BIODIVERSITY DAY

2017, EDMONTON, ALBERTA, CANADA
Biodiversity Day
Simran Panesar takes tree planting seriously. Since she started in the Caring for our Watersheds contest in grade 8, Simran found new and exciting ways to plant trees, improve biodiversity, and educate youth about their watershed.

In this year’s project, Simran had moved onto high school, but wanted to engage grade 6 students (who have a science unit on trees and forests) students from her junior high school to come get involved. Her implementation took 4 parts:

Part 1: Presentation and Pizza. Grade 6 students from A. Blair McPherson school arrived to W.P. Wagner School where they listened to Simran’s presentation about the event. They were then treated to a pizza party lunch!

Part 2: Art Project: The school’s art teacher helped lead an environmental art project for the grade sixes. They put leaf impressions into clay and made little slabs. These slabs will be fired in a kiln and then compiled into a huge environmental display. This display will be a “contemplation project” and hung up at Wagner.

Part 3: Biodiversity Game. The grade 6 students learned about the importance of biodiversity in the watershed by a game which teaches how different bird beaks adaptations allow them to eat different foods.

Part 4: The final step was the actual tree planting. 45 native trees and shrubs (including Saskatoon, Lodgepole Pine, and Red Osier Dogwood) were planted in the schools yard.

Simran was able to make space for biodiversity at her new school while engaging and educating youth.

“I just wanted to thank you for inspiring me to make a positive difference in our world! You have inspired me since the day you came to our school when I was in grade 8 to talk about Caring for Our Watersheds and the experiences I’ve gained from this competition are priceless”. -Simran

Purgin’ Sturgeon

2017, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Purgin Sturgeon student action implementation project students with canoes

Luke Roffey from Westwood Collegiate is passionate about the creek near his home. “Sturgeon Creek provides vital habitat for many species of birds, mammals, amphibians, and fish, and it’s a critical piece of nature in an otherwise urbanized landscape.” He proposed an underwater cleanup with his peers using canoes and litter removal equipment.

Purgin Sturgeon student action implementation Luke in canoe “An underwater litter removal project has never been done in Sturgeon Creek before, and judging by the amount of garbage Westwood students remove from the banks of the creek each year, there is likely a lot of garbage under the surface that needs to be cleaned up. Removing garbage from an aquatic ecosystem such as a stream greatly increases the quality of the habitat for wildlife. Gone are hazards that can cause injury and entanglement for animals. Removing floating and submerged garbage will dramatically increase not only the natural beauty of the park, but also the functionality of the ecosystem.

Many people, especially youth, have become very disconnected with the environment, and participating in my project will allow them to reconnect with nature. Canoeing in particular can be very therapeutic, thus by participating in my project students will not only be bettering their local watershed, but also bettering themselves.”

Upon hearing of the project, a local company “Wilderness Supply” offered to loan all of the equipment free of charge. During the cleanup, students engaged with passerby’s explaining their project and the importance to the watershed. It was a great day they now hope to repeat on an annual basis.

Pollinator Garden (Lasagna Garden)

2017, Trenton, Ontario, Canada

In 2017, three students; Xavier, Samuel, and Félix from École Secondaire Marc-Garneau Public Elementary School, proposed the idea to build a lasagna garden. They wanted to build the garden in their school yard to help attract more native species to the area.

The lasagna garden is composed of several different layers, first you must dig 4 inches down and place edging around it. Then the layers are as follows; cardboard, straw, garden fertilizer, compost, aged manure mix with compost, and finally soil.

Pollinator (Lasagna) Garden Student Action Ontario

Once the garden had been created the students planted native flowers in the garden to attract native species of birds and butterflies. The completion of this project will aid in supporting bees and other pollinating species to thrive once again.

The boys placed 4^th overall, and their project was implemented in June 2017, with the help of the student’s classmates

Let’s Keep our Bees Buzzin’

2017, Campbellford, Ontario, Canada

In, 2017, two students Caroline and Gillian both from St. Mary’s Catholic Elementary School in Campbellford, proposed the idea of building bee boxes, placing 5^th overall.

They wanted to educate people on the declining bee population, and educate people on the issue that without bees other animals, and humans would not be able to survive. They will be planting perennials so that it will not cost money every year to plant more flowers. They handed out posters throughout their school, as well as around the Campbellford area. The poster helped to inform the public on what their goal was, and included a package of flower seeds to enable the general public to start on a bee box of their very own.

The project will play a key role in educating the public about the importance of bees, and a better understanding of how they can help repopulate the bees within our local watershed.

This project was implemented and completed in 2017.

