About Living By Water Project

Who we are

The Living by Water Project was initiated in 1997 by two shoreline residents from British Columbia. The mission of the Project is "working towards healthier human and wildlife habitat along the shorelines of Canada".

If you’re a shoreline resident, we are committed to helping you obtain information to protect your property, prevent problems like erosion, and protect water quality, fish and wildlife habitat. We do this by working with, and providing support services to, groups that help shoreline residents like you.

If you’re involved with a group, we can help you with materials, services and support to deliver outreach and awareness-raising programs about shorelines in your community. We focus on both general audiences (including children) and shoreline residents.
The Living by Water Project has now grown into a national partnership initiative, with regional coordinators in several centres across the country. We support local community groups with programs, services and materials aimed at protecting, conserving, and restoring shorelines. Among our partners are cottager groups and conservation organizations, naturalist clubs and watershed groups, First Nations, youth groups such as Guides and Scouts, and special interest groups. The project is managed by lead partners in various regions of the country. 

What we do

The Living by Water Project focusses on shorelines along all types of waterbodies – rivers, streams, creeks, canals, lakes, ponds, wetlands, reservoirs, estuaries, and marine shorelands. We provide programs, services and materials to promote the value of keeping these shorelines healthy, and emphasize what we all can do to help care for them .

We help groups develop tools and the capacity to carry out shoreline awareness and outreach programs. We also occasionally sponsor or initiate special activities to help bring people together or provide communities with customized tools to help care for shorelines.

Our Shoreline Action Challenge provides simple lists of actions that both shoreline visitors and shoreline residents can carry out to help protect and restore shorelines.
Further information about The Living by Water Project, its goals and objectives, and the background research which led to its development is available in several Publications.
For those of us who are shoreline residents or have seasonal cottages beside water: The Living by Water Project helps with tips and ideas to protect your shoreline property, save you time and money – and at the same time, help protect water quality and wildlife habitat.

The Living by Water Project was started by Clive Callaway and Sarah Kipp, two shoreline residents who have lived for many years beside the water in British Columbia. They have assembled a network of resources and publications to help you make informed decisions. If you’re a shoreline resident, we can help you protect your investment, avoid potential problems like erosion or construction difficulties and at the same time protect water quality and wildlife habitat on your land.

As shoreline residents, we have learned that we can have a substantial impact on fish and wildlife habitat and on water quality. As a result of our day-to-day lifestyle, or when we carry out major changes such as construction, the cumulative effect of our activities can be significant.

Through simple changes in our actions, within our houses and around our properties, we can help create and preserve healthy waterfront habitat for both ourselves and wildlife – while protecting property values and providing safer and healthier surroundings for our families.

The Living by Water Project supports groups and agencies by providing services and materials related to shoreline stewardship and conservation marketing. We focus on the problem of shoreline degradation in our settled areas, and have embarked on a national Shoreline Action Challenge campaign to designate 200,000 Shoreline Ambassadors by 2005, and protect, conserve or restore 3,000 km of shoreline in Canada during this time. We provide support services such as Homesite Assessment training, Capacity-Building in areas such as conservation marketing and working with the media, and networking.

Through this website you can access Living by Water Project materials, as well as help us develop a listing of resources from groups and agencies involved in shoreline stewardship. You can find out more about joining our online community on our Home page.

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