Join us in Red Deer for the CWRA-Alberta / ALIDP Conference!

This year, the branch conference will be held on April 10-13, 2011.

New Conference Location:

2011 Conference:

The theme for the 2011 Branch Conference is “Land and Water: Reducing Our Impacts….What happens on the land, doesn’t always stay on the land....”. The conference is being co-hosted by the Canadian Water Resources Association (Alberta Branch) and the Alberta Low Impact Development Partnership.

About CWRA and ALIDP:

CWRA is committed to raising awareness of the value of water and to promoting responsible and effective water resource management in Canada. CWRA membership consists of water users and water resource professionals including managers, administrators, scientists, academics, environmentalists, landowners, students and young professionals.

ALIDP focuses on promoting the implementation of Low Impact Development (LID), a term that describes an evolution of traditional runoff management that seeks to minimize the impacts of development on our watersheds.

About the Conference:

Alberta is a young place, and many of us are still tied to the land more strongly than in some other parts of the world. However, like people everywhere, most of us have a limited understanding of the way our activities on the land alter our prized water bodies. What happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas, but what happens on the land doesn’t always stay on the land. Tirelessly writing a never-ending report card, water bodies record our every land-use decision and grade us accordingly.

Wherever land is taken out of its natural state—whether for agricultural production, resource extraction, or urbanization—runoff increases. In the runoff are clues to the associated human activities: nutrients, pathogens, hydrocarbons, metals, road salt, pesticides, and so on. Water bodies are at the receiving end of this voluminous soup.

Since water and land refuse to “stay inside the lines”, managing land use for the protection of our water resources requires extensive collaborative effort. In order to address our impacts, we know we must bring together science across disciplines, planning across jurisdictions, and policy and regulation rational across scales. Are we getting an ‘E’ for our efforts? Where is there room for improvement? What next?

Recognizing the need for increased collaboration, the Canadian Water Resources Association (Alberta Branch) and the Alberta Low Impact Development Partnership are partnering to present the 2011 annual conference for both organizations. From science to policy to practice and everything in between, join us for a exciting program exploring issues, new ideas, policies and best practices for runoff management.