Mapping our connections to water

WWF Canada

What is it about water that makes us feel so connected? Be it a babbling brook, a mighty river, a majestic lake, a quiet wetland or any other water body, large or small, each of us has a story to tell about our favourite water place.

WWF-Canada CEO David Miller and staff with representatives from Loblaw Water Fund grantee Futurewatch Environment Development and Education Partners enjoying a community event on the Humber River. © Riannon JOHN / WWF-CANADA
WWF-Canada CEO David Miller and staff with representatives from Loblaw Water Fund grantee Futurewatch Environment Development and Education Partners enjoying a community event on the Humber River. © Riannon JOHN / WWF-CANADA

WWF teamed up with Fathom6 Strategies and the Canadian Freshwater Alliance to collect and map out Canadians’ water stories and experiential knowledge through a new crowd-sourcing technique called StoryMapping.
Four organizations participated in the pilot phase of this project: WaterWealth Project, Watershed Watch Salmon Society, Ecology Action Centre, and, Baker Creek Enhancement Society. Volunteers from these organizations, equipped with tablets, went out into communities in British Columbia, southern Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to ask people to share their memories of their favourite water places. They also asked story tellers to indicate how they perceived the condition of their water place and how concerned they are about water in general.
The result was some incredible stories about water all over Canada.  In New Brunswick, Ashley described the time she’s spent in the mudflats at low tide in Upper Bay of Fundy, studying semi-palmated sandpipers. Corrie described her favourite place not far from there in North Port Beach Provincial Park. She’s been going there for years with friends, and more recently her young children. In Ontario, Russell talks about his first trip to Algonquin Provincial Park with his family, who was moving to Canada. His young daughter had never done anything like that before and seemed unsure at first. He describes how quickly he could see her starting to connect to her soon-to-be home. In British Columbia, Tessa and Abby  describe their fond memories of tubing down the Cowichan River.
Three boys on lake shore looking at sunset. © Jupiter Images
Three boys on lake shore looking at sunset. © Jupiter Images

When we hear people describe their memories of places that are important to us, it reinforces a shared identify and reminds us that we’re all connected through water.  To hear other stories and to see what people said about your favourite water place, you can check out the platform here: https://geocology.ca/storymap/