Author Archives: Chloe Sprecker

Escape To The World Of Xeriscape

2012 Greeley, Colorado, USA

Josh Croft & Stephanie Lopez, Northridge High School, xeriscaping project started out as four pieces of land located in their school’s front parking lot, but because of a new set of greenhouses installed on the east side of the building, the project was relocated.

Croft & Lopez completed most of the planning, landscape design and budgeting during the spring of the year. Ruth Quade, Water Resource Specialist with the City of Greeley, continued to mentor the team through the selection of the type of plants, planting arrangement and purchasing locations.

Removal of the existing plants was delayed throughout the summer. Both students graduated in the spring and headed off to college but before packing their bags, they passed off the 2nd place proposal to the Northridge Horticulture students in order to achieve full implementation. The Horticulture students contacted Eaton Grove Nursery to purchase the selected xeric plants. The low-water landscaping has been installed in front of the newly constructed greenhouses and will be part of the entry way to plant growing spaces. Future plans include placement of signage by the club to identify the plants, water saving advantages and to help inform others how this idea really works.

The Northridge Grizzles appreciate the support from Nutrien to bring the contest to Colorado and the donation of $1000 to implement this solution at our school.

Biodiesel: The Magic Green Bus

2012 Greeley, Colorado, USA

Vanessa Martinez, Jose Martinez & Eric Trujillo from Northridge High School stated “within our watershed there are hundreds of diesel engine buses that transport thousands of students to multiple schools in the Greeley-Evans area. The diesel engines are not only expensive, but are also hazardous because of contaminants they emit into the air of our watershed and environment.”

Thus, their solution is to convert one diesel engine bus into a bio-diesel engine and compare the two. The goal is to show the difference bio-diesel engines can make. It will help make the transportation safer for the children of District 6, and help keep the air cleaner.

The school district was unable to get biodiesel buses because of lack of biodiesel fuel however they are getting energy saving, natural gas-based buses instead which enabled the students to implement their project. We will continue to work with the district to follow up with data comparisons between regular buses and the new natural gas fueled buses. The expected completion date is the spring of 2013.

“We aspire to eventually convert all the buses in our district once we have the effective data needed as reasonable evidence to prove natural gas bus’ better efficiency.”
-The Magic Green Bus Team

The students expressed their appreciation for the support from Nutrien to implement the project, funding from a local natural gas company to purchase the buses, and the district’s willingness to fund the cost of this project to complete it.

Energy Efficient Dishwashers

2012 Greeley, Colorado, USA

Lance Mosness Jr. & Philipp Chmura from Union Colony Preparatory High School had the idea to install low energy dishwashers in Greeley, Colorado.
Americans themselves use the most water out of any one in the world. The implementation of this solution was to install two low energy dishwashers into community buildings, such as schools in Greeley. Installing these dishwashers into these areas will lower their water use, thus reducing the overall water use of the Poudre Watershed. Just using a dishwasher is more water efficient than hand washing dishes, but the best solution is installing and using low energy dishwashers.

Implementation Timeline:

Summer 2012-Selected and ordered built-In and portable dishwashers ($958.)
Fall 2012-Install dishwashers in schools, ($200, donated)
Late Fall 2012-Estimate water and cost savings
Winter 2012-Media release on the results of our solution

The students’ purchased two energy star dishwashers. During the next two weeks they will be installed at both of the schools. Nutrien donated $958 to implement our project- Thank You!

“Even though our watershed is just a small part of the total water used around our country, a small change here could make a big difference.” – Lance Moseness

Native Plant Campaign

2012 Calgary, Alberta Canada

The Native Plant Campaign (NPC) was an opportunity for youth in Calgary to learn about and get involved in ecological biodiversity within the City of Calgary. As the first-place proposal in Caring for our Watersheds 2011, the NPC was a project designed by youth for youth. Since the student authors were members of UNA-Canada’s Ripple Effect program at the time, UNA-Canada offered to be the mentor organization for implementation.

