Future Scenarios Workshop

Post date: Jan 4, 2011 11:01:30 PM

Originally posted August 6, 2009

August 15, 2009, 9:30am — 3:30pm

At the Sands on Golden Lake,

13163 Hwy 60 Golden Lake, tel. 613 625-2525

RSVP Amanda Brown, Workshop Co-ordinator, 613-732-9870, or info@bonnechereriver.ca

Background

The Bonnechere River Watershed Project recently received funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation to organize a Riverwatch program for the watershed. Part of the program will see the creation of a series of workshops over the next year with local residents and businesses to co-develop alternative futures for the watershed.

Workshop outcomes will describe and illustrate the preferences and priorities of the participants in ways that will contribute to a shared vision of the watershed’s future. This vision will be communicated to government agencies and elected officials to assist in development options and opportunities.

The final scenarios will be presented in 2010 to the community and invited officials.

Agenda

• • 9:30 Coffee & muffins; Welcome

  • 10:00 Introduction

  • 10:15 Presentation on the Alternative Futures Development Process

  • 10:30 Facilitated discussion to identify key factors influencing how the lakes and watershed are changing and how these and other factors might influence future changes in the region.

  • 11:00 Break

  • 11:15 Ranking of key factors and discussion of what people value about the area.

  • 12:00 Lunch (provided by BRWP)

  • 12:45 Develop alternative futures based on morning discussions and ranking exercise (four subgroups with facilitators).

  • 2:15 Break

  • 2:25 Presentation of the four alternative futures drafts

  • 3:05 Facilitated discussion of futures storylines summarizing common themes and important contrasts.

  • 3:30 Concluding remarks and follow-up information

This is an opportunity for residents in the Bonnechere River watershed to help shape the future in ways that reflect what we value about living here, such as clean water, fishing opportunities, jobs, farms, and rural identity. The Bonnechere watershed is an integrated landscape that combines different land-uses with areas of natural and cultural importance.

Workshop Process

Four future scenarios will be developed using a structured process that will be guided by experienced facilitators. Each of the four scenarios will involve a story that begins with the landscape as it is today and unfolds over time as different events occur that shape its future development. These events are sometimes triggered by driving factors such as changes in water quality or the decreasing role of government regulation.

The ingredients for the scenarios will emerge from discussions around key issues in the watershed, resident values and preferences, and important factors that are influencing changes in the watershed.

The scenarios will be further developed following the workshop and illustrated with artistic expressions of the four alternative futures.

Workshop participants are expected to express the interests of their community as well as their own and should be able to appreciate the watershed-wide implications of the scenarios that are developed.

Workshop Outcomes

Identification of key issues and development trajectories for the watershed will provide:

• • planning direction for: BRWP, Lake Associations, municipalities and businesses

  • direction to BRWP's stream and water quality monitoring program

  • support for a doctoral research project that will contribute publications and community reports, and

  • community involvement and a forward-looking vision for the watershed that will help to ensure that what residents value in the watershed will be understood by decision-makers.

In 40 years the Bonnechere River watershed could be quite different from how it is today. What is it that people value in this landscape? Who should decide what the future Bonnechere watershed will look like and what should those decisions be based on? These are the issues the workshop will be addressing.