Don’t Flush Those Meds!

2014 Gimli, Manitoba, Canada

When Hailey and Ruby discovered that traces of pharmaceuticals were being found in Canada’s lakes, they decided to take action. The pair surveyed family and friends and found that most people don’t know how or where to dispose of pharmaceuticals.

“According to the article Pharmaceuticals in Our Water: A New Threat to Public Health, tests on water in North America have found trace amounts of antibiotics, painkillers, anti-inflammatories, hormones, tranquilizers, chemotherapy drugs and drugs used to treat epilepsy and blood cholesterol.”

Hailey and Ruby created a brochure with details on how their community could properly dispose of medications, and delivered these brochures to doctors’ and dentists’ offices around Gimli. They also shared the information with the Home Care Co-ordinator and Senior Resource Manager as well as a private home care companies to expand their audience. “By informing people of the possible consequences of flushing meds on our watershed, we are confident that people will want to do the right thing. After all, we all want a healthy lake and watershed”

Planting Trees to Sequester Carbon

2014 Virden, Manitoba, Canada

Logan Biccum and Natalie Vachon wanted to “create a better environment for their watershed.” The students proposed planting trees at a local park, “a simple but obvious solution that will greatly benefit the environment.”

Along with their classmates, Logan and Natalie planted 92 trees along Scallion Creek at the school’s Learning Garden site. Working with the Upper Assiniboine Conservation District, the team chose a site where tree planting would “greatly benefit the soil erosion and wildlife habitat.” Trees are an extremely important part of a watershed. Among the benefits of trees: “Trees reduce greenhouse effect by shading house and office buildings. This reduces the need for air conditioning, which in turn reduces the amount of fossil fuels burned to produce energy. Tree roots will also eliminate nutrients which are harmful to our water, and by planting trees we can enlarge our wildlife habitat.”

Thanks to a contribution from Nutrien, the support of the Upper Assiniboine Conservation District and the hard work of their classmates, Logan and Natalie discovered that “planting trees will improve our earth in so many ways!”

Cigarette Recycling

2014 Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada

“Did you know that 4.5 trillion cigarettes are smoked a year worldwide and it takes 18 months to 10 years for a cigarette butt to decompose?” Alex Klasz noticed that his school had a lot of cigarette butts around the area where people smoke, and when he discovered how harmful these are to the environment, he wanted to make a change.

“Cigarette butts go from the grass and sidewalk to the drain for the street to the river where fish can eat and choke on butts. This means the hazardous chemicals in those cigarettes, such as cadmium, lead, arsenic, and hydrogen cyanide, enter our watershed.”

Alex also learned that cigarette butts can be recycled through a program called TerraCycle, but needed collection containers for his school so that students wouldn’t put their cigarette butts on the ground or in the garbage. Thanks to Nutrien, the school received an outdoor container for cigarette butts. Through the recycling program, the school also receives funds for cigarette waste. Alex plans to use those funds to purchase more containers so that the program continues.

Switching to Eco Friendly Cleaning Products

2014 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

If you can’t pronounce the ingredients in cleaning products, how can you tell if they’re going to be safe? Stacey Amos and Tristan Harper wondered this when they started looking at the types of cleaning products found in schools.

“We need to think about the impact on our water because all of these liquids end up going down the drain. These lead to our waters, and include chemicals such as loramine oxine, myristamine oxide, and styrene. How do we know these are safe for our lakes if we can’t even pronounce it?”

The team proposing switching their school’s cleaning products to eco-friendly versions that don’t contain harmful ingredients. Thanks to Nutrien, they were able to purchase classroom kits of cleaning products and re-usable cloths. This means “safer products and less pollution. Time to get cleaning!”

Toonies for Trees Campaign

2014 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Simran Panesar was a finalist in the 2014 Central Alberta CFW contest. A grade 8 student from A. Blair McPherson School in Edmonton, Simran had a local and global perspective to her project.

Simran’s concern about her watershed was soil erosion. Erosion is a local issue on the banks North Saskatchewan River, and a global issue as well. According to scientist Tim Radford, 10 million hectares of land are eroded every year.

There were two parts to Simran’s project; Part 1 was to plant tree saplings by the North Saskatchewan River and Part 2 was to fundraise money for the Canopy Project.

