California

Storm “Drain Gardens”

2015 Foresthill, California, USA

On the Foresthill High School campus, there are large areas of bare ground, especially surrounding the sports fields. As a student in teacher Katherine Cantrell’s environmental science class, Wyatt Ralston learned that when stormwater travels over bare ground, it can pick up sediment and pollutants that can negatively affect aquatic habitats. He also learned that when this storm water runoff enters storm drains, it is delivered directly back to local waterways. These two concepts led to the idea for the Storm Drain-Garden project on campus.

Ralston worked for several months to gather supplies and obtain permission to implement the project. With Caring for Our Watersheds project funding and the help of his classmates and fellow Boy Scouts, he installed gravel and native plants around four storm drains on campus to reduce erosion and to slow and filter storm water before it returns to local streams.

Ralston hopes the project will serve as a demonstration and that it will inspire home or business owners to install their own storm drain-gardens. The project will be visited and maintained by Cantrell’s future environmental science classes.

Water Conservation Education

2015 Sacramento, California, USA

As California is in its fourth year of drought, Jack Gumbiner and Sebastian Simmons of The MET Sacramento High School, wanted to increase awareness of the situation among their peers. While their fellow students had no doubt heard about the drought in the media, they did not seem to be taking any or enough action to conserve water. Jack and Sebastian wanted to not only educate students on the severity of the current situation, but also to provide easy ways the students could conserve water. They felt that hearing it from students their own age may have a different effect, and may inspire some teens to make simple changes to their daily lives. With project funds from Caring for Our Watersheds, Jack and Sebastian put together a water conservation lesson that included a fun interactive demonstration of water saving showerheads. They also designed and printed posters to hang at school and magnets to distribute to students and staff.

Southside Park Cleanup

2015 Sacramento, California, USA Students Cleaning Southside Park in Sacramento, Califormia

After Alexa Smith and Feliceya Torres coordinated a successful cleanup of riverfront Garcia Bend Park last year, they were inspired to continue the good work of watersheds stewardship. This year, the pair of MET Sacramento students submitted another proposal focused on Southside Park, which is adjacent to their high school.

While Southside Park is not directly on the Sacramento River, water moving over the land area enters several storm drains that run directly to the river. There is also a sizeable pond in the park, which provides habitat to resident ducks and geese. A clean up here would not only benefit the park aesthetically, but would also reduce the amount of debris entering storm drains, and thus river. This could also alleviate clogging of these drains during storm events, and local flooding. In addition, a cleanup would reduce waste entering the pond and affecting the aquatic habitat there.

As last year, they recruited several volunteers from their high school for the cleanup event completed in May of 2015. Project funds from Caring for Our Watersheds helped the students buy basic supplies for the event, including bags, rubber gloves, trash pick-up tools, water, and snacks for participants.

Starting a Composting System for the School Garden

2014 Antelope, California, USA

Antelope High School student Chelsea Morgan wanted to make use of the large amount of green waste produced by the school garden. In the old system, students were throwing away this green waste directly into the trash dumpster. She was concerned that the green waste in the landfill was a wasted resource and would only add to the production of excess methane. She wrote a proposal to build a compost bin for the waste, and students in the People for the Planet club helped to implement her project. When green waste in composted, it produces a very important, nutrient-rich soil additive for the garden.

The students built a wooden 3-bin compost system conveniently located adjacent to the school garden. Once the original green waste has been in the first bin for a few months, students will transfer it to the next bin for further decomposition, which will also open up space for the new green waste.

In addition to providing fertilizer for the garden and reducing the amount of waste being sent to the landfill, the compost system will be used as an educational tool for all of the Biology and Environmental Science classes at Antelope High.

Non-Native Rose Removal/Native Species Planting

2014 Antelope, California, USA

Students in Antelope High School’s People of the Planet Club helped to implement Dayna Berry’s “Removing the Thorns” proposal, which took first place at the 2013 Caring for Our Watersheds California Final Competition. This proposal was to remove existing non-native rose bushes around the school and replace them with a variety of native plants. The roses require watering and application of chemical pesticides/ fertilizers, which have the potential to run-off and pollute the surrounding creeks. In addition, these rose bushes flowered for only 2 weeks out of the year, so they were very poor plants to attract pollinators. The native plantings, adapted to the local climate, would not require long-term irrigation or pesticides and would also provide habitat and food sources for local birds, butterflies, and other wildlife.

