Viral Music Video Campaign

2011 Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada

Scott Deshane was a finalist in the 2011 Caring for our Watersheds Contest. Avid singer/songwriter, Scott wanted to use his talents to promote people’s awareness of and care for the environment. Scott’s Watershed Song was written just for the CFW contest. This is what Scott had to say about it:

“Music has been proven to help not only raise awareness of certain topics, but also remind [people] to avoid making bad decisions. If a song is “stuck” in a person’s head, they will repeat the lyrics over and over to themselves, and this will subconsciously help them remember something. If a song were created with lyrics that could remind a person of the dangers of harming the environment and that song were to stay with the person, then they would avoid harming watersheds.”

“The lack of awareness of the environment is definitely the supreme issue” – Scott Deshane

Set to a series of photos of water, this song will inspire you to Care for your Watershed! (And you would never guess the artist is in High school!)

The video can be seen on the Battle River Watershed Alliance’s YouTube channel at: http://youtu.be/l-c1XFjLLF8

Planting Trees for Battle River

2011 Ponoka, Alberta, Canada

These smiling faces are those of Courtney and Rhyliegh from St. Augustine School in Ponoka. After doing research on the Battle River Watershed, they realized a very important factor in the water quality of their town and watershed was erosion. Their proposal was to plant trees along the Battle River to prevent shoreline erosion.

After winning 1st place in the Final Competition, they decided to turn their proposal into reality and implement a tree planting at a local park near their school in Ponoka.

With the support of the Ponoka Home Hardware and Trees Canada the girls received 30 trees of various sizes. The town of Ponoka also supported the girls by having staff and equipment on hand to dig holes and water the planted trees. Fellow students from St. Augustine took the afternoon to come help plant.

Courtney and Rhyleigh were very happy to help their town and watershed have better quality water, animal habitat and air quality. They look forward to visiting that park for many years in the future

Rain Gardens

2011 Fort Collins, CO, USA

The Environmental Club is proud to bring to Poudre High School’s campus a rain garden, also called bioremediation garden. A rain garden is a depression that catches rainwater runoff from hard surfaces such as parking lots and roof tops. The plants help improve absorption and filter the water as it soaks into the ground. It is a simple and effective way to reduce the pollution that travels in Stormwater and eventually ends up in our waterways, like the Poudre River. On the surface, a rain garden consists of various plants and grasses that are able to survive in both wet and dry environments. Other materials can be found in the garden as well, such as rocks, mulch, and soil. Here’s why it is useful: as runoff water and precipitation percolate through the rain garden, the plants and natural materials filter out and adsorb to pollutants. As a result, the water that leaving the garden is cleaner, and so are our rivers!

A huge thank you to Nutrien for donating $1,000 to implement this project.

Toilet Heroes

2011 Greeley, Colorado, USA

Alyson Foust, Jesse Freeman and Levi Trevino from Greeley Central High decided to become “toilet heroes” to help their school become more environmentally friendly.

Central high school contributes to the misuse of water. Approximately 1,500 students and staff use the restrooms each at the school. With each flush draining 3.5 gallons, about 5, 250 gallons are flushed each day. Each month students are in school – approximately 22 days each month – 115,500 gallons are flushed. 1,155,000 gallons are flushed each school year (10 months).

This implementation is able to have a large impact on the Cache la Poudre watershed. With the help of the Greeley Schools Facilities Department, who actually did the plumbing and the students’ mentor, Ruth Quade, who guided them through the rebate process with the City of the Greeley, the students’ replaced ALL the toilets in the school to low flow toilets.

This project was able to change 41 toilets in the school to water saving low-flow toilets. The newly installed toilets will act as a pilot to converting toilets into low flow toilets throughout the districts 30. This would have a dramatic, positive, impact on the local watershed of Cache la Poudre. The project was completed in August of 2011. The students are especially grateful to Nutrien for sponsoring the Caring for our Watershed contest in Colorado and the $1,000 used to implement our Toilet Heroes Project at Greeley Central High School.

“Our goal is to save water to further help sustain our watershed.” -Alyson Foust.

Students from Vanscoy School Work Together to Implement Projects!

2010 Vanscoy, Saskatchewan, Canada
Vanscoy2
Vanscoy School had 7 out of the top ten finishes in the grade 7-9 category of the Caring for our Watersheds competition. The finalist teams from Vanscoy School have decided to work together to implement as many of the projects as possible. Their project ideas include new taps for the school, green space development around their school, education and awareness activities and composting.

“This project has shown me that the students are aware of the environment around them and are willing and able to be champions for change. We, as adults, just have to listen to them.” said Ms. Amanda Schafhauser, a grade 7 and 8 teacher at the Vanscoy School.

The Eco Garden project was developed by Grade 8 student Brooke Van Damme, who said “My project was called the Eco Garden. I wanted to implement my idea because it would be a good way to save water and stop water pollution while making Vanscoy School a more attractive place to be. I hope it will help Vanscoy be more aware of our watershed and the effects we have on it.” The students are leaving a lasting legacy for their school for generations to come. June 22, 2010 the students from Ms. Schafhauser’s grade 7 and 8 classes prepared and planted their green space garden. The planted trees will work as a shelter belt, sheltering the roadway and parking lot from the build up of snow while the gathered snow will melt into the ground. In the fall, the students will work the area again to prepare it for the coming winter.

