Urban Tree Planting

2021, Sacramento, CA, USA

Anh Nguyen and Nicholas Vang, students in Grant High School’s GEO academy, are concerned about climate change. They live in a highly urbanized area, with little natural vegetation, and therefore wanted to add elements to the landscape that might help minimize the effects of climate change. They did some research and learned that doubling Sacramento’s urban tree canopy has the potential to remove thousands of tons of Carbon dioxide annually. The students decided to plant trees in their community, as they would absorb CO2, provide shade, and help reduce the heat-island effect. As they were choosing different species to plant, they decided to also include apple trees that would provide fresh fruit to residents as well as habitat and nectar for pollinators. The students also planned to reach out to the diverse cultural groups that they are connected to (Hmong, Lao, Vietnamese) to make information about tree planting and watershed benefits accessible, even to those who do not speak English.

Composting for a Cause

2021, West Kildonan Collegiate, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

Woman and man posing in front of door smiling

Have you ever thought about how much food waste is produced by restaurants? Nicholas from West Kildonan Collegiate in Winnipeg, MB came up with an idea to get more restaurants to compost some of their waste to divert it from the landfill and have it turn into something useful! He partnered with a local company called Compost Winnipeg, and they were able to fund restaurants subscriptions with this composting company for a couple of months to get them started in hopes that they would continue recycling afterwards. They also held a successful community recycling event to educate local members of the community on the benefits of compost at home!

“As a community it is our obligation and responsibility to take care of our Watershed so our future descendants, and wildlife alike have a safe, healthy, and nurturing place to enjoy and to depend on for generations. My proposal works to reduce the amount of food waste produced by restaurants in our community, and to divert their food waste away from landfills.”

Man and woman posing in front of composting truck

Roughage Eatery logo
Compost Winnipeg logo
Wall Street Slice logo

Carman Bike Racks

2020, Carman, MB, CANADA

Bike Rack

Ahmed, Colton, Gene, & Dorian are students from Carman, MB who wanted to take action on air pollution in their community. They thought that if there were more bike racks in their town, it might encourage more people to ride their bikes instead of driving. To start, they had a new bike rack installed at their school, and they plan to encourage students to have walk or bike-to-school days.

“Our project is on air pollution, and our goal is to make more bike stands so more people will walk and bike to reduce air pollution.”

Biochar – A Garden Demo Study

2019, Sacramento, California, USA

When George Washington Carver High School students Camille Chappell and Nathan Castro first learned about biochar, they became intrigued. Biochar is a soil amendment that can improve soil health, boost plant growth, and has the potential to sequester carbon in the soil for hundreds to thousands of years.

In an effort to learn more about and educate others about this charcoal-like substance and its potential environmental benefits, Camille and Nathan created a biochar demonstration garden and designed a study comparing plant growth of a plant grown in biochar amended soil and one in regular soil. They took measurements at least twice a week and collected data on the amount of leaves and flowers present. They synthesized their data into a presentation that they gave to their class. chi

The presentation served as a catalyst for discussion and raised awareness about biochar and its potential to both improve plant growth and act as a carbon sink. This project gave Camille and Nathan an introductory experience with designing and conducting a scientific study as well as gave them and their classmates a chance to take a closer look at this interesting substance that is getting more attention in the fields agriculture and climate change science.

Environmental Field Trip to SMUD

2019, Sacramento, California, USA

Claudia Negrete, a student at the MET Sacramento, also interns at the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District (SMUD), where she has been learning about the organization’s various energy conservation efforts and renewable energy incentives.

Claudia developed a way to share her own transformative experience with her classmates at school, and wrote a project proposal for a field trip for her class to visit SMUD headquarters to introduce them to SMUD’S sustainability initiatives.

SMUD Field Trip Activity

The agenda included energy- saving tips/ techniques/ products for the home, a hands-on STEM solar activity, Atrium lecture, a talk on LEED building certification etc. Caring for Our Watersheds funding helped make this fun, educational trip a reality for the students.

