Centreville Rain Gardens

2013 Centreville, Virginia, USA

In the spring of 2013, a team of 15 sixth‐grade students at Centreville Elementary School took a close look at the playground area at the back of the school. Observing during a rainstorm, they noted soil, trash, and mulch washing into the storm drains that lead to Little Rocky Run. Working through the Caring for Our Watersheds Student Workbook, and relying on information from the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District, they came up with a plan to build three strategically placed rain gardens and to keep the school community informed about why rain gardens matter.

Third place finishers in the 2013 Caring for Our Watersheds competition, the Centreville students built their rain gardens, edging them with handmade “bio‐logs” seeded with two grass and two wildflower species. They communicated their project on the school news, a presentation, and signage at the rain garden areas.

To cover costs of the project, they were able to leverage a $1,200 Fairfax County Public Schools Schoolyard Stewardship Mini‐Grant and received $630 in implementation funding from Nutrien

Low Flush Toilets

2013 Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Torri Kondics, from St. James School in Calgary, Alberta was concerned about water consumption in her school. Torri performed research on the amount of water used by the school, and found that the school used thousands of liters of water a day!

To combat this problem, Torri decided to have two dual-flush toilets installed in St. James School. This resulted in a total savings of almost 1500 L of water per day. Torri also had timers installed on the urinals in the boys’ washroom. These timers decreased the urinal flush rate, resulting in even greater water savings for her school.

Through Torri’s efforts aimed at the decrease of water consumption at St. James School, she has left a legacy for future staff and students, all of whom will benefit from the reduction in water use. Her project will serve as a reminder to future students and staff that every drop does indeed count!

Automatic Taps

2013 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Tory Okemow and Dwight Kennedy noticed that their school used a lot of water as a result of taps left carelessly on in the bathrooms. They proposed that automatic taps would use less water and would be cleaner, safer, and more environmentally friendly than regular taps.

These students also live on school residence, and noted even more wasted water: “the Student Lodge does waste a lot of water all year round with students leaving the water on when brushing teeth.” The benefits of automatic taps include being “easy to operate; stopping the spread of germs and bacteria; preventing water overflow; preventing scalding; and saving water and money.”

An automatic tap was installed in one of the bathrooms at Southeast Collegiate, thanks to Nutrien. The students hope to monitor the difference between the automatic tap and regular taps at the school to demonstrate the need to change all of the taps in the school and at the residence.

Toilet Buddy Town

2013 Manitou, Manitoba, Canada

Lenina Howatt from Nellie McClung Collegiate wanted to propose a simple solution to help conserve water.

“Every litre of this resource is incredibly precious to our environment, especially due to its scarcity. As soon as humans intervene, extracting water from its natural watershed, nature’s course is interrupted. The water is chemically processed and treated, “contaminated” with human use, and further treated again. This drawn out and lengthy process is energy inefficient and costly! But, we can reduce our impact on our watersheds and their natural cycles, further preserving them and all their benefits (filter/buffer water, provide drought/flood stability and “bounce back” capability, maintain biodiversity, promote primary productivity, support wildlife, and erosion and sedimentation control) by simply doing one thing… CONSERVING water!”

She suggested something inexpensive, easy-to-install called “Toilet Buddies”. “Toilet Buddies are plastic, water-filled bags that hang inside your toilet tank, displacing water and saving you the liter capacity of the bag each time you flush!”

Her goal was to distribute toilet buddies to each household in her community and thanks to an $800 contribution by Nutrien, this proposal became a reality.

“My goal for this is to make my town more water-wise and to locally pave a water conscious path for the future!”

Riperian Restoration

2013 Forestburg, Alberta, Canada

The Golden Prairie 4-H club out of Forestburg has made a positive impact in the Battle River Watershed. Maven Boddy, a natural leader in the club, entered the Caring for our Watersheds contest with a proposal to improve riparian health that was both multi-faceted and forward thinking. Her plan to improve riparian areas involved planting hundreds of trees along the riverbank, but that wasn’t all. Her plan also incorporated educating the club and community on the importance of riparian areas and implementing a long-term health assessment on the project site.

Prior to tree planting, the club planned an educational canoe ride along the area of the river that would be restored with the seedlings. During the ride participants were taught about riparian areas and factors contributing to their declining health. This was also a great opportunity for a crash course in Alberta ecology, with a plethora of birds and other animals to see and hear.

On the tree planting day approximately 30 volunteers from the 4-H club gathered to plant over 200 seedlings. A variety of native trees and shrubs were chosen that would grow well in the Alberta climate. These trees will improve the strength of the riverbank with their roots and also provide wildlife with habitat for years to come. The project site will now be monitored in order to determine how the health of the area is improving. Maven invited local experts to carry out riparian health assessments and bird surveys, and a second round of assessments is planned for a few years down the road. Funding for the trees and health assessments came from a Victory Canola 4-H Grant as well as from Nutrien’s implementation funds.

Build and Install Owl Boxes on Local Farms

2013 Colusa, California, USA

After looking into environmental issues in their rural community, Ruby Dunham and Kyle Cervantes were concerned about the use of rodenticide to control rodent populations on farms. Because rodenticide takes a while to process through the system, rodents are slowly affected and are easy targets for predators, usually raptors. Thus rodenticide can cause secondary poisoning of raptor populations, a current threat to their survival.

