Author Archives: Holly Pousett

SAND OVER SALT

2016, CINCINNATI, OH, UNITED STATES
Sand over salt image
In the winter, Oak Hills High School uses a lot of road salt to de-ice the surrounding pavement surfaces. Bridget Kallmeyer, Erin Kallmeyer, and Lindsey Lawrence found this unnecessary, as more salt than needed was being used, and was running off into the Stormwater collection system that flowed into nearby waterways. To combat some of the excess salt use, the group came up with a plan to replace the salt used in the student parking lot with sand.

The project would first only cover ¼ of the student lot due to concerns from the building manager, but if it goes well, more of the space can begin to use sand. Additionally, the custodial staff will be educated on the use of sand and why using too much salt can be detrimental to the waterways.

Sand would potentially decrease the amount of money that is spent on salt annually, and provides traction and works in all temperatures. However, since sand does not melt snow, it would require more applications in order to keep students safe. If the implementation is successful, Oak Hills would be saving money and protecting their nearby waterways!

Save The Trees, Use The Trees

2016 Calgary, Alberta, Canada

The 2016 first place winners in Southern Alberta’s Caring For Our Watersheds competition were Centennial High School students Kaylee Nishizawa, Rebecca McCollister and Nicole Stringham, with their project “Save The Trees, Use The Trees”

These students were concerned about water conservation and the use of herbicides and pesticides in their community. When researching these issues, the students became interested in the use of mulch on gardens and flowerbeds. Mulch helps inhibit weed growth, retain soil moisture and prevents frost heaving and soil temperature fluctuations. Armed with information on the benefits of using mulch, the students organized a “Community Mulch Day”, where residents could come to the local community centre between 10:00 and 2:00 to pick up free mulch to use on their gardens and flowerbeds.

To encourage people within their community to take advantage of the fee mulch, the students distributed thousands of flyers to residents in their South Calgary community, informing them of the event and of the benefits of using mulch in their yards.

The “Community Mulch Day” was a huge success! Hundreds of citizens came to the Mid Sun Community Centre to pick up free mulch, provided by The City of Calgary. The students were there to provide information on the benefits of using mulch, and to help people load the mulch into their vehicles.

This project was made possible by a number of sponsors, including: Caring for Our Watersheds, The City of Calgary Parks, Greengate Garden Centers, atr and the Mid-Sun Community Association.

FIELD WORK

2015, CINCINNATI, OH, UNITED STATES
Field Work Image
Students from The Summit Country Day School took on a nice-sized project last year. With the help of their mentor, Sue Metheney, and their teacher Kat Roedig, they partnered with the Children’s Home of Cincinnati located on Madison Road to plant a meadow area with native plants. Summit students, Ellie Schwietering, Adelaide Tsueda, and Jenny Zhang first proposed creating a more eco-friendly plant area to improve the watershed quality. They first envisioned completely eliminating a lawn and replacing it with native trees or fruit and vegetable gardens. After teaming up with the Children’s Home they modified their idea and decided to plant a meadow, which is both aesthetically pleasing and more efficient in capturing storm water than turf grass. The meadow area will help to filter rainwater, slow runoff and attract native animals and insects to the site. It will also reduce maintenance time and costs for the Children’s Home, a win-win for everyone.

The mission of the Children’s Home is to transform the lives of vulnerable children through individualized treatment and education services that build the skills and confidence to succeed in life. Their programs help children overcome social, behavioral and learning challenges every year. Ellie, Adelaide, and Jenny worked with Tim Daugherty, the Facilities and Landscape Manager and several students and teachers at the Children’s Home to plant the meadow area. All of the students worked together to help transform an area on their campus to become a much more beautiful space.

“We’re happy that we got to work with the Children’s Home to finish our project and we are excited to see the meadow in full bloom this summer” said Jenny Zhang. It was such a beautiful day to plant and everyone enjoyed working together and helping to improve their watershed.

