The Planning Team
The planning team for the Kootenays first water and climate change forum is an ad-hoc team of volunteers. We are all donating our time to something we feel is imperative for the long-term sustainability of our community, which we all love so dearly. We hope you feel the same way and will join us on April 23rd to find out more about how you can give back to this beautiful place we all call home.
Lynne Betts is a long-time resident of the West Kootenay with a speciality in community engagement and communications around environmental issues. She is often involved in environmental policy and planning projects at the federal, provincial and municipal levels. Lynne is currently working on projects to address the fish and wildlife impacts of hydro operations in the Columbia River Basin and is involved in water quality monitoring in transboundary watersheds.
Martin Carver is a hydrologist and conservation planner with a PhD in Resource Management Science and 20 years applied experience. He works throughout western Canada as a consultant to First Nations, communities, government and others in environmental impact and risk assessment to evaluate and reduce detrimental effects of human activities on water resources. Increasingly, his work is undertaken in response to the implications of climate change. He has held two positions with the BC government in forestry, watershed management and in support of water policy development, locally and provincially. His other passions include growing food, increasing the use of renewable energy, and supporting citizen science initiatives and environmental awareness around the upper Columbia Basin. He first moved to the West Kootenay in 1996, and has lived off grid near Nelson for almost a decade. He is Chair of the Boards of the Columbia Basin Watershed Network and Friends of Kootenay Lake.
Avery Deboer-Smith grew up in the Kootenays and spent her childhood nurturing her love for the environment. She has studied International Relations and is now tackling an Environmental Planning technical diploma at Selkirk College. Her most recent work involves active water conservation in communities in the Kootenays. Studying and working in this area allows her to continue educating herself while actively volunteering in the community. Avery feels so fortunate to have such an amazing team to work with on this very important forum.
Ramona Faust is serving her third term as the elected representative for the Regional District of Central Kootenay Electoral Area E which includes shorelines of the Kootenay River and West Arm of Kootenay Lake. The 3780 people in the electoral area use surface water, ground water and lake water for domestic and agricultural purposes. Professionally Ramona has been in a senior management role at the Harrop-Procter Community Forest and North Kootenay Lake Community Services where her focus was community forestry, community food systems and agriculture. Her roles focused on leading a team of forestry, social service and counselling professionals. Volunteer milestones have been as cofounder of the West Kootenay Eco-society, an advocate for the West Arm Park, a co-founder of the Harrop-Procter Watershed Protection Society and a grant advisor at Columbia Basin Trust Social Sector, Vancouver Foundation Environment Committee , Southern Interior Development Initiative Trust and is currently representing the Union of BC Municipalities as a governor of the board at the Real Estate Foundation of BC and is on the Southern Interior Beatle Action Coalition Board. Projects in Area E include interface fuel remediation, energy retrofits and solar assessments on community buildings, food policy council advocacy, supporting business development, and is the chair of the Nelson Salmo Areas E, F, G Parks Commission.
Jan Inglis MSc. PhD. is a climate social scientist focusing on the complexities of perceptions, values, and communications in public and organizational engagement with climate change. She has spoken and taught on these topics both at a grassroots and university level for over 25 years. Her research included deliberative democracy, commons based resource management and economics, with one specific application being the development of the Great Lakes Commons social charter. She was an early advocate of Community Supported Agriculture, founding director of the Calgary Eco Centre, and the director of the Greenhouse Learning Centre. She also has a background as an Integrative Body Psychotherapy practitioner and teacher, and occupational therapist.
Mel Reasoner is an earth scientist with a specialization in researching past climate change in western North America and significant experience with the compilation of regional climate model information and analysis of historical climate timeseries. Mel has been communicating the results of his research and general climate science to a broad range of audiences for more than 20 years.
Laura Sacks currently devotes much of her time to climate advocacy, and leads the local chapter of Citizens' Climate Lobby. She has over 20 years of professional experience as a hydrologist and also operated a local organic farm for a decade. Water issues are at the center of many of the most serious impacts of climate change, and so she is particularly excited that this forum brings together these interconnected and complex issues.
Valerie Warmington is a Nelson City Councillor and consultant currently working with the ‘Nelson at its Best’ poverty reduction initiative. Before arriving in Nelson in 2007, she worked in numerous countries recovering from war as a manager of landmine and unexploded ordnance removal programs. In the mid-90’s she was an active political advocate serving as Chair of the Canadian chapter of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Valerie served as a delegate representing the Canadian government in negotiations on an international treaty banning the use of landmines as well as on related arms control treaties at the UN. Her early career was as a researcher with the Canadian Council for International Cooperation where she focused on responding to disaster in ways reducing future vulnerability. Valerie has an undergraduate degree in Geography from the University of Ottawa and a post-graduate degree in Geography from Carleton University where she studied the relationships between environmental management and the sustainability of agricultural livelihoods. As part of her post-graduate work, Valerie completed an internship with Agriculture Canada working on a country-wide soil erosion study. In recent years, she has been furthering her academic studies online through the UN University for Peace in Costa Rica.