USA

Stripping My Way to a Cleaner Watershed

2016 Greeley, Colorado, USA

Dustin’s initial proposal did not make it to the final 10. However, Dustin believed he had a quality idea to improve his watershed. He raised the money and implemented the project on his own. He was awarded the 2015-2016 Environmental Action Award and $200.

Dustin is a sophomore this year at Greeley Central High school. Dustin’s idea was built around helping to reduce the Carbon Footprint of our school by supplying every teacher’s desk a power strip mounted with Velcro. This allows teachers easy access to the switch so that they can disconnect their energy vampires every night. He purchased the power strips using grant money that the Environmental club, the Green Cats, had received from Wal-Mart for a digital energy information kiosk. He then organized a group of students who went to all 80 classrooms after school and mounted power strips inconvenient locations for the teachers. This was followed by a school wide power down day in which we were able to see in real time how much less energy we were using through a website called PowerTakeOff. The district had set this up for a handful of schools to monitor their power usage. Everyone was involved in this power down day from the custodial staff to the kitchen to the administration. Dustin was instrumental in making this happen. He even put together 80 bags of treats and passed them out to classrooms that were reducing their energy use! This took a huge amount of organization and people managing skills to accomplish! Dustin showed great maturity and leadership throughout this process. If a school can cut down their electrical usage it can reduce the production of harmful particulates in our air and our water.

Alpha Charter Edible Campus and Keyhole Garden

2016, Elverta, California, USA

Students at Alpha Charter in Elverta were looking for a way to care for their watershed while also
beautifying their school’s campus and adding to the resources in the school’s new Farm to Fork/Garden Arts program. Their proposal included the planting of fruit and shade trees on campus, installing water efficient drip irrigation, and building planter beds, including a “keyhole” teaching garden, which employs interesting alternative techniques to improve soil nutrient level while using less water. Their project will not only benefit the environment, but also serve as an outdoor hands-on learning area for students in the school for years to come.

Tree Planting at Lubin Elementary

2016, Sacramento, California, USA

Sandra Longfellow, a student at the MET Sacramento High School, has a special connection to
nearby David Lubin elementary school. First, through a program at The MET, she was placed in long-term internship at the elementary school. Second, David Lubin is her alma mater. When she found out about Caring for Our Watersheds, she knew this was a great opportunity to contribute to and improve the school’s campus she knows so well. After a recent removal of a hazard tree in the kindergarten yard, Sandra noticed a huge area left with bare soil directly adjacent to the storm drain. She met with the kindergarten teachers and PTG members to discuss plans for planting a Tree Planting Caring for Our watershed implementation dirty hands new tree in the area, protecting it with a planter wall, and reseeding the remaining bare areas. The plantings would stabilize the bare soil and reduce sediment delivery to nearby waterways. Of course, the tree planting would also provide shade to the kids playing in the yard at recess and outdoor learning activities. Sandra organized special teams of kindergartners and their 6^th grade “buddies” to help with site preparation and planting. After the planting, she organized “work parties” with school parents to build the planter wall and finish the remaining work. Nutrien project funding helped to buy supplies, soil, plants, and seeds for the project, which will benefit both the environment and the school community for generations to come.

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!

Garden Bed/ Compost Demo Project

2015 Sacramento, California, USA

When planning their Caring for Our Watersheds proposal, Micaela Negrete, Avery Kelly, and Sebastian Simmons wanted to build upon and strengthen student engagement in some of the existing resources at the school. While there was vermicomposting bin at their high school, The MET Sacramento, they knew a lot of incoming and existing students did not really understand what compost was and why creating and using compost was beneficial. They decided to build a portable garden bed that could be used for educational demonstrations.

They planted one side in regular soil and the other in soil amended with compost and recorded measurements of plant growth over a period of time. The Compost Instructions group then planned and delivered a lesson to freshman at school on the benefits of compost, utilizing their demo garden bed and preliminary results from their own experiment.

The group hopes to give a similar lesson to a local preschool, in which they would incorporate an age appropriate coloring book and have students plant small vegetable starts. Caring for Our Watersheds project funds helped the group buy supplies to build the demonstration garden bed and materials for their lesson.

Reusable Water Bottles

2015 Sacramento, California, USA

Justin Yu and Kieran Garcia from The MET Sacramento were concerned with excessive plastic water bottle use by the student body at their school. They recognized that even know these bottles are recyclable, that many end up in the trash and thus landfill—or even littered around school and the community. They also learned that some of the water used in plastic bottles was not necessarily from sustainable water sources or, in some cases, not different from tap water. They wanted to provide students with an easy alternative to plastic bottle use by providing reusable bottles to their classmates, and by delivering a PSA-like presentation to classes to encourage daily use.

With the help of Caring for Our Watersheds project funds, Justin and Kieran purchased reusable bottles and prepared a presentation for their classmates on the negative effects plastic water bottles have on the environment, the benefits of reusable bottles, and other simple ways to practice sustainability in one’s daily life. They were able to distribute the bottles to their advisory class as well as raffle them off to other students that attended their presentation.

Landscape for Water Conservation

2015 Sacramento, California, USA

Colusa High School Students Gabriel Garcia and Jennifer Pulido identified an area of their campus that was in need of improvement. It was a large area of bare ground that, in the event of a storm, would become a source of excess sediment due to surface runoff from the school. It was also a highly visible spot that would make an excellent gathering place for students during lunch or outdoor learning opportunities.

Their idea was to implement a landscaping project in this area with native, drought tolerant species. Their project would demonstrate the use of native species that require less watering, and do not need fertilizers and pesticides, thus addressing issues of water quantity and quality.
They hoped to beautify their campus, reduce sediment delivery, and create habitat, but also to inspire other members of their community to landscape with water conservation in mind as well.

After Gabriel and Jennifer took 6^th place in the Caring for Our Watersheds Final Competition, they wanted to make their idea come to life. With the help of the students of their school’s Environmental Science Academy, their project was accomplished. With the help of Caring for Our Watersheds project funds, high traffic areas of the site were covered with fabric and gravel, landscape beds were built around the perimeter, drip irrigation installed, and native species planted.

Tree Planting at Pony Express Elementary School

2015 Sacramento, California, USA

The MET Sacramento students Allison Goi, Mianna Muscat, and Justin Yu wanted to improve their watershed, while also providing a needed service to an elementary school is their area. As they reached out to local elementary schools, they found that Pony Express Elementary had formal plans to create a Nature Area, which would both provide habitat for birds, insects, and small mammals, as well as serve as an outdoor learning space for the students. To support and start the first phase of the project, Allison, Mianna, and Justin planted four different native species of trees in the designated area on campus. Caring for Our Watersheds project funds allowed them to purchase the trees and tools necessary for the work. As they planted while school was in session, they were able to interact with and answer questions from the elementary students and staff about the tree species and the benefit they will provide the campus and watershed. The were happy to be able to enhance their community in this way and kick-off a great project at a nearby school.