TREE WELLS TO PROTECT TREES

2015, CINCINNATI, OH, UNITED STATES
TREE WELLS TO PROTECT TREES-1

There is a hillside on the east side of Withrow High School’s campus, just above the parking lot that has had several trees struggling to grow. This hillside had many erosion problems in the past and one student decided enough was enough. Chadwick George was close to graduation, but wanted to improve his school before leaving for college. Chadwick proposed to build very small retaining walls on the slope below each tree. These walls, which he called tree wells, would help to slow the rainwater and runoff from above so that it can more naturally soak into the ground and help the trees grow.

After placing third at the Caring For Our Watersheds final competition, Chadwick worked with his teacher, Jody McOsker, over the summer to level out and place tree wells on over 20 trees on the hillside. This project has certainly helped to not only improve water quality and runoff at Withrow High School, but Chadwick has completed his mission of improving his alma mater and leaving a great legacy.

Tree Wells to Protect Trees

RAIN BARREL IMPLEMENTATION

2015, CINCINNATI, OH, UNITED STATES
RAIN BARREL IMPLEMENTATION
Every year, the lower Mill Creek overflows by several billion gallons due to trash, oil, debris, and other harmful substances, resulting in the Metropolitan Sewer District to require a solution. Aleeyah Nurredin of Mount Notre Dame High School heard about the push to reduce overflow by two billion gallons by the end of 2016, and thought of a potential solution in rain barrels. The barrels would be transported around Cincinnati schools for competitions in rain barrel design, ultimately going home to collect water in the neighborhoods to benefit the community.

Since Stormwater can be used to water plants, collection in rain barrels would divert from the Mill Creek and prevent overflow. Aleeyah held an event in Amberley Village where individuals could collect their own rain barrel. Then, a competition was held where younger children could decorate their barrel to demonstrate their love for the environment. By raising awareness and promoting the reuse of storm water, Amberley Village is on the track to continue to improve the wellbeing of the Mill Creek!

Caring for Our Watersheds wins special mention in Argentina!

Congratulations Nutrien Ag Solutions for your hard work!

Caring for Our Watersheds participated in a local sustainability contest which was organized by Aapresid. Aapresid, Argentina Association of Producers in no-till planting, is a non profit NGO, which is composed of a network of companies and farmers, with the aim of preserving its main resource, the soil.

In 2014, Caring for Our Watersheds was awarded with Special Mention for Environmental Education in the Sustentar award categorie, which recognizes sustainbaility in the Agrifood Systems and is organized by Aapresid, Revisgta Chacra and Agritotal.

The award was received by Matia Salinas, North Division Marketing Manager, at the Aapresid event held in Rosario, Santa Fe province. This is Caring for Our Watersheds first award in Argentina!

School Note

If schools are interested in participating they MUST REGISTER THEIR SCHOOL – click here to register.

Volunteer Note

Volunteer tasks and assignments come in all skill levels and time commitments, such as helping tabulate scores or mentoring contestants. The more people that volunteer, the better this experience will be for the students – click here to register.

Farming for the Future

2014, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Farming for the Future

Within the Ohio River watershed, there are many subunits, including the Little Miami River watershed. The main focus of Nathaniel Polley and Chloe Halsted from Wyoming High School fell in Clinton County, as agricultural development contributes greatly to runoff in the Little Miami watershed. The ability to curtail this runoff would serve as a vital step to maintaining the health of the Ohio River.

After speaking with several local farmers, Nathaniel and Chloe discussed the techniques already being utilized with a proven record of success on farmsteads. Among these, and the easiest to implement, is the process of planting cover crops whose sole purpose is to conserve and improve the soil, thus providing a win-win situation for both the environment and the economic interests of the farmers. Cover crops need only a quarter of each acre on a given plot of farmland, yet they are instrumental in preventing erosion.

