Bulkley Valley Research Centre - Science in the Public Interest

Valley Vision - Wetzin’kwa Funding

Project Reference Number: 2010-06

Project Status: Complete

Led by: Steve Osborn, Nexus Forest Solutions>, Smithers

Funder: Wetzin'kwa Community Forest Corporation

Residents of the Bulkley Valley are regularly offered opportunities to participate in land planning processes hosted by municipal, regional, and provincial agencies. Private development proposals and 'bottom-up' planning initiatives also arise from time to time. ValleyVision.ca offers help in navigating these plans and processes. ValleyVision.ca also facilitates information flow and communication among residents, planners, developers, and researchers.

Active since 2007, Valley Vision offers a user-friendly internet portal to Bulkley Valley land planning information and planning related news. During 2010, ValleyVision.ca will continue to present relevant neutral-point-of-view information and to provide opportunities for discussing the community's long-term vision. This year, ValleyVision.ca will support several initiatives that collect and utilize local knowledge of community assets. ValleyVision.ca will support wider use of MapChat and other web-based collaboration tools and facilitate community-led involvement in planning the Crown-settlement interface lands.

The specific project objectives are:

1. Support for basic website operation (domain, web hosting, comment moderation, liaison with planning agencies and groups, administration, and promotion).
2. Keep content up-to-date and provide news items related to current planning processes and land use decisions.
3. Provide technical support and a web-based repository for the BV Stewardship
4. Coalition's Community Asset Mapping Inventory (http://www.valleyvision.ca/research-projects/bv-community-mapping).
5. Support the availability of MapChat and other web-based collaboration tools, through information-sharing, advice and technical support (http://www.valleyvision.ca/research-projects/mapchat).
6. In cooperation with other interested parties, partners and sponsors, facilitate community-led involvement in planning the Crown-settlement interface lands. (This initiative, involving at least one workshop for local residents, will build on the knowledge and momentum of the academic conference on this topic that took place on June 16-18, 2010 (http://www.bvcentre.ca/interface2010).

Valley Vision targets Bulkley Valley residents, planners, developers and approving agencies. At this time, much of the content concerns the central Bulkley Valley in the vicinity of Smithers and Telkwa but the intended scope covers the full Bulkley Valley from Topley to the Hazeltons. Valley Vision can all local First Nations (Office of the Wet'suwet'en, Moricetown Band, Hagwilget Village Council, Gitxsan Chiefs Office). First Nation involvement will be solicited when opportunities arise during Bulkley Valley Research Centre's normal dealings with First Nations organizations. Others who benefit from Valley Vision include local groups (e.g. BV Community Resources Board), academia (Northwest Community College, University of Northern British Columbia), government agencies, realtors,and tourists.

Unfortunately, as of July 1, 2011, the Valley Vision website will not be updated due to lack of continued funding.

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