GreenLemon

2012 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Kyle Cousins with the EcoJustice program at St. Edward School in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan developed a wonderful idea about how to help protect the watershed. Kyle’s idea was to create an environmentally-friendly and chemical-free all-purpose cleaner that would be simple enough for people to make in their own households. He chose to make a chemical free cleaner for his watersheds project because when you’re cleaning and you use a chemical-based cleaner and some of the cleaner goes down the drain, it will eventually end up polluting the watershed. However, if you use a chemical-free cleaner, then you don’t have to worry about chemical-based pollution coming from that cleaner. Greenlemon (lime) photo student action project

The benefits of using a homemade cleaner greatly outnumber the disadvantages. First off, it will save you money because cleaners at stores can be quite pricey, but when you make your own, the ingredients are much less expensive. Next, GreenLemon is environmentally friendly because without chemicals there is no chemical pollution. Another advantage to making your own cleaner is that you can use the same bottle over and over again, thus you will not need to get a new bottle every time. This will reduce the amount of plastic that either needs to be recycled or might find its way into the watershed or landfill. As well, since GreenLemon has no chemicals, it is safer for children and pets, as well as adults.

Kyle created a blog to help share his cleaning solution in addition to including the recipe at this school and his school newsletters.

GreenLemon Cleaning Solution- 4L Recipe 3L of Water, 3 cups Vinegar, 1/4 cups Baking Soda Add 15ml of Lemon Juice to every 1L of solution at time of use

Upgrading Restrooms in My School

2012 Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada

Dean Webber from Lord Selkirk Regional High school proposed to reduce water use at the school by installing water sensors in the washrooms.

“Using automatic taps decreases water usage by up to 1.7 liters per use. If less water is used by the school then less pollution will be emitted into the environment by cleaning and heating the water.”

The water taps have now been installed in the bathrooms at Lord Selkirk. The school has also purchased 4 more taps so that the main bathrooms all have water saving automatic taps. The Caring for Watersheds taps sponsored by Nutrien (at a cost of $1,200) started the ball rolling on the implementation of water saving devices within the washrooms in our school. “The students have been really respectful of these new taps and there have been several positive articles written about them in the school newspaper” states Angela Bajt, educator at the school.

Recycling Campaign

2012 Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada

Maddison Wolf from Lord Selkirk Regional High school observed problems with recycling at her school; the bins were often overflowing onto the floor. She spoke to the janitorial staff found out the system in place could not handle the volume of recyclables from the school. “I did a poll of some of my peers, which revealed they were less likely to recycle when there was recycling piled onto the floor around the full bins”. At $70, she proposed a simple solution of purchasing additional bins for the school at key locations.

“We placed the recycling bins in 2 locations next to the Pepsi drink machines. Before this the plastic drink bottles were just thrown into the garbage cans located close by. We had to empty the small bin two times week and the large bin every week. The students in the resource area were responsible for emptying the bins. This has saved a lot of bottles from entering the landfill.”

The Learning Garden Project

2012 Gimli, Manitoba, Canada

Cheyenne Svenson, Katelyn MacVicar, Heida Arnbjornson and Emma Wear from Gimli High School live on the shores of Lake Winnipeg and are very conscious of how what happens in the lake is intertwined with the health of their watershed.

This dynamic team proposed to create a garden area by their school to provide produce for their cafeteria and Foods & Nutrition program as well as their local Evergreen Needs community assistance program (which provides assistance to members in many ways, including food hampers).

After months of planning the students at Gimli High School were very exciting to start the construction of their school’s Learning Garden. Along with Nutrien’s contribution of $2,000, this garden was made possible by two community organizations: Nutrients for Life and the Manitoba Eco-Network. “The Learning Garden is a great opportunity to engage students with hands on learning opportunities in many different curricular areas. The Learning Garden is a pilot project to teach students the importance of food security issues that are prevalent here and around the world. GHS’s Learning Garden is also being used as an exemplar for other schools in Manitoba to create their own gardens.” says Lisa Pidwinski, project teacher at Gimli High School.

Installing Filtration Systems to School Water Fountains

2012 Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada

What don’t the students use the water fountains in Lord Selkirk School? Jason Bzura wanted to investigate the answer. The flavor of the water was one reason, and the second was the inability to fill reusable water bottles. He did a great deal of research on water quality but in the end, a simple water filter to improve the flavor and a filling station was the answer.

He asked the students and they agreed if this would exist in their school they would reduce if not eliminate their purchase of water bottles.
Nutrien contributed $1,000 to this project.

“The water bottle filling station is almost up and running. It has been installed but we are waiting on one part that was damaged in order for it to work. The students are constantly stopping by it and try to fill up their water bottles. We had to put a “coming soon” sign on it. I am sure that once it is in working order then several plastic water bottles will be diverted from the landfill.”

Solar Power Energy

2012 Greeley, Colorado, USA

Katie Ainslie at Greeley High School placed 1^st in 2012.