Part 1- Tree Planting
Working with the Edmonton based organization “Roots for Trees”, three grade 6 classes from A Blair McPherson School went to Gold Bar park to plant trees. With instructions and equipment supplied, they were able to plant 463 trees. Simran personally visited each class before the trip to teach them about why they would be planting trees and how it will help the watershed.

Part 2- Canopy Project
The second part of Simran’s project was to raise money for the international Canopy Project. Over the past 3 years they have planted 1.5 million trees in 18 countries. For every dollar they receive they plant one tree in a place that needs them. To raise money Simran hosted a $2 showing of The Lorax movie. She also sold $2 tickets for a draw for some cool prizes donated by a local business Thurber Engineering LTD. Altogether, she raised $413 (or 413 trees) for the project!

Water Quality Testing

2014 Peguis First Nation, Manitoba, Canada

In 2013, Lake Winnipeg was named the most threatened lake in the world. For students at Peguis Central School, water quality is an especially important issue. These students live near Lake Winnipeg, and along the Fisher River which feeds into the lake. Kayla and Kelly are learning how nitrates and phosphates could affect the lake.

“Our project is to conduct scientific testing on the Fisher River to see whether it is a significant contributor to algal blooms, which have occurred on Lake Winnipeg.”

This project is part of a multi-year initiative that the school is taking to look at the Fisher River, and determine how it relates to Lake Winnipeg. The goal for these students is to obtain ten-years of data, so they can see if and how the water quality changes over time. Next year, Kelly and Kayla will be mentoring younger students at their school so that the project can carry on once the girls graduate. Thanks to Nutrien, they were able to purchase a new test kit to continue their research!

Insect hotels: Accommodating Biodiversity

2014 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Alana Krug-McLeod from Aden Bowman Collegiate in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, proposed the idea of improving the South Saskatchewan River Watershed through increasing insect biodiversity. Her proposal was to build three separate Insect Hotels in Saskatoon with educational signage and an associated website that explained the benefits of insect biodiversity and the importance of habitat provision like Insect Hotels for improving nearby aquatic ecosystems. Alana explained in her proposal that “…insect hotel typically consists of a solid structure or frame filled with organic and inorganic materials, a formation that serves to provide habitat for insects.” The types of material such as bricks, bamboo, drilled logs, bark affect what varieties of insects check-in at a given hotel.

Once built, insect hotels attract creatures such as lacewings, ladybugs, and mason bees. Alana explained at the Caring for our Watersheds final competition that these beneficial insects eat aphids and other destructive pests, pollinate plants so they can bear fruit or vegetables, and serve as decomposers of organic material. Alana felt that Insects Hotels could not only increase local biodiversity but also provide the opportunity for uniquely engaging her community to learn about insects and potentially inspire them to build their own Insect Hotels.

Alana worked with the community to build and install three separate insect hotels across Saskatoon; one in a private yard, one at the Varsity View Community Garden, and one at Aden Bowman’s joint school and community garden.

On August 26th, Alana met with members of the community garden to construct their insect hotel. People of all ages participated with volunteers ranging from a four year old to seniors. Together volunteers and members of the community garden built a beautiful structure, which a smaller group of volunteers was able to fill, seal, and mount the next morning.

On August 27th, Alana met with a group of students from Aden Bowman Collegiate to harvest and weed the raised garden beds and to install and fill the insect hotel. Everyone was energetically engaged, and the insect hotel was easily secured in a south facing location beside the raised garden beds. Two students agreed to be contacts for the Insect Hotels and to report on what types of insects take up residence and to monitor the longevity of the structure. After the Insect Hotel was installed some of the students talked about making insect hotels for themselves and as gifts for others.

The third insect hotel was built by Alana and her mom with materials remaining from the construction of the first Insect Hotels and donated materials. It was installed in her family’s front yard in the Varsity View neighbourhood, where it attracts the attention of passersbys who often stop to see or taste what is growing in the garden. Alana has expressed interest, capacity willing, to work with other interested groups in Saskatoon to build more Insect Hotels and continue to increase aquatic and insect biodiversity to improve her local watershed.