Students worked to replace the non-native rose bushes with CA native plant species that are drought tolerant and require no additional chemical inputs. They also mulched the area to prevent evaporation and to help control weeds. At project completion, they had planted 15 Blue blossom ceanothus, 24 Provence lavender, and 20 California fuchsia, as well as adding 16 yards of mulch to the area. Nutrien implementation funds made the purchase of plants and mulch possible

The students and others on campus are pleased with the initial results as the plants are already starting to bloom. While the plants are small now, they will grow quickly to beautify the campus as well as provide many flowers for pollinators.

Garcia Bend Park/River Clean Up

2014 Sacramento, California, USA

Alexa Smith, Kieran Garcia, and Feliceya Torres wanted to help their community by holding a straightforward cleanup along the banks of the Sacramento River. They submitted a proposal explaining how excess garbage can pollute the waterways and adversely affect aquatic organisms. For the cleanup, they chose a site in their neighborhood that is used frequently for recreation, Garcia Bend Park.

Smith, Garcia, and Torres recruited additional students from their high school, The MET Sacramento, and spent a productive day on the waterfront. They collected over 15 bags of trash in just a few hours. Project funds from Nutrien helped to purchase bags, rubber gloves, a dip net, and snacks for the participants.

Vermicomposting at the MET

2014 Sacramento, California, USA

In researching ways to improve their local watershed, Molly Crofoot and Loki Spera became very interested in the concept of vermicomposting, or worm composting. Different than traditional composting, worm composting is a process that uses red earthworms to consume organic waste, producing castings, soil conditioner, and a topsoil additive. While there are other ways to break down things such as food and yard waste, vermicomposting is a lot easier for people who live/ work in a place with very little outdoor room. Their project proposal was to build a worm bin at their school, The MET Sacramento High School, and educate students on its use. Specifically, they would train members of the Garden Club, who would take over general maintenance of the bin, and use the soil created to add to the garden beds.

Vermicomposting has many benefits for the environment. The process creates a nutrient rich soil, which helps grow a healthy, sustainable garden without the need for chemical fertilizers. It also builds healthy soil structure that reduces watering needs and absorbs runoff, protecting streams from erosion and pollution. Finally, it makes use of food waste that would otherwise enter landfills. Project funds from Nutrien helped Crofoot and Spera purchase a durable, multi-level bin and host a lunch workshop for students on vermicomposting, its benefits, and how to maintain the bin.

Composting System for Valley High

2014 Elk Grove, California, USA

Members of the Valley High School Green Club were concerned about the excessive amount of recyclable and compostable material that was being thrown into their school dumpsters each day. As this landfill waste can eventually lead to water contamination and problems in the watershed, they wanted to address this issue and implement a program to collect this material and remove it from the waste stream. The compostable material would then be added to bins to produce soil for the school garden they are starting.

Since this is a large task, Green Club members also enlisted the support of the ILS and Special Education students to transport the compostable waste (food scraps and cardboard lunch trays) after each lunch period. The compostable material is taken to the garden area where students have set up 4 compost bins, purchased with Nutrien project funds. Students also gather grass clippings to add to the compost bins.

Through the process, students found that the cardboard lunch trays do not break down easily, so they purchased a chipper/shredder to shred the cardboard into fine pieces that decompose more readily. The Nutrien implementation funds also helped students purchase other tools to help maintain the compost, such as a hose to keep it moist, and shovels and gloves to turn the compost.

During this first year of the new compost system, it is estimated that over 1000 cardboard lunch trays have been composted in this manner, reducing the amount of waste sent to the landfill. The Valley High Green Club anticipates improving and expanding upon the system as they move forward.

Water Conservation Education Booth

2014 Elk Grove, California, USA

California is currently faced with a severe water shortage and extreme drought conditions. The need for water conservation is critical and water agencies are appealing to the public for help. Students in the Green Club at Valley High are concerned that students and members of their community are unaware of how serious the current predicament has become and how to address the situation with water conservation measures. Judy Phu, Asia Xiong, and Jamilah Ahmach-Antolin presented their proposal to address this situation at the 2014 Caring for Our Watershed Finals. Their solution included preparing a community outreach booth geared toward water conservation for the on-campus community health fair.

The community health fair is attended by hundreds of students from the feeder middle and elementary schools as well as other community members, providing an excellent opportunity to reach a large number of people in a short period of time. Green Club members designed a water education game (similar to Chutes and Ladders) where younger students could play and see water conservation measures in a fun-interactive way. They gathered pamphlets and information from local water agencies to give to visitors as well as secured donations of water conservation related prizes (low-flow showerheads, shower timers, toilet leak test kits, etc.) to giveaway to game winners. Booth visitors were encouraged to sign a 20% water conservation pledge. Those that signed the pledge were entered in the raffle to win larger water conservation prizes (low-flow toilet). Through their creative, educational booth, they drew attention to an important watershed issue and exposed youth and community members to ways they could make a difference.

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.