The aim for her solution of using solar powered energy is to decrease and eventually diminish the use of coal powered energy leaving our watershed free of pollutants. Starting by lowering the demand for these fossil fuels in Greeley schools, Katie wanted to cause a ripple effect throughout the Cache La Poudre Watershed.

Two major benefits come from this alternative energy resource. First, the school will save a substantial amount on their energy bill. More importantly, they are protecting their local watershed from harmful emissions caused by coal power, thus saving a limited resource and producing cleaner energy.

With the demand for a renewable and sustainable energy source, solar energy has become a great resource that is not only available to Katie’s school but to all schools in our watershed.

This project started out as a no-cost project for the school district, but they have agreed to make this a pilot study for a possible city wide solar garden. The solar panels are leased rather than owned, and installation and maintenance will be completed by a solar company.

Negotiations are proceeding with several Colorado solar firms for panel construction at the Poudre Learning Center. Installation could not happen at Central High School so the PLC was suggested as a second site. School District 6 will help cover a portion of the construction cost.

The schedule for installation of the panels will be in 2013 when the local electric power company, Excel is able to finance a rebate for a portion of the solar panels to meet their solar energy requirement. When the solar panels are installed they will be put on a 20 year Power Purchase Agreement which will buy energy from the solar company’s panels at the PLC. The energy purchased will be 15- 25% less than our current energy bill.

Katie says, ” I really appreciate working with my mentor, Kim Frick, the PLC and CFW staffs, along with the incredible support (over $2,000) from Nutrien to make this solution a reality.”

Beads for Seeds

2012 Ponoka, Alberta, Canada

Alyssa Klinger wanted to help improve her watershed by planting trees in the community park and trail system along the Battle River in Ponoka. But this innovative student had more than an idea; she had a plan to make it happen.

The Beads for Seeds project raised money to plant trees by making beaded watershed bracelets and selling them in her community. Alyssa was able to raise hundreds of dollars by selling her bracelets at local sport tournaments, local businesses, the Ponoka Stamped and through friends and family.

By using the money raised from the bracelets, Alyssa was able to purchase 500 spruce plugs from a local nursery. Grade 9 classes from St. Augustine School joined Alyssa at the banks of the Battle River to plant the trees. Even the principal came out to help!

The Battle River, this park, and the town of Ponoka will be enjoying the increase of trees and biodiversity, and decreased erosion for a long time to come because of Alyssa great actions.

Otis and Friends Environmental Prevention Book: “The Problem With Pollution”

2012 Ponoka, Alberta, Canada

Building on their success in the 2011 CFW contest, Katie, Vickie and Melissa from St. Augustine School in Ponoka AB created a second book in the ‘Otis and Friends Environmental Adventures’ book series. The book teaches young children in grades 2-4 about how their positive or negative actions can affect the watershed and what they can do to help it.

This book, which was hand drawn with professional quality, tells the story of Bernie, a rare black-footed ferret. In the story Bernie’s den entrance gets blocked by a pop can which had been thrown out a passing car window. Bernie gets the help of his animal friends and one special little girl to remove the pop can and save his family trapped inside. The little girl realizes how much litter is in the field and works with her family and community to organize a clean-up and to create signage to prevent future littering.

The Black-Footed Ferret fact sheet at the end of the book provides details of this grassland endangered species which is now rare across North America. The book also provides helpful suggestion and facts about protecting ecosystems and preventing litter.

The book printing has been sponsored by Nutrien, Keyera and Grey Wooded Forage Association. 200 copies have been printed to date (July 2012) and will be distributed to all of the Parkland Regional Libraries, as well as through school visits by the Battle River Watershed Alliance.

Native Plant Pollinator Garden

2012 Davis, California, USA

Da Vinci High School students Brenna Mockler, Nathan Lefkoff, Juliana Arvin, and Innis McComb placed 4th in the 2012 Caring for Our Watersheds contest for their idea to plant a native pollinator garden on their school campus. Their garden will serve to increase plant diversity on campus, provide habitat and nectar sources for pollinators, as well as create a space where students can learn about California native plants. In their proposal, they also pointed out that by planting native drought-resistant species, they will help to conserve water, support insect and butterfly populations, and beautify their campus. The garden will also be incorporated into the Botany class curriculum at school. This hands-on project has already deepened their knowledge of native plants and pollinator conservation. They hope it will continue to have the same effect on students at Da Vinci in years to come.

Municipal Recycling Cans

2012 Brighton, Ontario, Canada

Alexis Turney, Amelie Robertson and Holly Hutchison from Brighton Public School won first place in 2012 for their idea to install recycling bins alongside each garbage can in Brighton to reduce the amount of recyclables going into the local landfill.

The group noticed that along the streets of Brighton there were 21 garbage cans but no recycling cans. Their proposal focused on installing recycling cans along the main streets of Brighton to decrease the amount of waste entering the landfill and also reducing the amount of pollution throughout the watershed.

With the funding from Nutrien, as well as local assistance from the Municipality of Brighton and Lower Trent Conservation the group’s proposal was successfully implemented in 2013. The implementation resulted in the installation of ten recycling cans next to the existing garbage cans along the two main streets of Brighton.