Pharmaceuticals in our Water

2014 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Maggie Reid from Greystone Heights School in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, proposed the idea of putting up posters at her local neighbourhood grocery stores and pharmacies to inform and educate Saskatonians on the proper way and appropriate locations to dispose of pharmaceutical products. In her proposal, Maggie made the connection that when you turn on the tap and fill your glass with water, that water may still have traces of medications and pharmaceuticals in it.
In Maggie’s research she found that although waste water treatment plants can remove many chemicals and foreign materials, active drug compounds are not eliminated and can collect in our rivers, lakes and ground water. When these chemicals collect in water bodies they have the potential to impact the fish, wildlife, and other organisms living within aquatic ecosystems. Expired or unused pharmaceuticals have certain chemical properties that may disrupt the proper function of hormone systems and can be attributed to causing fish to change sexes from male to female during sensitive stages of development. This has consequences for breeding and maintaining healthy fish populations in our rivers and lakes. Not to mention, we drink this water ourselves! This was a problem that Maggie felt strongly about.

She discovered that people still currently flush un-used medications or pharmaceuticals down the toilet in order to keep their children or pets from ingesting them. Maggie felt the solution to this problem was to raise awareness. If people knew that the South Saskatchewan River that they loved was becoming increasingly filled with chemicals from the improper disposal of pharmaceuticals, they would think twice the next time they went to flush their pills down the toilet! She discovered that there was an easy alternative available for the safe disposal of these items. All peopled needed to do was return expired and unused pharmaceuticals to their local pharmacy where there are policies to safely dispose of them. Maggie took action to implement her project and received permission to put up posters at Extra Foods’ pharmacies and the Coop pharmacies within her neighbourhood. The posters communicated information in a fun and simple way through graphics that Maggie drew by hand. The participating pharmacies were delighted to put up Maggie’s posters and were happy that she was taking the initiative to improve her watershed through the Caring for our Watersheds program!

Operation Hummingbird

2014 Forestburg, Alberta, Canada

Isaac Boddy entered the central Alberta CFW contest as a homeschooler and member of the Forestburg Golden Prairie 4H Club. his older sister Maven had been involved in the contest in 2013 so Isaac was ready and willing to take on the project, and see it through to its completion.

Isaac wanted to plant a variety of flowers that butterlies, moths and hummingbirds like with overlapping bloom periods creating a food source from spring lasting to fall. The garden would also provide a place for butterlies and moths to lay their eggs and will also be a beautiful garden for Forestburg residents to visit and enjoy.

Project partners include: the Forestburg Historical Society who donated the land for the garden. 4-H Canada provided $100 for seeds, and the local Golden Prairie 4-H club provided food for the planting day. Communities in Bloom also supported the project by having their summer student in Forestburg help water the garden. Local community members also supported Isaac by donating split rails and posts to make the garden.

A selection of native plants were planted in the garden including:

Black Eyed Susan
Butterfly weed
Corn Poppy
Blanket Flower
Lemon Mint
Partridge Pea
Purple Coneflower
Wild Bergamot

Isaac hopes that his project will have other positive effects on top of providing habitat and food for pollinators. By having his 4-H club involved he will be helping them connect to nature and understand the importance of pollinators while learning about plants and spending time outside. Forestburg community members will also benefit from the garden including the natural beauty and increased pollinators

Lacombe Educational Aquaponics Food System (LEAFS)

2014 Lacombe, Alberta, Canada

EcoVision is an environmental-based club for students at Lacombe Composite School. EcoVision has built and runs a greenhouse growing fresh herbs and vegetables in a geodesic dome on the school’s property. A sub-committee of this group is called LEAFS- Lacombe Aquaponics Foods System. LEAFS entered the 2014 CFW Contest with its goal is to build an efficient and sustainable aquaponics system in the greenhouse. The system benefits the Battle River watershed by raising awareness about watershed issues, promoting community involvement, and increases the schools ability to grow their own healthy food. The water used in the aquaponics system will be re-used to water the plants in the greenhouse.

LEAFS will raise tilapia and vegetables for their cafeteria and have a license to sell surplus items to the greater community. The LEAFS system will lower the schools ecological footprint by growing their own food and limiting greenhouse gas emissions from transport, and recycling waste water. The school will also benefit from enhanced educational opportunities and collaboration with community members. Lacombe Composite High School will be one of the first schools in Canada to have a running Aquaponics program that supplies its cafeteria with fresh fish and vegetables.

More information can be found on the EcoVison website: www.lchsecovision.weebly.com