Ontario

Pollinator Garden (Lasagna Garden)

2017, Trenton, Ontario, Canada

In 2017, three students; Xavier Nickerson, Samuel Beylerian, and Félix Brouillard from École Secondaire Marc-Garneau Public Elementary School, proposed the idea to build a lasagna garden. They wanted to build the garden in their school yard to help attract more native species to the area.

The lasagna garden is composed of several different layers, first you must dig 4 inches down and place edging around it. Then the layers are as follows; cardboard, straw, garden fertilizer, compost, aged manure mix with compost, and finally soil.

Pollinator (Lasagna) Garden Student Action Ontario

Once the garden had been created the students planted native flowers in the garden to attract native species of birds and butterflies. The completion of this project will aid in supporting bees and other pollinating species to thrive once again.

The boys placed 4^th overall, and their project was implemented in June 2017, with the help of the student’s classmates

Building Local Rain Gardens

2017, Campbellford, Ontario, Canada

In 2017, Paige Palmer a grade eight student at Hillcrest Public School proposed the idea of building a rain garden, and placed 3^rd overall. The idea being that the garden would help to mitigate the amount of runoff entering the local waterway.

She picked a spot in her local community of Campbellford where roads surround the entire perimeter of the canal. After a rain fall the water off of these roads can wash things like sand and salt but can also wash car oils, dirt, animal waste. This then enters directly into the canal and can cause issues.

The project was completed in June of 2017, with the help of her classmates at Hillcrest Public School. She is implementing this rain garden as a solution to storm water problems in her local community, to reduce the amount of runoff going directly from the roads into the local canal, in hopes to improve the water quality.

Let’s Keep our Bees Buzzin’

2017, Campbellford, Ontario, Canada

In, 2017, two students Caroline Clltherow and Gillian Forestell both from St. Mary’s Catholic Elementary School in Campbellford, proposed the idea of building bee boxes, placing 5^th overall.

They wanted to educate people on the declining bee population, and educate people on the issue that without bees other animals, and humans would not be able to survive. They will be planting perennials so that it will not cost money every year to plant more flowers. They handed out posters throughout their school, as well as around the Campbellford area. The poster helped to inform the public on what their goal was, and included a package of flower seeds to enable the general public to start on a bee box of their very own.

The project will play a key role in educating the public about the importance of bees, and a better understanding of how they can help repopulate the bees within our local watershed.

This project was implemented and completed in 2017.

Crayola Colour Cycle!

2016, Trenton, Ontario, Canada

Marker Recycling Student Action Project Ontario

In 2016, a student named Melissa Lajoie from Murray Centennial Public School proposed an idea of the “Crayola Colour Cycle” that will help to improve the waste management at her school. Melissa will educate the school on her project before she begins. She will also be holding a colouring contest for primary grades the winner gets a Crayola t-shirt, and handing out stickers to the other classes that say “I recycle” on them.

She did the“Crayola Colour Cycle” project throughout her school where she got all the students and staff to bring in markers, pens and highlighters that they have at school or at home. Once they brought them in they would be collected, then later shipped back to Crayola where they will be recycled properly through a company called JBI. They specialize in recycling dense plastics. This project was implemented in November 2016, with the help of her school.

This project is going to help reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfills as well as the amount of energy needed to make brand new products for the future.

Revitalizing Rice Lake

2016, Alderville, Ontario Canada

In 2016, Gezhii Smoke-LeFort, a grade eight student at Roseneath Centennial Public School proposed the idea to revitalize a creek, placing 2^nd overall. The creek is located in Roseneath Ontario. Sandercock Creek that is in a decline, due to the agricultural fields that have a lot of nutrient runoff, and negatively impact the health of the creek, which then flows directly into Rice Lake.

Revitalizing Rice Lake Student Action Ontario

Gezhii suggested the idea of having volunteers come out for a day to help plant different native trees and herbaceous plants on either side of the shoreline in order to help rejuvenate the creek. These plants along the sides of the creek are key to the health of critters that call this water home. As a result planting this shoreline buffer will help to decrease erosion and aid in filtering water.

