Over 100 people attended the Columbia River Treaty Review Technical Conference held at the Castlegar Sandman Hotel on March 22. An additional 22 people registered to follow the conference via LiveStream.

After a busy day of presentations, break-out sessions and a panel, Basin residents expressed an appreciation for the “extremely useful and interesting day” as well as an appreciation for having the opportunity to ask technical questions of experts. The presentation by the U.S. Entity, the climate change session and the flood management session were singled out for notice by some attendees.

At the end of the conference, Basin residents noted there was a need to further engage the public in future Treaty decision discussions and asked the Columbia River Treaty Review team to continue to provide ways for the public to submit ideas and opinions. Attendees also stressed the need to engage and educate youth on the Columbia River Treaty and the Treaty Review. A number of attendees were interested in exploring cross boundary ecosystem management discussions.

The LiveStream option, after overcoming sound quality issues at the beginning, allowed participants who couldn’t attend the conference in person to follow conference presentations and to ask questions of presenters.

The Columbia River Treaty Review Conference summary report will be posted to the website in late April. Presentations and handouts from the conference are now available at http://blog.gov.bc.ca/columbiarivertreaty/community-sessions/