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Twenty-four youth, ages 14-20, volunteered their Saturday afternoon, despite the rain, to learn about and plant native plant species along the banks of the constructed wetland on Prince’s Island Park, Calgary. The event ran from 12:30-4:00pm on Saturday June 2, 2012.

The event began with a welcome from UNA-Canada and a brief overview of the upcoming Rio+20 summit in order to connect local actions with global affairs. Once the students had toured the wetland and learned about riparian health and native/invasive plant species, they spent the remaining time planting over 100 plants, trees, and shrubs. The following species were planted: Balsam Poplar, Aspen, River Birch, Paper Birch, River Alder, Chokecherry, Tawny Willow, Black Bud Willow, Pussy Willow, Silverberry, Dogwood, and Dwarf Birch.

One student said, “I really enjoyed the informational nature walk…I learned a lot and it made the plantings that more meaningful. I am definitely excited to participate in another event like this in the future.”

Advertising the Proper Disposal of Mercury Lamps

2012 Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada

Lord Selkirk Regional High School student, Kayla Weselowski wanted to create an awareness campaign for the Selkirk, Lockport and St. Andrews area regarding the proper disposal of mercury-containing lights. She felt there was an inadequate amount of information available to the public regarding the safe disposal of these lights as well as the harm that would be caused by simply discarding this hazardous material.

She proposed a simple solution, to produce signs that she would put up in stores directing people to places where these bulbs can be recycled.

The Caring for our Watersheds contest provided Kayla with the funding requested to produce some of these signs.

“I really enjoyed overcoming the challenges that this project presented me with. These included everything from meeting deadlines, to improving my presentation skills. The actual advertising was quite a challenge for me as well, because I had very little experience with that form of art. Another obstacle was avoiding copy protected images; as a result, everything on the posters was self produced. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the independence I had during the entire process. The business aspect of it was also very interesting, and because of this experience I will be pursuing business courses in a post secondary education.”

Recycling Bins on School Campus

2012 Antelope, CA, USA

When Brandon Schinina walked over to his school’s library to brainstorm his CFW proposal, he saw a student walk out with a cardboard box full of recyclables. The student then dumped all the bottles and cans into the nearby garbage, where it would have forever ended up in a landfill. Plastics and cans, if not properly recycled, can stay in a landfill for hundreds of years without degrading. Plastics and cans are also common trash items that find their way into our waterways. This inspired Brandon to reform the schools recycling system in hopes that it would help the school be greener and the students more aware.

Brandon’s plan was simple, to equip each classroom and the campus with recycling bins in order to have proper recycling happening at school and to encourage students to recycle more in their personal lives. With $916 in Nutrien implementation funds and the CFW matching school award, he was able to purchase the needed bins. antelope2-2

With the help of the “People for the Planet” club, he placed 8 new large recycling bins on the Antelope High School campus and smaller bins in the classrooms.

Now that there are good bins around the school and in the cafeteria/ lunch areas, students and teachers don’t have to resort to throwing the recyclables away with the trash.

By providing the opportunity to recycle, Brandon helped not only the students, but also the teachers to recycle more. He has been personally thanked by students and staff members when the club went through the classes and put the bins in place. The campus looks cleaner as well, with less cans and bottles left around the school. Brandon is happy when he sees students using the bins and knows that he has made a difference in his school community.

Monofilament Fishing Line Recycling Containers

2012 Colusa, CA, USA
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In looking into water issues in their small community, Aimee Galvez and Yajaira Cruz saw that there was a lot of fishing line thrown into the river by anglers who seemed unaware of the danger this could cause to local wildlife. Their idea was to place monofilament recycling containers at four local boat ramps and landings. They believed that by providing a place to recycle line and signs to encourage use, they could reduce the amount of line left in the river or on the water’s edge.
To start the process they first designed the aluminum signs that would be placed on top of the containers. The signs urged anglers to “Reel in and Recycle” to help keep the Sacramento River “tangle free” as used fishing line can pose hazards to wildlife, birds, and aquatic species. The signs also explained that the Colusa High School Environmental Science Academy would be maintaining the containers and collecting the line to be sent in for recycling.

