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Bottled Water – No More

2012 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
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Transcona Collegiate student, Lloyd Flores, conducted research and came up with a solution to a problem he observed in his school. There were a large number of plastic water bottles used by the students on a daily basis and he wondered why. He therefore conducted a student survey and discovered it was the state of the water fountains (rusty, broken) that was deterring students from using them.

Lloyd proposed that by updating the fountains in his school and adding a spout to encourage the use of reusable bottles, this would significantly reduce the waste generated by the bottles. As an International student, Lloyd was extremely nervous about presenting his project in front of an audience, particularly because they included judges. He felt his English was not strong enough. With some encouragement and practice, Lloyd felt more comfortable and earned and 8th position in the contest along with generous support from Nutrien ($4220) to upgrade the fountains in his school.

Lloyd also told us learned a lesson in patience as it took over a year for the project to be implemented due to logistical problems at the school. He is excited about the fact he was able to initiate a plan for his peers. Feedback from the students at Transcona Collegiate has been extremely positive!

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Advertising the Proper Disposal of Mercury Lamps

2012 Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada
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Lord Selkirk Regional High School student, Kayla Weselowski wanted to create an awareness campaign for the Selkirk, Lockport and St. Andrews area regarding the proper disposal of mercury-containing lights. She felt there was an inadequate amount of information available to the public regarding the safe disposal of these lights as well as the harm that would be caused by simply discarding this hazardous material.

She proposed a simple solution, to produce signs that she would put up in stores directing people to places where these bulbs can be recycled.

The Caring for our Watersheds contest provided Kayla with the funding requested to produce some of these signs.

“I really enjoyed overcoming the challenges that this project presented me with. These included everything from meeting deadlines, to improving my presentation skills. The actual advertising was quite a challenge for me as well, because I had very little experience with that form of art. Another obstacle was avoiding copy protected images; as a result, everything on the posters was self produced. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the independence I had during the entire process. The business aspect of it was also very interesting, and because of this experience I will be pursuing business courses in a post secondary education.”

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Recycling of Plastic Agrochemical Containers

2012, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentinarecycling agro cont 1

The main objective of this project was to avoid contamination of the environment by providing a solution for the disposal of empty plastic containers generated by agricultural activities. This is a problem that concerns this basin due its large amount of farming activities. A survey was used to confirm the uncertain destiny of these plastic containers, and the proposed solution was to create a small drum warehouse where the producers can drop off the used drums to be recycled.recycling agro cont 2

The warehouse was built with the help of Caring for our Watersheds and donations from farmers and other local companies. The landfill space was donated by the San Antonio de Areco municipality, who will be also responsible for managing the area. These containers will be collected and recycled by a company that produces bumpers for trucks, pipes to cover fiber optic cables and industrial product containers.

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Students Share Outreach and Eco-Friendly Car Wash Solution(s) in their Community

2011 Alexandria, Virginia, USA
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When visiting Holmes Run and collecting water quality data, seventh grade science students at Francis Hammond 1 Middle School were concerned that there was foam and trash coming directly out of a drainage pipe into a streamside marsh. After analyzing potential pollution sources, they decided they wanted to address contaminants running off residential streets into the storm drain system.
Continue reading…

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Native Plants – A Step Toward Improving Our Watershed

2011 Campbellford, Ontario, Canada
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Kiersten Bertrand and Abbi Brown won first place in 2011 for their idea to plant native plants especially close to bodies of water. Through this project they wanted to involve local youth and schools, to raise awareness to the sensitivity of our watershed.

With funding from Nutrien the environmental club at Campbellford District High School, staff from Lower Trent Conservation, the Municipality of Trent Hills and community volunteers planted native shrubs and wildflowers along the Trent River shoreline at Hastings Village Marina.

The shoreline planting provides a colourful shoreline buffer, increase wildlife habitat and protect the shoreline from erosion.volunteers planting on shoreline

The Hastings Village Marina is a popular location for the local community and visitors to the Trent-Severn Waterway. Signage will be installed at the site to educate the public on the importance of natural shorelines.

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Viral Music Video Campaign

2011 Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada
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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

 

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Otis and Friends: “The Mystery of Missing Water”

2011 Ponoka, Alberta Canada
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Kaitlin, Katie, Vickie and Melissa became involved in the Caring for our Watersheds contest as a classroom project at St. Augustine School in Ponoka. Their idea was to create a fun and educational books series for students in grades 2-4 about how their actions impact the watershed and what they can do to help.

The book series is called “Otis and Friends Environmental Adventures” with this premier book titled “The Mystery of Missing Water”. In the story Otis the duck’s pond is drying up due to high levels of water consumption in the nearby town. Luckily a special little girl who likes to walk by the pond notices the low water and her and her family start making changes to their water use. The neighbours take notice of their new habits and soon everyone is conserving water, saving Otis and his friends.

The book also has a fact sheet about the Northern Pintail Duck, who Otis is based on. There is also a list of 8 easy actions that families can take to reduce their water consumption.otis-3

The girls visited all of the grade 2-4 classrooms at their school for book readings, and the students all really enjoyed the book. After receiving funds from Nutrien, Keyera and Grey Wooded Forage Association for printing the book, they held a book launch party at their local library. The book has been distributed to all of the Parkland Regional Libraries, as well as through school visits by the Battle River Watershed Alliance.

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Green is Great

2010 Milk River, Alberta, Canada

Sierra Harty, from Erle River High School, won first place at the 2010 Caring for Watershed (CFW)Grade 7-9 Division.
Sierra Harty noticed the deterioration of the riverbanks leading to the water at popular canoe entry sites along the Milk River. After consulting with the County, she determined that a path made up of crushed gravel and highlighted by signs would direct the flow of recreationists to stay on the path.

The path highlighted by signs directed the flow of traffic in and out of the river at two high traffic spots: Poverty Rock and Coffin Bridge. By keeping the recreationists stay on the path, it helps minimize the deterioration of the river banks, which leads to the popular canoe entry sites along the Milk River.

She created three trail signs, and worked with the County of Warner and MRWCC to develop key messages on the trail signs. Sierra also worked on the trail sign site logistics for relevant placements on the path.