Manitoba

Recycle the Present, Save the Future

2017, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Liam Recycle Student Action

Liam DeLeon from Maples Met School was awarded an environmental prize for creating a simple awareness video for youth on the achievable steps they can take to help keep their watershed healthy.

“I want to target kids that are 13 and under so that they will be able to start recycling at a very young age. I believe that this idea will make a very positive change to our environment, because it will really bring people together in our community.”

Liam’s video was very well received at the Caring for our Watersheds finals, and he is excited to present it at various educational events happening in his community. Recycle presentation student action

“To expand the knowledge of my community, I have made plans to present to the local schools and to start with the students and the teachers. I want to visit Elementary Schools around my area where I can showcase my video to inform the citizens of Winnipeg about the problem in our watershed and how we can all come together and solve it.”

You can view Liam’s presentation here: https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/dNIvgzPgSXd/?mode=presentation#/

Rods and Reels

2017, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Grade 10 s Rods and Reels Implementation Manitoba tudents at Elmwood High School in Winnipeg, Manitoba are passionate about sustainability! Their sustainability team has come up with a “Rods and Reels” program that aims to educate youth about sustainable fishing practices and how this can impact their environment and watershed. Students will learn skills such as how to properly debarb a hook, the importance of why, as well as conservation limits and how this links to overall watershed health. This lesson will culminate in a class fishing trip so they can learn practicing proper fishing etiquette and connect with nature.

Through the Caring for our Watersheds contest, a class set of fishing rods were purchased for the school so this program can continue to educate youth about the sustainable use of our water for years to come.

Recycling Basketball

2017, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Recycling basketball student action

Rayna Premack, a grade seven student at Holy Cross School, wanted to make recycling more fun for her fellow students, so she came up with the idea to place basketball hoops over the recycling bins to encourage students to use them! Making recycling more fun can be a great way to get everyone involved.

“As we increase our recycling, we are downsizing the pollution across the world… Recycling in a fun way supports children and adults in making them realize that it is good for the environment.”

Losing Tides – A Watershed Awareness Dance Show

2017, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Hunter Watson and Alyssa Lee from Westwood Collegiate came up with one of the most unique projects seen to date. They chose to look at Watershed Awareness through Dance with spectacular evening including dance, watershed information booths, and guest speakers from watershed community partners. Losing Tides Watershed Awareness Show Student Project Manitoba

“As students who are very involved in the arts in school and around the community, immediately we were reminded of how often we are told about how much dance can have an impact on people. That thought gave us the idea to create a dance show with every dance revolving around water and our watersheds. The damages we have done to it, the beauty it has, and how important it is to preserve it.

Each dance will have images projected on the screen that will help to enhance the dance and its losing tides watershed awareness show manitoba meaning. Some dances will deal with the pollution side to our effect on our watersheds, some will focus on how our watersheds could and should look like all reflecting behind the dancer.

Seeing the issues and solutions through dance, pictures and speakers that can range from high school students to well-known organizations will surely leave an impact on the audience. This is something that has never been done before but we are confident we can do this right.”

This event attracted over 200 participants and ended with a well-deserved standing ovation standing ovation.

Eco-Friendly Dry Erase Markers

international_dry-erase-markers In researching her Caring for our Watersheds project, Katelyn discovered a starting fact about her school’s use of dry erase whiteboard markers; “My school goes through approximately 1570 markers within a 10 month period.” That’s 1570 markers going in the trash each year. Given that these markers “are plastic, toxic, and non-recyclable” Katelyn saw the need to make a change to “prevent and lower the amount of chemicals making their way into the Lake Winnipeg watershed.”

Peace and Plenty Garden

2016, Bruxelles, Manitoba, Canada

Manon Ketsman from Nelly McClung Collegiate wanted to help with the restoration of a local community park.