They needed to isolate which farms contribute the most runoff to the Little Miami watershed before strategizing where to plant cover crops. Overall, decreasing runoff and soil erosion via cover crops and waterways would ensure the stability of freshwater ecosystems and provide safer supplies of fish for human consumption. The initial money contributed to the activation of their phases I and II, which involved the funding for pinpointing sources of pollution alongside the purchase of cover crops. Moving forward, it is the hope that there could be governmental funding to allow farms to continue to improve and reduce the runoff going into the watershed.

The Dusty Old Trail

2014, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

The campus of Withrow High School is very large and open with a variety of areas that water can flow. At the bottom of each hill on campus, there are sewer drains, contributing directly to the problem of combined sewage overflow. Since the water is running straight into the drain and not being captured by plants or rain barrels, the sewage systems are flooded whenever there is intense rain. Dontaz Hadden and DeAaron Duskin noticed that near their school’s football field there was a dry dirt trail that results in an overflow of the drain and a large puddle when it rains. The water does not soak into the hillside along the fence since the hill is made of impervious clay.

To combat this runoff, Dontaz and DeAaron planted native grasses along the hill. The clay was dug up and replaced with healthy soil and compost, gravel was placed to serve as a walkway, and plants were planted. The Dusty Old Trail was replaced with a lively new one, bringing a breath of fresh air to Withrow’s campus.

Dusty Trail

CFW Partner Recognized for Conservation Efforts!

Congratulations to the Center for Land-Based Learning

Our community partner in California, The Center for Land-Based Learning, was awarded The Partners in Conservation Award from California Department of the Interior in 2014.

The Partners in Conservation Award is a Department of the Interior Honor Award established to recognize conservation achievements that include collaborative activity among a diverse range of entities that may include Federal, State, local and tribal governments, private for-profit and non-profit institutions, other non-governmental entities, and individuals.This award enables the Secretary to acknowledge in one award the contributions of both Interior and non-Interior personnel. Overall, this award recognizes outstanding conservation results that have been produced primarily because of the engagement and contributions of many partners.

Sally Jewell, Secretary of the Interior, recognized Sacramento’s Center for Land Based Learning (CLBL) for their exemplary conservation and partnership service. CLBL partners with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Audubon California, the California Association of Resource Conservation Districts, Nutrien Ltd. and other partners to conserve and enhance habitat for wildlife by promoting a healthy interplay between agriculture and nature. The CLBL was nominated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Sacramento Field Office.

“I take pride in knowing that the partnership with CLBL not only helps to accomplish the Service’s mission but that we are also helping to train the next generation of conservation professionals,” explained Karleen Vollherbst, USFWS School Yard Habitat Coordinator.

For a great article on award which also highlights Caring for Our Watersheds, see: http://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/kimball-receives-award-on-behalf-of-conservation-partnerships/

Watershed Moment: CFW feted once again

Caring for our Watersheds received a second major environmental award in 2011 – the Fred Heal Conservation Award!

Almost all of Nutrien’s Western Canadian operations sit inside the Saskatchewan River Basin, and an advocacy group bent on keeping those waterways clean and healthy just gave Nutrien an award for choosing to be part of the solution.

“What a wonderful honour,” says Lindsey Verhaeghe, 2011 Sustainability and Stakeholder Relations Coordinator. “It is extremely gratifying to be acknowledged by a major environmental organization and to be a part of a program that is making positive changes to the state of our local watershed.”

The Fred Heal Conservation Award recognizes a community, organization or business that has taken direct initiative in preserving and/or enhancing the health of the Saskatchewan River Basin.

“This program is an innovative way to encourage youth to take ownership in their local watersheds,” says Lis Mack, Acting Manager of the Partners for the Saskatchewan River Basin. “These students are our future leaders who are learning early to think ‘out of the box’ to protect our vital water resources.”

Since 1993, the Partners have promoted the stewardship and sustainability of the Saskatchewan River Basin, an international watershed stretching over the three Prairie Provinces and a portion of Montana. Nutrien production facilities that sit inside the basin include Redwater, Fort Saskatchewan, Joffre, Carseland, Calgary and Vanscoy.