Rain Gardens: Stopping Runoff At Its Source

2019, Greeley Central High School, Greeley, Colorado, USA

Casbah Parlin
Casbah’s concern revolved around the fact that rivers, groundwater, and oceans are being polluted by plant nutrients and sediments that are resulting to dead zones in the gulf of Mexico. To combat these problems, Casbah constructed a rain garden at the Guadalupe Center. Rain gardens absorb excess rainwater that would otherwise runoff and transport pollutants that can harm the watershed. Casbah’s rain garden will help improve our watershed’s air quality, improve the water quality of the runoff, attract beneficial insects, and provide an aesthetically pleasing project that residents can admire on their walks. Casbah believes that his project can have a huge impact when it becomes a wide-spread activity within his community. He believes that replicating this around our watershed will greatly decrease the amount of runoff and help compensate for the many impervious man-made structures.
Rain Gardens

Water Tolerance 101

Water Tolerance

2019, Fort Collins High School, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

Branden Wiechert, Trey Grass
Branden and Trey worked towards increasing the number of drought tolerant and native plants in their communities to decrease the use of water. They believe high school students are key to improving their watershed. They educated their peers on the issue and the benefits from using native, drought tolerant plants. Branden and Trey passed along this information through the flyers they posted around their school and community and hosted several plant sales that were open to the public. Their project helped their community cut their water bills, decrease their water use, increase proper wildlife habitats, and increase groundwater recharge.
Water Tolerance

For Your Tires

2019, Northridge High School, Greeley, Colorado, USA

Sergio Lopez, Daniel Casas
According to Sergio and Daniel, improper tire air pressure can affect your mileage up to 3%. Improper air pressure can increase our use of gasoline which then leads to higher use of fossil fuels that contribute to green house gasses. This in turn affects our watershed. Sergio and Daniel hosted several tire clinics at their school to educate their peers about the issue. They also checked their peers’ tire pressure and aired them up to the appropriate tire pressure for those that needed it. These students also collected data on their peers tire pressure and collaborated with Les Schwab tire whom assisted them with the tire clinics. Each student to have their tires checked received free snacks and a tire pressure gauge. Of all the cars they tested, 50% of those cars needed air. Their calculations show that 13 cars saved 3.8 gal of gasoline each week once their tires were filled to the appropriate amount which computes to over 2 tons of CO2 not entering the Poudre watershed.
For your tires

BE IDLE FREE

2019, CINCINNATI, OH, UNITED STATES
Idle Free
Chris Murtaugh, Bella Saba, and Kiernan Cinque thought of the idling problem in their school community when presented with the Caring For Our Watersheds competition. They saw that some people do not realize when they are idling, consequently harming the environment, the people around them, and even their wallets. Anytime an engine is running, a car releases exhaust that contains harmful particulates and greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. When released, these particulates can simultaneously put people at risk of various health issues including asthma, heart disease, and cancer. Idling additionally hurts your wallets.

Unfortunately, in their school’s community idling is extremely prevalent. They have 3 school carlines where parents will show up as early as 2 PM to pick up their kids despite school being dismissed at 3:15 PM. This means cars will be idling for over an hour. Their solution to this problem in their community was to post 6 “no idling” signs around the campus to help diminish the harmful environmental and health effects of idling. Additionally, they posted an excerpt to their school’s weekly newsletter, informing the community of the traffic and environmental changes on campus.

Through these signs and the continued circulation of the newsletter, they hope to limit and eventually eradicate the idling problem on their campus. Through their campaign they not only helped to prevent idling, but also spread awareness about air pollution, their watershed, and environmental sustainability as a whole. Ultimately they felt that creating a more cognizant and responsible community was their greatest achievement throughout the entirety of the project because of its impact on the lives of future generations.

Campus Mural and Garden

2018, Sacramento, California, USA

Jesha Morgan, Jackson Mossman, Emma Lotter, and Dominic Wing, students at George Washington Carver School of Arts and Sciences, combined their passions for art and gardening in their Caring for Our Watersheds project.

Campus Mural

In an effort to communicate an environmental message, beautify their campus, and demonstrate water-wise planting, this group completed a project that included painting a large water- and nature-themed mural and planting a small California native species garden in an adjacent area. They hope to awaken a sense of environmental consciousness in the student body as they see and interact with the art and garden.