2015 Bawlf, Alberta, Canada
Leah Marshall, grade 11 student from Bawlf School, grew up on a farm in the country and had seen a lot of the native forests and grassland be removed for increasing agricultural land. When the Marshall’s started beekeeping as a new hobby, Leah learned more about the threats to pollinators, such as decreasing habitat and wanted to do something to help. Her idea was to encourage students to plant small flower gardens that would provide homes and food for pollinators. In her words:
“The premise of this project revolves around making a plausible and realistic difference in recovering the populations of local wild pollinators (primarily bees). We plan on doing this via both the distribution of perennial wild flower seed packets and the education of our youth in this major issue that impacts us as humans immensely”.
Leah decided to focus on getting the word and the seed packets to grade 7 students who had a biodiversity unit in their science curriculum. She contacted grade 7 teachers across the Battle River Watershed to ask them to teach their students about local pollinators, and in exchange would mail a class set of seed packages. Each seed package had an informational brochure so that the students could learn more about the project and pollinators. Leah sent out 500 seed packages, the flowers of which are now popping up across the watershed!