Dunham and Cervantes wrote a proposal to build and install barn owl boxes on a local farm to both provide habitat and natural control of rodents. This would reduce or eliminate the need for rodenticide, decreasing the introduction of these chemicals into out watersheds and the birds and wildlife that inhabit them– a win-win situation for farmers and the environment.

Students worked with the school’s shop teacher and a local cabinet maker to build the boxes. Funding was provided by the local Morning Star Cannery, who helped to install the boxes at a grower’s ranch. Students built a total of 22 owl boxes for use at local farms and ranches. Barn owls, very efficient hunters (a family can consume over 3000 mice a year), have already begun to inhabit the boxes. This type of integrated pest management can serve as a model for other farms in the area.

Native Plant/ Habitat Restoration

2013 Sacramento, California, USA

As students in the Watershed Biology class as Christian Brothers High School, Scott Sturges, Ty Patrick, and Dominick Tullo studied several issues and concerns with their local watershed. They were especially concerned about the loss of riparian habitat for wood ducks and other bird and wildlife species. Their proposal, which made the finals, was to restore habitat by planting native species of trees and shrubs and building nesting boxes for birds.

Christian Brothers students worked with Putah Creek Council to plant several native species of trees and shrubs both along the banks of Putah Creek and in an upland area adjacent to the creek. An implementation grant from Nutrien helped pay for transportation for the students to the project site.

In addition to improving wildlife habitat and the increasing the diversity of native plants along the creek, their plantings will help to stabilize the stream banks and strengthen the riparian buffer, which acts to filter pollutants before entering the creek. The diversity of natives can also serve as habitat for pollinators, which are essential to the surrounding agricultural area. Theirs is truly a project that will have positive benefits for the watershed for years to come.

Blackberry Removal Along Arcade Creek

2013 Sacramento, California, USA

As a student at Mira Loma High School, Preethi Raju participates in the Arcade Creek Project, which aims to restore Arcade Creek by having students engage in a variety of actions, such as testing water chemistry to check for pollution, cataloging the different plants and animals, and taking part in restoration tasks. In addition, Mira Loma students hold various outreach events throughout the year to inform the public about how they can help to ensure the creek stays healthy.

As students spend time and learn more about the creek area, they are encouraged to think of ways to improve and expand upon stewardship of this natural resource

After visiting Arcade Creek, Raju was particularly concerned with the invasive, non-native plant Himalayan Blackberry, This aggressive, thorny bush grows quickly, has a large root system, and outcompetes native plants. Thus, these native plants are deprived of their habitats, and so are the animals that depend on these plants.

Raju wrote a proposal to increase the number of student volunteers and work events held to limit the encroachment of Himalayan Blackberry. Her proposal included recruiting students from other area high schools. Raju’s proposal made the Caring for Our Watersheds finals, and as a result of her actions, more than 20 students joined the effort to help remove the non-native plant.

With implementation funds from Nutrien, Raju purchased new tools to remove the invasive species and held outings after school various times throughout the year to go and work on the plants. The students not only removed considerable blackberry from several sites, but also engaged in other projects, such as picking up trash and planting seeds for native plants.

Students Raise Salmon in Their Classroom for Release

2013 Stockton, California, USA

When Stockton Collegiate juniors Breana Inoshita, Nura Nasser, and Alyssa Somers were directed to research the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and identify an environmental concern, the girls identified a native fish facing declining populations, Chinook salmon. Raising salmon would help bring awareness to the student body of Stockton Collegiate that Chinook salmon are native to the Delta and that the salmon population has been declining for a variety of reasons.

In March 2012 Inoshita, Nasser, and Somers were awarded 7th place in the Caring for Our Watersheds competition for their plan to raise salmon and release them to the Delta. Starting in December of 2012 the girls implemented their plan at school with funding from Caring for Our Watersheds. With the help of their school club, they built the incubator for the salmon, and eggs were delivered on December 19, 2012. The tank was monitored daily for appearance (of the salmon), water temperature, and pH. When the salmon fry were finally ready, the girls and their teacher traveled north east to just below the Mokelumne River Hatchery, and helped release the fry on March 22nd, 2013.

The students plan on raising salmon again next year and will include a second incubator at the Stockton Children’s Museum.

Students who are a part of the after school program will maintain and monitor the incubator. This project will bring more awareness and education about the salmon native to our watershed to the greater Stockton community.

Tree Huggers

2013 Campbellford, Ontario, Canada

Taylor, Christina, and Brooke, grade 8 students from Kent Public School in Campbellford identified that their watershed is lacking in trees. Currently, our watershed forest cover is only 21% when it should be (at a minimum of) 30%. We’re looking to increase this forest cover. By increasing the amount of trees in our watershed, will help purify the air and water.

Taylor, Christina and Brooke proposed planting trees in their community. Their project was implemented by planting 62 trees in the spring of 2014 as part of a larger edible forest project at Kent Public School.

This Caring for Our Watershed idea has had a positive impact for the health of the Lower Trent Watershed and the local communities.