Waterbodies

False Creek, unlike most harbours around the world, has no single entity tasked with oversight and management. Instead, it has a tangle of overlapping jurisdiction between 22 government agencies. Today's anchor, Zaida Schneider, is joined by a pair of guests: one of whom was at the centre of one of the biggest success stories in urban marine restoration, and the other who has perhaps the deepest i...

Sea level rise, combined with increasingly powerful storm surges, threatens catastrophic flooding to the homes and business along the shores of False Creek. Vancouver's world-famous seawall has already begun to crumble under the waves. The shoreline of False Creek today is, frankly, unprepared for the climate of tomorrow. The transformation of this city is certain, but we can do more than just end...

It's widely assumed that False Creek is so polluted that it is devoid of life. We’re here to say, in fact, no — False Creek is ALIVE! In this episode, anchor Matt Brown sits down with Chris Harley and Colleen Kellogg, to discuss the ways we can conceive of different levels of biodiversity, the features of False Creek (both physical and social) that affect it, the impacts of climate change, how Fal...

Environmental personhood promises to enshrine natural entities (for instance, bodies of water) as legal persons, with their own rights and standing. It's a concept grounded in many Indigenous ways of relating to nature, and is popularly understood as a means to protect nature's interests under otherwise extractive or destructive economic and legal systems. But, in the absence of a deeper social an...

False Creek was once a place of abundant food, and we believe it can be once again. In this episode, we explore a big vision for False Creek's future — one that includes engaging educational opportunities, decolonization, and ultimately, the return of food sovereignty to these shores and waters. We also discuss the need for deep community democracy, and a brief history of how False Creek took the...

"Environmental conservation" has meant many things: the protection of at-risk species and ecosystems, but also the eviction and exclusion of Indigenous peoples and lifeways. In this episode, Eli Enns and Soudeh Jamshidian (both of the IISAAK Olam Foundation) sit down with anchor Mutuma to discuss new frameworks for conservation that centre Indigenous wisdom — specifically, the concept of an IPCA o...

In our debut episode, anchor Matt Brown is joined by Dr. Melissa Lem and Fin Donnelly to discuss why access to clean “blue spaces” is vital for our health, communities, and climate future, and why community advocacy is essential to delivering it. Connecting with nature, including water bodies such as False Creek, fosters a virtuous cycle of stewardship and well-being: we protect what we love, and...

Welcome to Waterbodies — a podcast from the Friends of False Creek. On this podcast (recorded on-location in False Creek), we're platforming expert conversations to foster a deeper, mutual relationship between people and urban waterways, and amplify local voices shaping public policy. We're calling for False Creek to be included in Canada’s 30 by 30 conservation goals through designation as a Nati...