“Bruxelles sits within the Pembina Valley Conservation District and is also within the Cypress River Watershed, which drains into the Assiniboine River. The region around Bruxelles is considered to Peace and Plenty Garden group photo student implementation have poor agricultural capabilities and much of the Southern portion of the Cypress River Watershed is considered moderately to severely at risk of soil and bank erosion.

The Peace and Plenty Garden will be a welcome addition and after much discussion it was decided that a water catchment would be a great addition to the park as it would add a learning area for students and it would be beneficial towards their education. This water catchment will teach the students about water conservation and how important water actually is as a resource when it comes to agriculture. They will use the water collected in the catchment to water the butterfly gardens as well as their vegetable gardens.”

No Fly Zone

2016, Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada

Taylor Bean was concerned with the amount of insecticides Farms were using to control fly populations. She knew there were more environmentally sustainable options available.

“Insecticides have shown to disrupt the balance of the ecosystem and many cannot be broken down by an organism’s body resulting in bioaccumulation”

With a three-pronged approach of fans, ecofriendly spray and fly sheets for the horses, she felt the need for insecticides would be removed.

To involve the community, Taylor purchased horse blankets that she would loan to other farmers to try them out in hopes they would switch over to this method.

“These blankets have helped so much in reducing the horses being irritated by the flies. The use of insecticides (fly spray) by horse owners is drastically reduced therefore reducing the effects on our watershed. The horses and the owners are much happier with the changes that the Caring For Our Watersheds project has allowed me to implement.”

Green Cleaners

2016, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Madeline Mann from Miles Macdonell Collegiate in Winnipeg decided to improve the water quality in her community by convincing her school to change to more environmentally friendly cleaners.

“I live in the Cooks – Devils Creek watershed and I think the biggest problem this watershed faces right now is the fact that community that I live in has been on a boil water advisory since 2002.

The idea of switching out one of the school cleaning products with an environmentally friendly one is a simple way to reduce the amount of chemicals that our school is putting into our watershed. I have found the product I would want to switch it Green cleaners Manitoba student project with, I have done the necessary research and I have determined the cost and quantity that my school would need for cleaning. By changing into an eco-friendly product our watershed will benefit and the water quality will improve because there is less chemicals flowing into the watershed.”

Not only was Madeline successful, this was implemented in the whole school board and required no financial support from the contest.

Floating Away Eutrophication

2016, Virden, Manitoba, Canada

Laura Wallace noticed that her local lake, Oak Lake, “is a sad sight due to eutrophication. It has been coated with green sludge called algae- which has sent residents and vacationers running for the hills. Hiding among the green goop is blue green algae, which can be toxic to humans. Oak Lake, from time to time, has had to close the beach due to health concerns.”

Clearly, it was time for a change, and Laura had an innovative idea: to build a floating cattail pond called a bio-platform to absorb phosphorus and other nutrients in the water, leading to less algae and safer water. In partnership with her local Conservation District and thanks to a contribution from Nutrien, Laura has been hard at work building her bio-platform, which will be launched at the local beach. As Laura shared, “the small changes I hope to achieve could lead to long term success, and I think many Oak Lake residents and animals will be thankful and supportive of my effort to clean up their home.”

Underwater Cleanup

2016, Falcon Lake, Manitoba, Canada

Because Delaney Rosentreter from Westwood Collegiate is passionate about both diving and clean water for the environment, she organized an underwater cleanup at the Falcon Lake Marina. This implementation was done in partnership with Diver City Scuba and the Falcon Lake Marina.

“There are many environmental benefits to my
underwater cleanup project. Benefits include cleaner water for the lake, marine life, and the ecosystem in general. This simple yet environmentally changing project is easy for anyone to get involved around the underwater cleanup project implemented in manitoba community. The marine life will have more areas to lay eggs, less debris on the lake floor, and have more plant life for the fish to feed on.”

Close to 20 divers participated in the cleanup. Although the water was murky, several objects were found including a drone! Following the dive, the divers were provided with a BBQ lunch and hot beverages to warm up.