Rods and Reels

2017, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Grade 10 s Rods and Reels Implementation Manitoba tudents at Elmwood High School in Winnipeg, Manitoba are passionate about sustainability! Their sustainability team has come up with a “Rods and Reels” program that aims to educate youth about sustainable fishing practices and how this can impact their environment and watershed. Students will learn skills such as how to properly debarb a hook, the importance of why, as well as conservation limits and how this links to overall watershed health. This lesson will culminate in a class fishing trip so they can learn practicing proper fishing etiquette and connect with nature.

Through the Caring for our Watersheds contest, a class set of fishing rods were purchased for the school so this program can continue to educate youth about the sustainable use of our water for years to come.

What’s the Buzz

2017, Berthoud, Colorado, USA

Delaney and Emma identified a lack of interactive and educational games available to students online that teaches the current situation regarding bee populations in their watershed. To solve this problem, the students designed an online game that raises awareness and the positive steps that can be taken to help protect the honeybees in the area.

The main character in the game is Buzz the Bee. Buzz flies through several backgrounds and landscapes point out to game users the different positive and negative effects in the environment that can support or harm bees. The players then experience a series of educational questions that help them recognize the relationship of bees and human life. The what the buzz student project game colorado answers to the questions are recorded and a final report is give at the end of the game. Players can then use this score to identify how they can better help the bees in the watershed. The game can be found at: http://whatsthebzzz.com/

Protect our Pollinators

2017, Greeley, Colorado, USA

Riley Wooten
Greeley Central High School, Greeley, Colorado

Riley decided to create a pollinator friendly environment in the City of Greeley. Riley contacted Karen Scopel, the Natural Lands Coordinator for the City of Greeley, and selected a nature area for her proposal. The herbicide to dispose of the invasive species location is called Pumpkin Ridge which is next to the Sheepdraw trail. The entire area has recently been burned and sprayed with “Cheatgrass”. The goal is to increase native plant species that will also be pollinator friendly. In addition, she installed two inset houses in the area. The native organisms that were planted are Showy protect the pollinators student action project colorado Milkweed, Palmer Penstemon, Butterfly Milkweed, White Clover, Purple Coneflower, Mexican Hat, Yellow Coxie Flower, White Yarrow, and Black-Eyed Susan. In April, Riley organized a group of volunteers to clean the area, sow the seeds and install the insect boxes.

Pollinators: A Community Commitment

2017 Greeley, Colorado, USA

Aubrey Chacon and Monica Chacon
Union Colony Preparatory School, Greeley, Colorado

Aubrey and Monica engaged elementary students, teachers and community members to plant
pollinator gardens in Northern Colorado. They designed and taught each group about the impact pollinators community commitment student implementation pollinators have on our environment then helped each group create a garden. Each garden included flowers that attract butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. They created gardens at four schools and three churches around Northern Colorado. In addition, Monica and Aubrey distributed garden designs and seeds to each person so they could create their own gardens at their homes.

Bee a Positive Change

2017, Greeley, Colorado, USA

Brooklyn Johnson Bee positive change implementation student action colorado
Northridge High School, Greeley, Colorado

Brooklyn designed a pollinator garden at the Greeley Xeric Garden. She planted 10 pollinator specific plants that bloom at different times of year to attract local bees. In line with providing for native bees, she also created and placed bee baths and bee boxes in the garden. This created a source of freshwater and shelter for solitary bees in Colorado. Brooklyn planted
about 200 square feet of garden with bee-friendly flowers and did not use any insecticides or pesticides. Brooklyn considered multiple locations for this garden where bees would be able to live without detrimental human interference and had frequent visitation so that the garden would get Colorado student action project implemented attention and serve as an educational tool for the community.

In order to provide bees with a year-round food source, she placed plants that bloom at different points throughout the year, ensuring that there will be a continual source of nutrition for pollinators. In the spring, flowers like crocus, hyacinth, borage, calendula, and wild lilac will bloom. In the summer, bees enjoy bee balm, cosmos, Echinacea, snapdragons foxglove, and hosta. Zinnias, sedum, asters, witch hazel, and goldenrod
are late bloomers provide nectar in the fall. All of the flowers that were selected were known to attract bees and provide plentiful, easy to access nectar.

An information sign with a QR code was placed so visitors can educate themselves about the garden.

Batting Bugs Naturally

2017, Milliken, Colorado, USA

Devyn Wood
Roosevelt High School, Milliken, Colorado

When Devyn was a child, she lived in Washington State where there were hundreds of bats living near her home. After moving to Colorado, she noticed there were few, if any, bats in the area of her new home.
Understanding the connection between bat populations, insect populations and insecticide use, she decided to build bat houses and install them around her watershed. The project requires (1) determining locations to install bat houses; (2) building bat houses; and (3) installing bat houses. As the season permits, tracking of bat species can also be undertaken to determine how many bats are in the area. Devyn will be using a bat-detection device to monitor the newly built bat homes for increase in population and species. These results will be available in the fall of 2017.