BIRD BOXES FOR CAVITY NESTERS

2015, Sacramento, California, USA

Salma Rosas helps birds in California

When Salma Rosas, of the MET Sacramento High School, was asked how she could “improve her watershed”, she decided to focus on habitat for birds, specifically cavity nesting species such as bluebirds and swallows. Salma learned that in the urban environment of Sacramento, many old, dead trees that would have provided natural cavities for nests for these birds have been removed due to their hazardous and/ or unsightly nature. While this is often necessary for safety, it decreases available habitat. To increase suitable nest sites, Salma decided to build bird boxes and install them at school and at a neighborhood park. Caring for Our Watersheds project implementation funds help her buy wood and supplies to build these boxes

AERATION MODIFICATION

2017, CINCINNATI, OH, USA
Aeration Modification
Matthew Murphy of Oak Hills High School knew that he wanted his project to be both simplistic and effective, with the main focus to be his school’s bathrooms. Matthew’s high school building is older and hadn’t been renovated in a very long time, making the bathrooms a prime candidate for a water conservation project.

He found inspiration when he took a school field trip to the Ohio River with his AP Environmental Science class. There they discussed the issue of combined water sewer systems in the Ohio River Watershed; essentially when there is too much rain, the sewer system bypasses the water treatment plant and deposits a ton of pollution into the Ohio River. This outing helped to establish the primary goal of his project: reduce the total amount of water that Oak Hills puts into its combined sewer systems as a means to reduce the total waste put into the river during periods of heavy rain.

Matthew’s solution was to replace the faucet aerators in all the bathroom sinks around the school. An aerator is the part of the sink faucet where the water comes out. The old aerators in the school used 2.2 gallons of water per minute, equating to a total of 360,000 gallons of water over the course of 95 days. (2,650 people x 2 trips a day x 20 seconds x 2.2 GM x 95 days). The new aerators that he purchased for his school only used 0.5 gallons of water per minute, this in turn should only use 80,000 gallons of water over 95 days. (2,650 people x 2 trips a day x 20 seconds x 0.5 GM x 95 days)

This project not only has the ability to help the school conserve water, it also will allow the school to save roughly $2,000 every 95 days. In turn, he plans to propose using these dollar savings to hold a mini watershed project in his high school. Discussing water conservation and rewarding innovative thinking will help future classes of students create a more environmentally sustainable school. Matthew’s hope is that year after year, students continue the work to improve the school’s sustainability.

WEED-EX

2017, CINCINNATI, OHIO, USA

Claire Erny and Jacob Berry knew that residents in their hometown of Wyoming, Ohio yearned for a luscious and weed-free lawn. The dangers of trying to accomplish this goal can be serious and can contain a lot of chemicals and waste that may end up leaching into the waterways, affecting all aquatic life and drinking water. Jacob and Claire decided to come up with a recipe for an environmentally friendly and safe weed killer that is proven just as effective as other weed killers, but much more environmentally friendly, safer and a lot cheaper.

After looking at countless articles about natural weed killers, their teacher, Mr. Neimiller, informed them that he uses “vinegar and dawn dish soap” on his lawn at home, and it works wonders. To make a gallon of this weed killer, residents would need about one gallon of distilled white vinegar and two tablespoons of Dawn dish soap. Before deciding if they wanted to take on this project, Jacob and Claire needed try out this recipe for themselves. They soaked countless weeds with their homemade weed killer and approximately three hours later returned and the results were even better than expected.

The town of Wyoming has a smartphone app called ‘Next Door Wyoming’ people in the community can try to find babysitters, a cheap plumber, someone to walk their dog, pretty much anything. Jacob and Claire decided to make a post on Next Door Wyoming explaining their project and asking the citizens if they would like to try a bottle of the natural and homemade weed killer. Jacob and Claire expected to make about 10-15 bottles of weed killer, but received 40 requests in just 20 minutes. They quickly made extra bottles and dropped the weed killer off the next day and asked that residents email the results back to them.

Just one day after delivering the weed killer to all the residents, many emails came back with positive results and pictures. Not a single resident had a negative comment; some families even said they were going to stop using their old weed killer and start using the homemade version. Their favorite report came from a horticulturist from the Cincinnati gardens who said that her team was going to start using the homemade weed killer. They were able to book the Civic Center for late May (about a month after the final competition) and held an event to further educate the citizens on what a positive and major impact this has on our watershed, and only for $6.00.

Weed-Ex

HYDRATION STATION

2017, CINCINNATI, OH, USA

When faced with the challenge to improve her local watershed, Annie Smith thought of her school drinking water fountains. Her school is very old and while it has been remodeled several times, it seems several of the drinking fountains never got updated. So she developed a project she called the “Hydration Station.” It all started when she saw the enormous amounts of plastic water bottles being thrown away at her school. Her idea was to start the process of installing automatic water bottle refill stations around the school in order to reduce the number of plastic water bottles that Oak Hills High School throws away every single day.

