# data[].attributes.headline
Riparian Data in Action in our Watersheds

# data[].attributes.subject
Riparian Data in Action in our Watersheds

# data[].attributes.body
Riparian areas are critical transition zones between land and water, and help support health in our watersheds in a myriad of ways. Since 2019, the Battle River Watershed Alliance (BRWA) and North Saskatchewan Watershed Alliance (NSWA) have been working together to assess the "intactness" of riparian areas across our watersheds. This method uses satellite imagery to measure how "intact" riparian areas are by looking at the degree of human disturbance in these areas, as well as the amount of trees, shrubs, and other plants that are present. Thousands of kilometres of rivers, creeks, and lakes have now been assessed, and all of this data will soon be publicly available through the new Riparian Web Portal. This free online tool will also include resources for people to learn more about how they can help conserve and restore riparian health in their region. We're excited to share more information about this project with ECHO Network members in the near future!

Sneak peak of the Riparian Web Portal (click to view larger image):

# data[].attributes.headline
Indigenous Climate Health Action Program (ICHAP)

# data[].attributes.subject
Indigenous Climate Health Action Program (ICHAP)

# data[].attributes.body
Maery Kaplan-Hallam, FNHA’s new Climate Change and Health Adaptation Specialist, has been engaged with the FNHA case study and is attending our regular meetings. Her major role with the Indigenous Climate Health Action Program (ICHAP) places her in a unique position to make important connections between the ECHO Network and community’s directly engaged in reducing climate change impacts on health.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Indigenous Climate Health Action Program

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
​​​ FNHA's Indigenous Climate Health Action Program (ICHAP) supports First Nations leadership in reducing climate change impacts on health. Climate change affects physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health in many ways. Through ICHAP, communities can strengthen their climate health resilience by working together to improve the environmental, social, cultural and economic factors that affect their health and wellness.

# data[].attributes.headline
Climate Change and Health in the Battle River and Sounding Creek Watersheds

# data[].attributes.subject
Climate Change and Health in the Battle River and Sounding Creek Watersheds

# data[].attributes.body
Through the Adaptation Resilience Training program (a joint initiative of the Government of Canada, Government of Alberta, and University of Alberta), the Battle River Watershed Alliance (BRWA) hired two new project assistants in 2020-2021. The focus of their work was to look into how climate change may affect the health of people, communities, and ecosystems locally. Using the BRWA’s watershed health indicator framework to guide their work, they developed a report that outlines potential impacts as well as promising solutions to help build stronger and more climate-resilient communities across our watersheds. We now plan to use this extensive research to create resources that empower people to pursue climate adaptation and mitigation actions in their local areas.

Image below created by ART project assistant Amanda Rooney

# data[].attributes.headline
OHRD + ECHO Air Quality and Climate Change Work

# data[].attributes.subject
OHRD + ECHO Air Quality and Climate Change Work

# data[].attributes.body
Paula Tait and Lisa Ronald, NH’s Population and Public Health Support Unit Postdoctoral Fellow, are coordinating climate change and health vulnerability assessment work with our PICS Internship Student, Naomi Khan. In collaboration with internal partners, FNHA, IH, the BC Lung Association, BCCDC, and other agencies, this team is conducting a scan of NH communities to better understand current infrastructure and needed supports for wildfire smoke and heat.  A team at Northern Health’s Population and Public Health, in partnership with UNBC ECHO Network members and the BCCDC, was also recently successful in obtaining seed grant funding for an exploratory study to investigate community vulnerability to climate change and health impacts in northern BC. The broader goal for this funding is to develop a research agenda for future grant applications around climate change vulnerability and adaptation assessment at Northern Health.

Figure Source

# data[].attributes.body
The Government of New Brunswick has launched a local governance reform. The NBEN is sitting on one of the working groups for this process and is actively engaging with its members to collect their thoughts.

