on best practices to keep yards looking good and reduce the wildfire threat to homes.

Where the forest meets the city

Lynn Valley, like a handful of communities in the Lower Mainland, is a borderland between the forest and the city. All across the North Shore fire services have been embracing the knowledge and programming offered by FireSmart BC to help homeowners protect themselves and wildland interface communities, like Lynn Valley, from fire risks. The DNVFRS points residents to the website and will assess homes for specific risks if requested. 

Asst. Chief Jeremy Calder

This year FireSmart is offering more options to help homeowners landscape their yards with options more suitable for communities like ours. West Vancouver’s Asst. Chief of Fire Prevention Jeremy Calder brought the program to Maple Leaf Garden Centres.

“What you plant and where you plant it matters when it comes to protecting your home from a wildfire,” said Calder. “There are no fireproof plants, but there are FireSmart ones that are less prone to burning than others but it’s hard to figure out exactly what those are and what’s right for our neighbourhood. The FireSmart Plant Program BC has already gone through and identified what plants are good for what zones and which are fire smart.”

In turn, grants have provided funding for that information to be given directly to gardeners via plant and shelf tags at Maple Leaf Garden Centres. While Lynn Valley doesn’t have the same risk factors as the Okanagan, the weather and seasonal changes of recent years should have residents thinking, said Calder.

“Our ecology is changing and so who knows what it’s going to look like in five to 12 years from now,” said Calder. “We need to do what we can now to prevent wildfires that not only come from the wildland into the community but from the community in the wildland.

It’s probably more likely that our communities are going to start a wildfire that’s going to run up into the mountains as opposed to a wildfire coming over the mountains into our community. But the best protection that we can do is protect our homes. The FireSmart principle is kind of from the roof down and working on your properties.”

Get FireSmart

Calder has a practical approach. He is aware that homeowners have finite resources and time. He encourages gaining a bit of knowledge and making the best choices possible. 

“These might be long-term projects for people. We are not saying re-roof your house today but if re-roofing, I want people to consider fire-resistant materials. And then, of course, the landscaping. This is something that everyone can do. We all have landscaping around our homes and FireSmart is trying to get the right information and to make it as easy as possible for everyone.”

One of the easiest ways to get people thinking about FireSmart landscapes is the place they are making plant decisions: local garden centres.

“This is a new program for us,” said Robert Talbot, nursery supervisor for Maple Leaf Garden Centre’s Lynn Valley store. “I think it’s another good layer of education we can offer.”

He also suggests gardeners turn to the FireSmart Landscaping Hub website to understand the FIresmart principles of planting. 

“Sometimes it might be about making plant choices but it also might be about where you are going to plant that plant,” he said. “When I talk about avoiding resinous plants you may think of large trees like firs or cedars – those aren’t likely close to your home. But will you think of lavender? Rosemary? Or eucalyptus? They are more flammable so keep them out of the immediate zone [0 to 1.5m from your home].

Tidy up tinder

There have been reports across the North Shore that it was a brutal winter for cedar and juniper hedges. Many have died and are presently sitting tinder dry in local yards. 

“Even normally those green cedar hedges, if you put your hand inside they’re going to be dry. Everything is fuel,” said Calder. “If we can keep it green, that’s great. If we’ve got dead materials and we have the ability to remove them, I would say remove any dead materials so that they do not pile up near buildings.”

Small actions can make a big difference. Past summers have seen North Shore firefighters deployed to forest fire zones to help with structure protection. Those experiences have taught valuable lessons to local crews to better protect communities.  

“We have sprinkler protection like we do throughout BC. We can go in and we can create humidity zone bubbles around a home to fight those embers that are showering in by extinguishing them by the humidity. But we have to triage a community. If we go to a house and we want to do the sprinkler protection, but we see that the eaves are filled with pine needles and that there’s a bunch of combustible materials on a deck and a mass of cedar hedges all around the house, we’re probably not going to be able to do anything. So we’ve got a triage review saying, let’s move on to the next home because they haven’t done anything to make themselves more resilient.”

Re-landscaping likely isn’t in the cards for most people right off the bat but affordable impactful acts are to remove debris and clean up yards. 

“Keeping our lawns neat [under 10 cm] and green if possible,” said Calder. “Clean out your eaves of leaves and pine needles. Remove vegetation that allows a fire to climb up the landscape like into a tree and into your home. These large trees, like the large cedar trees in Lynn Valley, aren’t really a problem. I know I have cedar trees on my property and I try to keep the ladder fuel trimmed. So if you prune your lower branches to two meters above the ground that’s going to prevent fire transfer.”

When it comes to planting the options are varied with native species playing a large role in the FireSmart choices. Many of those options may be available from the Coast Salish Plant Nursery in the Maplewood Flats Conservation Area, while Maple Leaf Garden Centres have some FireSmart planting information on hand. 

“We’re heading into a hot summer it’s something we should be thinking about,” said Talbot.

“It’s information for you to make yourselves more resilient and we need to respect our changing environment,” said Calder. “Everyone has bills to pay and families to raise and food to cook and jobs to go to. We don’t have all the time in the world, so we do what we can.”

Looking for more?

There’s always something fun and exciting happening in Lynn Valley. Check out our Community Events Calendar or learn more about Local Activities, Mountain Biking or Hiking and Walking Trails.