My husband and I built a house in Winlaw, and have lived here since 1989. From past experiences, I arrived with a strong appreciation for water. - for 10 years in the rural North Peace country, we (and thousands of others) BOUGHT ALL OUR HOUSEHOLD WATER from fleets of tanker delivery trucks. The ground water there is so sulphurous. - before that, years of backpacker international travel meant carrying water from dubious sources, with subsequent consequences to health - before that, I had a hand pump outside in the yard Yes, I appreciate water. Of course water is not just for humans and livestock. I’ve camped and marvelled at nature from southern deserts to the wilds of the Yukon. Everywhere water, or lack of it, shapes entire ecosystems. Joining the WWC in the early ‘90s, I became part of the active campaign to prevent industrial scale logging of the Winlaw drainage. Thank you to all the others who also spoke at Ministry meetings, went on field trips, wrote proposals, raised funds, and made the Water Monitoring Program happen. (I think my favourite volunteer hours were the Wednesday afternoons with Jen and the Passmore Laboratory microscopes, identifying those tiny stream-bottom critturs from our samples!) Eventually those years of campaigning achieved the Community Forest License we have today, which gives us control over forestry in our own watersheds. SIFCo, (Slocan Integral Forestry Cooperative) was created to hold that license. I currently hold a seat on the SIFCo Board, one of two from the WWC, and am proud to do so. It’s been a long journey.

Joselin is a Metis, West Kootenay family, civil and child protection mediator with an MA in Dispute Resolution, JIBC mediation certificates, and roster membership with Mediate BC and Hear the Child. She and her family have lived in Winlaw since 1998. She feels fortunate to be serving the Winlaw community, where she loves to be, through watershed activities.

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Tracy is committed to the health and wellness of our community watershed. She has lived in the Slocan Valley since 2011, and brings over 2 decades of experience in early childhood education. Her work for the Early Childhood Pedagogy Network focuses on fostering relational and place-based engagements with children, educators and communities. Tracy is committed to deepening connections with our local watersheds, exploring how young children build relationships with water and land. She is particularly interested in how these connections shape our collective responsibilities to these lands and watersheds, and their complex histories, ecologies and futures.