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Spring 2020

Newsletter Archive
 

Natural Infrastructure

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For Miistakis, natural infrastructure is not so much a project area, as a concept threaded through much of our work. Here's a quick list of some of the natural-infrastructure-related initiatives we are engaged in:

Working With Nature - Our recently-released Working With Nature toolkit is for municipalities wanting to identify their natural infrastructure assets, assessing the risk to them from flood and drought, and create an action plan to mitigate those risks. (thanks to the Watershed Resiliency and Restoration Program for supporting that project)

Canadian Council on Ministers of the Environment - The CCME is working to better coordinate natural infrastructure efforts across the country. They asked Miistakis to deliver a country-wide webinar on Beavers as natural infrastructure engineers, and invited us to take part in their work to create a common definition. A repeat Beaver webinar will be hosted in Spring 2020, sign-up to our beaver mailing list for updates on this and other beaver-related research.

Town of Okotoks - Okotoks is stepping out in front of the natural infrastructure inventory world, and seeking to inventory the towns natural assets. As part of this, they asked Miistakis to help them create the RFP for that inventory.

Municipal EcoToolkit - We are currently at work creating a Municipal EcoToolkit (Tools for Maintaining Your Natural Systems) that is structured around the concept of maintaining your natural infrastructure.

Natural Infrastructure Workshops - Part of our natural infrastructure work is keeping aware of what others are doing. We have attended natural infrastructure workshops put on by the City of Calgary, Simon Fraser University, and the Municipal Natural Assets Initiative.

GIS Methodology for Municipalities - Miistakis currently has proposals out for a Natural Infrastructure and GIS Methodology project. This follow up on the Working With Nature project would create a replicable method for converting existing municipal GIS data into a comprehensive natural infrastructure layer.