Three out of the 7 projects presented by the teams from Vanscoy included new taps for their school to help minimize their wastage of water. As a result of their research, the students decided to go with an automatic sensor taps. 14 taps were purchased and installed in all of the school washrooms during the summer break.

The total budget for the student’s project is over $18,000, more than $8,000 of which is being donated by the students as their time, the school division’s efforts, and Lakeshore Tree Farms. The rest of the funds are provided by the Nutrien Caring for our Watersheds Project.

Rain Barrels

2010 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Kysha LaPlante and Dan-Elle Kramchynski from Mr. Kasun’s Grade 8 class at St. Edward School won first prize in the grade 7 to 9 category of the Caring for our Watersheds competition. The project plan developed by these two students was to decorate and supply rain barrels to participating schools in the Greater Saskatoon Catholic School Division. A total of 10 schools (plus their own school) were eager to participate in the project. The students worked together and managed to get the majority of the materials supplied in-kind from various suppliers, including the poly barrels themselves. As a result, the students only requested $150.00 from Nutrien to complete their project. Nutrien was delighted to present these students with the funds required.

Kysha and Dan-Elle did a wonderful job of decorating their rain barrel, encouraging other schools to decorate their barrels as well. Students from their school were involved with decorating the final projects.

Kysha and Dan-Elle took part in a presentation at their school commemorating Earth day on April 22, 2010. During this presentation, these two students presented their school with the $1000.00 awarded to the school because of their project.

The Ripple Effect

2010 Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Samantha Hans wanted to raise awareness of water challenges and planned a water conference for high school students.

A Water Conference for Youth by Youth was held on Wed. May 11, 2011. The day started with an introduction of UNA-Canada and The Ripple Effect project. The Calgary Current, the Youth Advocacy Group, presented to approximately 50 high school students and their teachers explaining what they do, why they do it, and why they enjoy their involvement in the project. The group of students was then split up into two groups to discuss the basics of water usage, conservation, Calgary’s Watershed and sustainability. After a quick snack the students were back to activities which included ‘water’ Family Feud, learning about the ‘water cost’ of daily items and an interactive guessing game where countries were compared based on their water usage.

Students designed their own water sustainability t-shirts, and participated in various other learning activities including a presentation from My World, My Choice followed by three speakers with a career spin on water issues. Students were exposed to government, NGO and corporate perspectives, offering them a broader sense of career opportunities than what they would find at a career fair. Speakers included a speaker from Alberta Wilderness Association, Nutrien, and the City of Calgary. The day was filled with engaging information and new perspectives on water sustainability that the students had never heard before. Positive feedback was received from both the students and teachers who attended the conference; The Youth Advocacy Group of Calgary Current was impressed with the student’s level of engagement and immensely enjoyed their mentoring role and experience.

Water Depletion

2010 Milk River, Alberta, Canada
water-depletion
Maya Degrood from Erle River High School achieved one of the top ranks in the Grade 7 – 9 Caring for Our Watershed contest for 2010. Her plan looks at the problem of water depletion in Milk River.
Continue reading…

Reduction of Water Consumption in Homes

2010 Milk River, Alberta, Canada

Tierra Maggrah from Erle Rivers High School discuss the problem of the amount of water consumption in Canadian households; her solution achieved one of the top ranks in the 2010 Caring for our Watershed Grade 7- 9 division.

Tierra Maggrah concerned about how much water the average household uses in Canada; specifically the quantity used in her community and wanted to do something about it.

Tierra knows that most people consume water by using it to maintain a nice yard, so she proposes that
a rain barrel be placed at each home which would be used to water plants.

Her proposition of using rain barrels to obtain water as an alternative to regular tap water is a solution to reduce the consumption of water in the household.

Tierra’s implementation plan involves the purchase of 30 rain barrels, of which 3 were raffled off at the Community Stewardship Forum.

The remaining 27 rain barrels were sold at a subsidized cost at the community forum to off-set the implementation cost.

Student Installs Bat Boxes and Bird Houses to Save the Bow River

2010 Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Cam Reed, a senior at Centennial High School in Calgary, Alberta won first place in the 2010 Caring for our Watersheds (CFW) finals. Afterwards, Nutrien donated $4,000 to implement his idea.

The winning idea from Reed was to install bat boxes and bird houses on golf courses in the Calgary area as a natural pest control. His proposal had a realistic budget, accurate research and a strategic timeline for implementation. By the CFW finals, Reed already had golf courses committed to the project.

Reed worked with Nutrien, 8 local golf courses and community partners such as Ducks Unlimited Canada and the Calgary Bat Society to support this project.

After selecting the boxes, Cam worked with local Boy Scouts and his High School carpentry class to paint and assemble the boxes.

The following golf courses had boxes installed: Priddis Greens Golf & Country Club, Glencoe Golf & Country Club, McKenzie Meadows Golf Club, Canyon Meadows Golf & Country Club, Maple Ridge Golf Course, Bearspaw Country Club, Canada Golf (RCGA) and Pinebrook Golf &Country Club.

Reed commented, “I’ve learned that golf courses aren’t the bad guys and they are very open to ideas to protect our watershed. And, my project was another way to add to their environmental stewardship.”

In addition to improving the watershed, Reed was offered a summer job at many of the golf courses. He accepted one and is looking forward to finishing his final year in school.