Annie worked with the Caring For Our Watersheds staff, her mentors, teachers and Winnsupply company in Fairfield to acquire two water fountains to be installed in the school. Maintenance staff installed the first fountain (pictured below) in one of the main hallways within the school in order to maximize the usage of the fountain. After less than a week of being installed, the water fountain had already saved 395 water bottles, a number that will hopefully continue growing. That’s right, almost 400 bottles in just one week.

Annie graduated just after the CFW finals, but in the future she hopes to revisit the school and see how many water bottles have been saved. She hopes to take this newly collected data and propose that all the water fountains at Oak Hills High School be replaced with new water bottle filling stations. If this is successful, she plans on reaching out to the superintendent and proposing that all old water fountains in the district be replaced with new water bottle filling stations. She also hopes to work with the Oak Hills “Spirit Shop”, or book store, to get reusable water bottles with the Oak Hills logo on them, to be purchased and used by students and staff at the water fountains. The janitors had some issues with the ‘old’ plumbing, but they were able to build a frame to mount the new filling station. Persistence pays off.

SOAKING UP THE WATER, ONE TREE AT A TIME

2017, HAY LAKES, ALBERTA, CANADA
Tree

Dana Sych and Soren Skaret decided that to help improve their watershed, they would plant green ash trees in their school yard. After much research, the pair decided on Green Ash trees because they grow quickly, require little maintenance, and do well in wet areas but can also survive drought and cold winters- something important in this small Alberta town. They wanted to plant trees in a low spot of the school yard that often is too wet to play in, and becomes a mosquito breeding ground. They thought by planting trees the water could be absorbed, and the trees would have water to drink. Win, win!

The team also made the connection that by adding trees to their school yard, they would be directly helping to improve air quality. They included the younger grades of their school in the tree planting to help educate them about the importance of the environment and taking personal responsibility.

Dana and Soren hope that these trees will be part of their legacy at the school, soaking up the extra water, and providing shade and a wind block to students for years to come.

BIODIVERSITY DAY

2017, EDMONTON, ALBERTA, CANADA
Biodiversity Day
Simran Panesar takes tree planting seriously. Since she started in the Caring for our Watersheds contest in grade 8, Simran found new and exciting ways to plant trees, improve biodiversity, and educate youth about their watershed.

In this year’s project, Simran had moved onto high school, but wanted to engage grade 6 students (who have a science unit on trees and forests) students from her junior high school to come get involved. Her implementation took 4 parts:

Part 1: Presentation and Pizza. Grade 6 students from A. Blair McPherson school arrived to W.P. Wagner School where they listened to Simran’s presentation about the event. They were then treated to a pizza party lunch!

Part 2: Art Project: The school’s art teacher helped lead an environmental art project for the grade sixes. They put leaf impressions into clay and made little slabs. These slabs will be fired in a kiln and then compiled into a huge environmental display. This display will be a “contemplation project” and hung up at Wagner.

Part 3: Biodiversity Game. The grade 6 students learned about the importance of biodiversity in the watershed by a game which teaches how different bird beaks adaptations allow them to eat different foods.

Part 4: The final step was the actual tree planting. 45 native trees and shrubs (including Saskatoon, Lodgepole Pine, and Red Osier Dogwood) were planted in the schools yard.

Simran was able to make space for biodiversity at her new school while engaging and educating youth.

“I just wanted to thank you for inspiring me to make a positive difference in our world! You have inspired me since the day you came to our school when I was in grade 8 to talk about Caring for Our Watersheds and the experiences I’ve gained from this competition are priceless”. -Simran

Purgin’ Sturgeon

2017, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Purgin Sturgeon student action implementation project students with canoes

Luke Roffey from Westwood Collegiate is passionate about the creek near his home. “Sturgeon Creek provides vital habitat for many species of birds, mammals, amphibians, and fish, and it’s a critical piece of nature in an otherwise urbanized landscape.” He proposed an underwater cleanup with his peers using canoes and litter removal equipment.

Purgin Sturgeon student action implementation Luke in canoe “An underwater litter removal project has never been done in Sturgeon Creek before, and judging by the amount of garbage Westwood students remove from the banks of the creek each year, there is likely a lot of garbage under the surface that needs to be cleaned up. Removing garbage from an aquatic ecosystem such as a stream greatly increases the quality of the habitat for wildlife. Gone are hazards that can cause injury and entanglement for animals. Removing floating and submerged garbage will dramatically increase not only the natural beauty of the park, but also the functionality of the ecosystem.

Many people, especially youth, have become very disconnected with the environment, and participating in my project will allow them to reconnect with nature. Canoeing in particular can be very therapeutic, thus by participating in my project students will not only be bettering their local watershed, but also bettering themselves.”

Upon hearing of the project, a local company “Wilderness Supply” offered to loan all of the equipment free of charge. During the cleanup, students engaged with passerby’s explaining their project and the importance to the watershed. It was a great day they now hope to repeat on an annual basis.

Pollinator Garden (Lasagna Garden)

2017, Trenton, Ontario, Canada

In 2017, three students; Xavier, Samuel, and Félix 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 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 and Gillian 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.