Implementation has begun in 2018, a small group of grade six and seven’s from Roseneath Centennial Public School came to participate in a planting day on June 7, 2018. These students planted eighty-five trees and herbaceous plants along the shoreline of the creek.

Gezhii hopes that revitalizing this portion of the Sandercock creek will do a small part in improving aquatic life and increase water quality.

FROM GARBAGE TO GARDEN

2015, Campbellford, Ontario, Canada

Alyssa West and Josee Stephens from St. Mary’s Catholic Elementary School were appalled at how much organic household waste was going straight to the landfill. They decided to educate their community on the ease and impact of composting at home, placing 2^nd overall.

The two students developed a fun and interactive way to teach people the importance of composting, and the benefits of doing so. They held the one day event at a local park, with face painting, games and a barbeque.

Ontario Student Action Composters The end result of their hard work was giving away 100 composters to people in the Campbellford community. They hope that this will turn into a ripple effect and that people in their community will continue to spread the word.

We NEED to recycle batteries, not throw them away

2015, Trenton, Ontario, Canada

Mason Demczyna and Max Towers, grade 7 students from Murray Centennial Public School won third place for their “We need to recycle batteries not throw them away” proposal.

Mason and Max’s idea was to educate students and parents in their school community about the issue of improper disposal of batteries and organize a battery collection week at their school. The goal of their project is to reduce the number of people that don’t know what to do with their dead batteries and decrease the amount of batteries not being recycled properly.

ON Battery Recycling Finalists Mason and Max have already held a battery drive at their school where they collected approximately $4,000 batteries. As they are in grade 7 they will be returning to Murray Centennial in the fall of 2015 and plan to hold several battery drives in the 2015-2016 school year. Caring for our Watersheds implementation funding will be used to print educational materials promote the importance of recycling batteries and their collection program.

Red Maple Seedling Fundraiser

2014 Trenton, Ontario, Canada

Chantal Ouellet, a grade 8 student from Murray Centennial Public School won fourth place for her “Red Maple Seedling fundraiser” proposal. Chantal’s idea was to hold a fundraiser at her school to sell Red Maple Seedlings and use the profits to purchase a water bottle filling station for her school. Chantal’s goal was to increase awareness about the importance of planting trees in our watershed and educate her school community about the negative impacts of disposable water bottles to the environment.

Chantal purchased 320 Red Maple Seedlings for $175.00 with the guidance of Tree’s Ontario and financial assistance from Murray Centennial Public School. The fundraiser was held in April 2014 and each seedling was sold for $5.00 generating a revenue of $1475.00. The profits from the fundraiser cover the cost of purchasing one water bottle filling station for the school.

With an additional $1305.00 from Caring for Our Watershed Implementation Funds, Murray Centennial Public School will be receiving a second water bottle filling station to meet the needs of the school with population of 600 staff and students.

The two water bottle filling stations were installed March 2015.

International Rain Barrel Giveaway

image1-2 Rain barrels are designed to collect water, but one distinctive rain barrel designed by students at Daysland School in central Alberta is garnering just as much attention as it is water.

Butterflies, toads, dragonflies and other flora and fauna help depict a healthy watershed on a rain barrel designed by 20 students from grades five to 12 at Daysland School. It also helped the classroom win $1,000 through an international rain barrel giveaway and art contest sponsored by Nutrien’s Caring for our Watersheds (“CFW”) program.

Tree Huggers

2013 Campbellford, Ontario, Canada

Taylor Polich, Christina Venator and Brooke Seymour, grade 8 students from Kent Public School in Campbellford identified that their watershed is lacking in trees. Currently, our watershed forest cover is only 21% when it should be (at a minimum of) 30%. We’re looking to increase this forest cover. By increasing the amount of trees in our watershed, will help purify the air and water.

Taylor, Christina and Brooke proposed planting trees in their community. Their project was implemented by planting 62 trees in the spring of 2014 as part of a larger edible forest project at Kent Public School.

This Caring for Our Watershed idea has had a positive impact for the health of the Lower Trent Watershed and the local communities.