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.

Biocap

2015, Carmen de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Biocap is designed to provide a solution to the environmental problem of disposing household oils. The project creates a primary collecting center for used vegetable oils. The school also has an agreement with a company that is authorized to process the used oil into biodiesel. The school receives a large barrel for used vegetable oil from the company, and the household containers are emptied using a system designed and created by the students themselves.

In the near future, the students hope to encourage others in the community to create primary collecting centers as well.

Lichens

2015, San Andres de Giles, Buenos Aires, Argentina

The focus of this project is to analyze the population of lichens found in trees within different areas of San Antonio de Giles town. The study of these lichens is important because they can be indicators of the quality of the air we are breathing. In order to define a parameter, the students plan to analyze the presence, or absence, of lichens in different parts of town. They also proposed an investigation on the density of the population of lichens and the analysis of the different types of lichens found. This analysis takes into account their color, appearance and the lichen’s grouping/type (foliose, fruticose, crustose). By analyzing the lichens the students are able to check and/or refute their hypothesis about the feasibility of solely using this method to monitor the quality of the air we breathe.

Parks for Native Biodiversity

2015, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

This project aims to create a place that will focus on increasing the community’s biodiversity. The goal is to reap the environmental benefits that emerge from creating a park of native vegetation at the town’s old railroad station. This will hopefully also entice tourists to visit the town because of the value created by enhancing the local nature of their flora and fauna.

With the help of the specialist in native flora Dr. Gabriel Burgueño, the students prepared and presented a draft to the Municipality of San Andres de Giles to manage the permits with the Railway authorities.

Currently, they are waiting final approval to continue working.

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.

Nature’s Voice

2015, San Andres de Giles, Buenos Aires, Argentina

The students of this high school run their own radio show. Their project is to create a radio program to promote local birds and trees to the community, something they consider in need of better care.

Patricia Laffrati, a sustainable journalist, assisted in the implementation of the project by giving a workshop to the students about radio programming and digital media. In the workshop they learnt how to create and program materials for the school.

One highlight of this project for the students is that it is applicable to all school curriculum disciplines, meaning everyone can get involved. It not only educates the community on the
importance of the diversity of its flora and fauna, but the students learn more through these hands on, engaging experiences.

Guardians of Nature

2015, Carmen de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

This project addresses the problem of how empty plastic bottles (PET) are currently handled in Carmen de Areco. The first stage of this project is to set up a collection center at the school, where community members can take their empty plastic bottles. The school will provide a place to collect, press and package these disposable bottles before delivering them to a recycling center.

Once the first stage of the project is established, the second stage of the project will begin. The students plan to extend the collecting center to other schools within the area.

The money gathered from selling the collected bottles to the recycling centers will be used to continue improving and sustaining the permanent operation of this system within the school(s).

Wetland Creation

2014/2015 Gimli, Manitoba, Canada

Dean Mulroy and his team of fellow students proposed a very ambitious wetland creation project in Gimli, Manitoba. They wanted to expand an existing creek running along the school property into a larger wetland.

“The Willow Creek watershed, which is our area’s closest section, is along the western coast of Lake Winnipeg, also known as the Interlake region. It contains the rural parts of Armstrong municipalities, Gimli, Rockwood, St. Andrews, and all of the surrounding cottage country. This watershed’s drainage is roughly 1,210 square kilometers and contains roughly 620 km of ordered drains with two lake complexes”

They knew the natural filtering process would improve the health of the watershed as a whole. As well, they wanted students and community to benefit from the both the opportunity to study the area and its beauty. This team worked with the municipality, Manitoba Hydro, and the local Conservation District to ensure the feasibility of the project as well as to secure funding partners.

The success of this project is thanks to a dedicated team and strong community support!

Fixing the Filter

2014 Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada

Janelle Klainchar wanted to make a difference in the health of the Lake Winnipeg watershed by installing a dilution tank in her school, Selkirk Regional Comprehensive School. The old system was not functioning properly and Janelle felt she needed to step in and make a change for the better. The dilution tank has now been successfully installed thanks to Nutrien through the “Caring for our Watersheds” contest!

Farming for the Future

2014, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Farming for the Future

Within the Ohio River watershed, there are many subunits, including the Little Miami River watershed. The main focus of Nathaniel Polley and Chloe Halsted from Wyoming High School fell in Clinton County, as agricultural development contributes greatly to runoff in the Little Miami watershed. The ability to curtail this runoff would serve as a vital step to maintaining the health of the Ohio River.

After speaking with several local farmers, Nathaniel and Chloe discussed the techniques already being utilized with a proven record of success on farmsteads. Among these, and the easiest to implement, is the process of planting cover crops whose sole purpose is to conserve and improve the soil, thus providing a win-win situation for both the environment and the economic interests of the farmers. Cover crops need only a quarter of each acre on a given plot of farmland, yet they are instrumental in preventing erosion.

They needed to isolate which farms contribute the most runoff to the Little Miami watershed before strategizing where to plant cover crops. Overall, decreasing runoff and soil erosion via cover crops and waterways would ensure the stability of freshwater ecosystems and provide safer supplies of fish for human consumption. The initial money contributed to the activation of their phases I and II, which involved the funding for pinpointing sources of pollution alongside the purchase of cover crops. Moving forward, it is the hope that there could be governmental funding to allow farms to continue to improve and reduce the runoff going into the watershed.