The Cochrane Sustainability Plan, finalized by Cochrane’s citizens in 2009, provides 13 interconnected Pathways to Sustainability.
Pathway 13 reads: “We build Cochrane on the strengths of our natural and cultural heritage.”
Both our natural and cultural heritage were carved into the landscape over time by climate, wind, water, and human enterprise.
Our natural heritage includes the winding Bow River and its confluence with the Big Hill and Horse Creeks that both funnel in from the northwest. Natural heritage embraces the river valley and riparian lands, the Big Hill and ravine and coulee systems, several series of benchlands, and the complex system of prairie pothole wetlands dotting the upper plateaus.
From the top of the Big Hill, the western skyline with the view of the undulating foothills and majestic Rocky Mountains, the agricultural and ranching operations, and the Bow River provide this community with a distinct sense of place and cultural identity.
It is no accident that our rich western heritage emerged on this landscape closely connected with the Bow River and its tributaries. People have always been attracted to locations with readily available sources of good quality drinking water.
The Bow River is a hard-working system that provides water for all our human needs, from household water supply, to water for industry, agriculture, gravel mining, water bottling and even hydraulic fracturing.
As more people move into this area, the Bow River and its tributaries, the connected groundwater system, and the pothole wetlands are under increasing strain to provide sufficient water supplies for population and associated economic growth.
Non-saline potable water is a relatively scarce and finite natural resource.
Most of that water is in some stage of the water cycle and not instantly available for human use. Actually, most of the non-saline water available to people in the Calgary region is stored unseen as green water flow in the soils and vegetation associated with riparian lands and wetlands.
It is important to conserve and manage our limited water supplies over time, both for ourselves and for future generations.
To sustain the quantities of water we need to support growth and development, and to ensure good quality drinking water supplies, we need to manage landscape features like riparian lands, coulees, and wetlands.
These lands provide the infrastructure for healthy aquatic ecosystems that provide us with water to sustain our human enterprises.
While urbanites, like citizens in Cochrane who wrote the Plan, may recognize the need to conserve and manage landscapes that provide healthy aquatic ecosystems in order to sustain human health, people in the agricultural and ranching communities know that without water nothing grows or lives. The western heritage we enjoy as a service centre for the adjacent ranching community is at risk if we take our water supplies and the landscape features necessary for sustainability for granted.
The drafters of the Plan recognized that our western heritage is inextricably connected to our natural capital in what some call this “wee town by the Bow.” To sustain one, we must sustain the other through a deep commitment to Cochrane as our home.
Happy New Year, and here’s to a sustainable Cochrane in 2013!