# data[].attributes.body
We have two new students joining our NB Team. A great big welcome to Adam and Sabrina.

# data[].attributes.headline
Northern Health - Perseverance through COVID and NCCEH Presentation

# data[].attributes.subject
Northern Health - Perseverance through COVID and NCCEH Presentation

# data[].attributes.body
The third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic brought tremendous challenges for the Office of Health and Resource Development (OHRD) as Regional Manager Chelan Zirul took on leadership roles in the implementation of Public Health Officer Orders and the vaccine rollout in large industrial camps throughout the Northern Health region. But despite the increase in COVID-related work January through April, OHRD has still managed to initiate new projects.

Dr. Raina Fumerton and Sally Western gave a webinar at the end of April with the National Collaborating Center for Environmental Health: “Visual Tools and Processes for Engaging Intersectoral Partners on the Health Impacts of Resource Development”. The presentation was well-received and gave Sally the opportunity to learn more about the history of her office’s work and premises for our ECHO collaboration.

# data[].attributes.headline
We All Take Care of the Harvest (WATCH) pilot project 

# data[].attributes.subject
We All Take Care of the Harvest (WATCH) pilot project 

# data[].attributes.body
Jordan Brubacher, the FNHA case study’s research assistant, has begun assisting the WATCH project at FNHA with their mapping needs - led by former ECHO member Holly Clermont. This project is designed to assist coastal communities in deciding when their seafood is safe to harvest. Jordan has begun building an inventory of oceanic data in collaboration with experts behind the BCCDC Shellfish Harvesting Status Map, which will form the basis upon which the primary data collected by the WATCH communities will be added.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​About this Project

We All Take Care of the Harvest (WATCH) is an FNHA pilot project that addresses seafood safety, security and sovereignty in the context of climate change. The purpose of the project is to help coastal communities and their members decide if and when their seafood is safe to harvest.

WATCH aims to:

help communities access timely safety information about seafoods and harvest areas

enhance the ability of communities to plan for and manage climate impacts that affect seafoods

promote seafood security and sovereignty for coastal First Nations

Join W​ATCH!​

We are looking for coastal communities and community members to become involved. If you would like to participate, please contact the WATCH Project (in Environmental Public Health Services).​

There are three ways to participate in the WATCH Project:

As a Pilot Com​​munity - As a pilot c​ommunity, you would work to co-design seafood and climate research with help from FNHA and BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) staff. You would develop tools, plans, communication materials and a monitoring program that supports community members in knowing whether their seafood is safe to harvest and eat.

As an Ad​​visor - As an advisor, you would contribute your knowledge about seafood or the marine environment, and would share and learn with the project team. You would participate in monthly meetings and in the June WATCH gathering.

As a Memb​er of the Community of Practice - As a member of the Community of Practice, you would receive quarterly WATCH newsletters and an invitation to participate in the June WATCH gathering.

Project Backg​round

WATCH was created in response to concerns that were raised by communities at a seafood safety workshop in 2016. The Marine Biotoxin Workshop was held by the FNHA, the BC Centre for Disease Control and the BC government.

The focus of the workshop was a long-lasting phytoplankton bloom that appeared off the coast of BC in 2015. The bloom produced domoic acid, a neurotoxin that causes Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning (ASP). The toxin accumulated in shellfish as well as plankton-eating fish, such as anchovies and sardines, and made its way through the food chain into other seafood such as crabs, marine mammals and birds. At the time, much of the West Coast was closed to shellfish harvesting.

At the workshop, First Nations community members identified a number of concerns. The most critical of these was the need to know when and if shellfish were safe to harvest. (For a complete archive of this workshop, see Marine Biotoxin Workshop on the BCCDC website.)

Project Ph​​ases

WATCH is comprised of two overlapping phases - a Planning Phase and a Monitoring Phase.

