Stream of Dreams Murals Society

Stream of Dreams Murals Society is a Burnaby-based Canadian charity that has provided environmental education and stewardship activities for over 200,000 children across the country for over 24 years, reaching an average of 5,000 – 10,000 children annually. We currently offer three programs, each with a unique purpose and impact. This includes our flagship Fish on Fences science-to-art program, our stewardship program called Street to Sea which aims to divert garbage from entering our storm drains, and our free Indigenous Day Camps that provide environmental and cultural programming for local Indigenous children during school breaks.

Company History

In 1998 someone dumped toxic material into a storm drain in the Byrne Creek Watershed located in south-east Burnaby. The poison eventually found its way to Byrne Creek where it killed all aquatic life, including 5,000 fish.
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Not long after, buildings at Edmonds & Kingsway in the upper watershed were demolished. A chain-link fence topped with razor wire was installed around the rubble. It looked like a war zone and to Louise Towell and her daughter Chanel Lapierre it symbolized the abandoned state of the community.

Louise and her daughter Chanel felt they needed to create a mural and bring the most beautiful part of the neighbourhood to the attention of the community and Byrne Creek fit the bill!

The Bryne Creek Streamkeepers Society (BCSS), the volunteer group that monitors the creek, was still reeling from the disastrous fish kill the year before. For BCSS chair Joan Carne the timing was perfect to team up with artist Louise Towell and educate the community about the local creek. The two set out to symbolically bring the fish back to life by making wooden fish, have them painted by local children, and put them on the fence to tell all who passed by that there was a creek in the neighbourhood.

The Byrne Creek Streamkeepers and the local community prepared all the fish for the inaugural Stream of Dreams mural. By Rivers Day 2000, 1,300 fish were installed onto the fence at Edmonds & Kingsway.

In the following months, all seven local elementary schools in the watershed learned about the storm drains that lead to Byrne Creek, and were told the story of the preventable tragedy of 1998. By June 2001 over 3,000 fish swam on the fence at Edmonds & Kingsway, delighting local families, children and commuters.

In June 2006, the original Edmonds & Kingsway Stream of Dreams mural was taken down to allow for redevelopment at the corner. A beautiful sculpture of children riding a salmon was placed near the site of the original mural and dedicated to the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers.

Stream of Dreams Murals Society co-founder Joan Carne retired in 2011, and Louise Towell continues to build the legacy that the two began years ago.

Over the past 25 years the Stream of Dreams program has been invited into watersheds across Canada to help educate communities about their local streams and share the beauty of community art.

Company Facts

Stream of Dreams Murals Society began in 2000 and has educated over 200,000 Canadian children. We offer three programs:
1. Our flagship Fish on Fences watershed education and art program.
2. Street to Sea – A follow-up to Fish on Fences for intermediate classes to learn how garbage enters our creeks and become local stewards.
3. Indigenous Day Camps provide free camps for Indigenous children to learn about Traditional Ecological Knowledge during school breaks.