Aimee and Yajaira then built the containers themselves out of PVC pipe, screws, and hose-camps. monofiliment3-2 They visited each landing ahead of time to see where the best place would be to put the containers, conferring with the landing owners and staff. With full support and permission of the landing operators, they installed the containers and signs. Nutrien provided $342 in implementation funds for the project, which will be an ongoing effort carried on by the students at Colusa High School during Environmental Science Academy service hours. They are thankful that they were able to make their idea a reality and provide a simple solution to a problem in their watershed!

Native Plant Pollinator Garden

2012 Antelope, CA, USA

Antelope High School student Melanie Mititelu has learned about the importance of native plants in providing habitat for local wildlife. She is especially concerned about the loss of habitat for pollinators, as we depend on them to pollinate most of our agricultural products. In many places, this necessary service of pollination is at risk from habitat loss, pesticide use, and introduced diseases. She decided she could help by planting native pollinator species in planter boxes adjacent to the school garden. By providing nectar sources to forage in, she would encourage bees and other pollinators to help pollinate the plants in their garden. Her pollinator garden will also serve as an educational tool for Environmental Science classes when they learn about the decline in honeybees and
the importance of pollinator conservation.

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For her garden, Melanie chose plants that bloomed at different times throughout the year to provide a continuous food source for pollinators. She chose plants all native to California so that they would not require much irrigation or fertilizer. However, she did install an irrigation system to help these plants get established during the first few years.

In addition to providing particularly good habitat for pollinators next to the school garden, this native plant garden will be used to educate students and teachers at Antelope High School on the benefits of native plants, as well as botany and plant ID skills. Next year, they plan on adding interpretive signs that identify the native plants and explain their important role in agriculture and the environment.

Students Build Recycling Bins for School Campus

2012 Sacramento, CA, USA

Schools generate enormous amounts of paper, aluminum, and plastic waste that often times only makes its way into the garbage bins and landfills. The students at William Daylor Continuation High School decided they wanted to reduce this waste and collect the bottles and cans to raise extra funds for the Green Construction Technology ROP program. For starters, the school already had blue bins for recycling but they were stuffed away in storage. These were cleaned up and delivered to each classroom. Just by recycling the notebook and copy paper, the school reduced its total garbage by about 35%.

The students also realized it that not just the paper was being thrown away, but also the bottles and cans. Signs were made to help direct students to add bottles and cans to the paper waste but the leakage was making things messy. It was time to build some recycling stations. With $330 from Nutrien to buy lumber, bins, screws, and paint, the students built two can and bottle receptacles and placed them in lunch courtyard and a central location by classrooms. The students also built a receptacle to collect cardboard lunch trays, which were being thrown away even if spotless. These trays, collected without food waste or wrappers, are then shredded and spread onto the garden paths to help keep the weeds down or they are added to the outdoor composting pile.

In building and using the new bins, students have become increasingly aware of the amount of garbage that can be recycled and that with a little extra work, we can reduce our school’s impact on the landfills by nearly 50%! We have also raised over $100 by recycling the bottles and cans which will continue for the years ahead. This money goes towards further environmental projects being carried out by the Green Construction class as well as for the organic garden on campus.

Recycling of Plastic Agrochemical Containers

2012, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

The main objective of this project was to avoid contamination of the environment by providing a solution for the disposal of empty plastic containers generated by agricultural activities. This is a problem that concerns this basin due its large amount of farming activities. A survey was used to confirm the uncertain destiny of these plastic containers, and the proposed solution was to create a small drum warehouse where the producers can drop off the used drums to be recycled.

The warehouse was built with the help of Caring for our Watersheds and donations from farmers and other local companies. The landfill space was donated by the San Antonio de Areco municipality, who will be also responsible for managing the area. These containers will be collected and recycled by a company that produces bumpers for trucks, pipes to cover fiber optic cables and industrial product containers.