OUR HISTORY
The purpose of forming a group made up of many local watersheds became obvious as work in the original watersheds of Sea View, and Indian River was becoming fairly complete, and the need to expand into the neighboring watersheds was becoming possible.

In December 2007 the Sea View board met with Ministers Wes Sheridan and George Webster to present and discuss our idea of amalgamation. We were encouraged to proceed. In January 2008, we met with Dept. Of Environment Energy and Forestry officials, namely Bruce Raymond and Shawn Hill, and were presented with the Department's point of view, that they would rather deal with a set number of groups, in the range of 25-30 for the Island, rather than dealing with each of the 268 watersheds individually. This met well with our goal, and with the recommendation from the report Public Consultations on Managing Land and Water on a Watershed Basis, April 2007. Mr. Raymond proposed that we approach the watersheds that make up the map of Kensington North today.

Following direction from the floor from our April 4, 2008 public meeting, a steering committee of citizens from the proposed Kensington North area was formed to direct the process of amalgamating the communities of the different watersheds. Sea View and Indian River Watershed Associations, the only two active watershed groups in the proposed area, combined to become Kensington North. The 2008 operating budget for both groups was performed under Sea View's books. There was no budget for Kensington North for the summer of 2008.

The steering committee has accumulated the support from the following communities/watersheds in the following ways.

-Public meetings were held in Long River for the Campbell's Pond and Long River watersheds in early June 2008 and in Springbrook for the Park Corner, French River and Springbrook communities in early July 2008. Both meetings resulted in direction from the floor showing strong support for amalgamating with Sea View and Indian River.

-The communities/watersheds of Barbara Weit River and Baltic were signed up by steering committee members going door to door seeking signitures on declarations of support. Hamilton (the Shipyard River, Oyster Cove and Mills Point Watersheds) and Margate (the Tuplin Creek watershed) were canvased by Sea View Watershed employees.

-A letter of support was received from Don MacEachern, former watershed chairperson on behalf of Spring Valley (Southwest River).*
*(all documentation available upon request).

With these demonstrations of support from the various communities, we are proceeding with confidence to formally organize the Kensington North Watershed Association.

We have a four person executive in place – President Chris Wall of the Barbara Weit watershed, Vice President Dale Adam from Sea View, Secretary Susan Graham from Long River and Treasurer David Cody from Indian River. There are also eight other community members on a steering committee for Kensington North, and a part-time Manager Director, Barry Murray.

Our mission statement reads as follows: "To preserve and protect the watersheds of Kensington North in a healthy, natural state; to develop projects and activities that will maintain or restore the rivers to such a state; and to promote an appreciation and respect through public awareness and education for the beauty, importance and environmental diversity of the watershed."

At our September 17 2008 Public Meeting, four Honourary Lifetime Memberships were handed out to individuals who layed the groundwork for watershed groups in our area. The recipients were Sally Hooff, Bruce Gillespie, Don MacEachern, and Lee Sudsbury, from the Sea View, Indian River, Spring Valley (Southwest River) and Margate (Tuplin's Creek) watersheds respectively.

In February 2009, our new group became incorporated under the name Kensington North Watersheds Association Ltd. Becoming a legal entity permits Kensington North to obtain tax breaks and exemptions, gives us stronger structure by having bylaws, and helps us in matters of liability.

In March 2009 we obtained a logo to help identify us in the community.

Future organizational tasks include canvasing community members from the Durant Creek watershed for support, and recruitment and retention of community members. In addition to this, is the real work of planning and managing our true watershed activities.


HOME