The Planning Phase (ending March 2022) will include:

information sharing and gathering activities designed to deepen our understanding of the factors that influence seafood safety and are expected to shift with a changing climate

​the development of mapping and other tools, risk management and climate adaptation plans, as well as communication products to support safety and health-related decision-making

The Monitoring Phase (ending March 2023) will include:

the creation of programs that monitor plankton and detect biotoxins at or near harvest areas

Project Approach and​​ Partners

WATCH is a Pilo​​t Project

WATCH is an exploratory project to develop and fine-tune an approach to a seafood and climate change that all coastal First Nations can adapt for their own purposes. Communities will therefore be involved in developing the approach, both in the Planning Phase, as well as in the Monitoring Phase.

WATCH is a Net​work

At the core of the WATCH Project is a Project Team, supported by a First Nations Advisory Team and External Advisory Team. To broaden the reach of the project, the WATCH Network includes two Communities of Practice.

The Project Team will include First Nations community representatives (for example, community-based coordinators, champions, researchers and monitors from two to four communities), supported by FNHA and BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) staff as well as dietary and plankton expert consultants

The First Nations Advisory Team will include advisors selected by the Project Team from interested Indigenous fisheries and aquatic organizations and Guardian programs.

The External Advisory Team will include advisors recruited by the Project Team - subject matter experts in climate, shellfish, biotoxin, and so on, regulators, representatives of monitoring programs and commercial and aquaculture industries

The Network Community of Practice will include members of all teams and others who indicate interest

The Monitoring Community of Practice is a technical group to help facilitate monitoring activities and expand monitoring programs into other communities

WATCH is Communi​ty Driven

Although funding associated with WATCH requires a focus on biotoxins in shellfish, toxigenic phytoplankton, and the dynamic environmental factors influencing these (sea surface temperature, for example), WATCH is not restricted to these. The project will identify and work to address other seafood and climate issues of importance to participating First Nations communities.

WATCH is a Project of FNHA's Environm​​ental Public Health Services

WATCH is a project of FNHA's Environmental Public Health Services (EPHS) and is closely related to EPHS' Food Safety, Environmental Contaminants and Climate Change and Health Adaptation programs as well as the Local Environmental Observer (LEO) Network.

WATCH P​​a​rtners

WATCH was developed in partnership with the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC). It is funded by Health Canada HealthADAPT program and the Public Health Agency of Canada's Infectious Disease and Climate Change Fund.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We All Take Care of the Harvest (WATCH) is an FNHA pilot project that addresses seafood safety, security and sovereignty in the context of climate change. The purpose of the project is to help coastal communities and their members decide if and when their seafood is safe to harvest.

# data[].attributes.body
Cody Thomas, the new LEO Network coordinator, and Dionne Sanderson of FNHA led the relaunch of the Leo Network on March 11. Cody has begun the important work of indigenizing the site with a goal that indigenous people can “see themselves” in the project. He is exploring adding indigenous place names and/or language groups as an initial step, and is actively engaging the WATCH program and ICHAP communities in the initiative.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Local Environmental Observer (LEO) Network

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
LEO Network members share unusual environmental events that help us understand our changing world. Please join us and contribute your observations or news articles.

# data[].attributes.body
What's on the menu? Funding diversification, public policy advocacy and environmental justice!

# data[].attributes.headline
Launch of the New Brunswick Environmental Bill of Rights

# data[].attributes.subject
Launch of the New Brunswick Environmental Bill of Rights

# data[].attributes.body
The Environmental Rights Caucus is launching its New Brunswick Environmental Bill of Rights to ensure that all New Brunswickers have the right to a healthy environment!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Launch of NB Environmental Bill of Rights / Lancement de la charte des droits environnementaux du NB

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Networking event by NBEN RENB on Wednesday, June 2 2021

# data[].attributes.body
The NB ECHOscreen work is progressing with 2 focus group meetings done!
The third meeting for the photovoice project on an ecological transition and women is wrapped up.

Well done, Saadia and Oni!