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.

Villa Espil – A Place for the Butterflies

2016 Villa Espil, San Andres de Giles, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Escuela de Educación Secundaria N°5 – Villa Espil, San Andrés de Giles. Students: Sonia Sequeira, Mónica Figuerea, Susana Lescano, Verónica Pausa

A rural town of just a few inhabitants wants to see butterflies again. Driven by this idea, they proposed to adapt gardens and town squares for butterflies to be able to complete their life cycle.

butterfly mural 2

The proposal supports not only the production of biodiversity, but also aims at the possibility of developing tourism around these small insects and the beautiful flora that allows this by creating a huge mural in the town entrance.

IMPROVING THE MILL CREEK WATERSHED BY LAWN FERTILIZATION EDUCATION

2016, CINCINNATI, OH, UNITED STATES
Lawn Fertilization Education
Over the past several years, the Mill Creek Watershed Council created the program called Healthy Lawns, Healthy Waters to help educate residents in Cincinnati about the impacts of over fertilization of lawns in the area. Gabriela Okhuysen and Nora Davis from Wyoming High School want to broaden the horizons of participation in this program. The girls want to enhance training aids, enlist volunteers, and overall engage with educating their local community. After conducting soil tests of their own lawns, they discovered that there were at double the optimum levels of phosphorus and magnesium. It was clear to Gabriela and Nora that if residents knew of the resources available to them, they would be able to help improve their watershed.

For their project, they group proposed to hold a community meeting to demonstrate the soil sample process and invite local experts to explain the harmful effects of over fertilization. They would encourage high school volunteers to support soil sampling efforts and follow up with residents as their test results come in. By asking local volunteers and enlisting support from the Mill Creek Council and the Hamilton County Soil and Water Conservation District, they expect residents would be more willing and determined to obtain the results and change their fertilization regimens.

Gabriela and Nora believe that starting with local residents and changing their fertilization lawn habits will lead to a cleaner and healthier community and watershed. They aim to inspire their community by showing how minor adjustments can make a huge impact on their local environment.

WETLAND FLORA CONSTRUCTION

2016, CINCINNATI, OH, UNITED STATES
Wetland Flora Construction
Jared Bulla, Josh Rademacher, Logan Bush, and Justin Zhou of the Summit Country Day School wanted to help alleviate the problem of overabundant chemicals in the Little Miami River. This local river feeds into East Fork Lake, which in recent years has shown an increase in nitrogen and phosphate levels, resulting in algal blooms. The Valley View Foundation is working to create an area of wetlands that would serve as a natural drainage system for wastewater before it went into the Little Miami. The group’s project was then to ensure that the proper floras were planted in the wetlands to maximize the uptake of chemicals by plants.

The boys selected reeds, iris, and cattails as the primary plants due to their winter hardiness and affordability. They are effective in removing excess phosphorus and do well on their own after planting. The implementation of this program would be significant, as it would reduce the number of algal blooms in East Fork Lake. By choosing plants for the wetland that would do the most good, Jared, Josh, Logan, and Justin hope that they will be able to create a noticeable impact in their area.

A RAIN GARDEN A DAY KEEPS THE DIRT AWAY

2016, CINCINNATI, OH, UNITED STATES
A rain garden a day keeps the dirt away
The Mill Creek, one of Cincinnati’s main waterways, has a water quality that is often defined as ‘fair’ or ‘poor’ due to the large amounts of contaminants that runoff into it. Aleeyah Nurredin’s high school, Mount Notre Dame, is next door to a convent with a stream that runs into the Mill Creek. To prevent the problem of damaging runoff, she proposed to create a rain garden. This garden would increase the water quality and reduce the flooding potential into the stream by the convent too.

This project would engage the larger MND community, collaborating with students to create the garden itself while educating residents of the convent next door. A rain barrel would first be installed after a group digs up a space for the garden, diverting water from the gutters. The underground basin would then be lined with stones to prevent erosion before being filled with soil and appropriate native plants. These plants would be arranged based on their water tolerance in order to promote the most success. Finally, once the plants are in place, the rain garden would be covered with a layer of mulch to keep the soil most. The rain garden would create a space of community enjoyment while also making positive changes to the environment due to the cleaner water going into the watershed.

Invasive Plant Removal at Mathis Pond

2016 Grass Valley, California, USA

When Nåah Lifland, of Sierra Academy of Expeditionary Learning, was asked how he could improve his watershed, he immediately thought of Mathis Pond Preserve, an area that students from his school visit to get field experience with water quality sampling.

Nåah proposed to expand stewardship activities at the pond by organizing invasive plant removal efforts. These efforts would allow the native plants to flourish and provide more suitable wildlife habitat in the area. With funding from Nutrien, Nåah was able to purchase tools for the task of removing the invasive species, particularly Himalayan blackberries.

During the 2016/17 school year, 65 students visited the site four times and removed blackberries for four hours on each visit, totaling 1,040 hours of service improving the habitat at Mathis Pond. Future students will also use the tools to continue stewardship of the Preserve.

Bat Boxes at Del Paso Park

2016 Sacramento, California, USA

In his Caring for Our Watersheds proposal, Ryan Kizer explained that building and installing bat boxes in a local park would not only provide habitat for bats to expand their population, but would also help to create natural control of pests, especially mosquitoes. This natural pest control would reduce the need for use of pesticides, which can be costly and may have negative effects on the environment, wildlife, and/or human health. With project funding from Nutrien, Ryan constructed 4 bat boxes. After he painted the boxes and put asphalt shingles on the roof areas, he mounted them on poles in 2 different areas of Del Paso Park. In the next few years, bats will move into the safe environment of the boxes. These bats will also provide natural pest control to the area, as well as a cool show for visitors as they exit the box at dusk to feed!

Revitalizing Rice Lake

2016, Alderville, Ontario Canada

In 2016, Gezhii, a grade eight student at Roseneath Centennial Public School proposed the idea to revitalize a creek, placing 2^nd overall. The creek is located in Roseneath Ontario. Sandercock Creek that is in a decline, due to the agricultural fields that have a lot of nutrient runoff, and negatively impact the health of the creek, which then flows directly into Rice Lake.

Revitalizing Rice Lake Student Action Ontario

Gezhii suggested the idea of having volunteers come out for a day to help plant different native trees and herbaceous plants on either side of the shoreline in order to help rejuvenate the creek. These plants along the sides of the creek are key to the health of critters that call this water home. As a result planting this shoreline buffer will help to decrease erosion and aid in filtering water.

Implementation has begun in 2018, a small group of grade six and seven’s from Roseneath Centennial Public School came to participate in a planting day on June 7, 2018. These students planted eighty-five trees and herbaceous plants along the shoreline of the creek.

Gezhii hopes that revitalizing this portion of the Sandercock creek will do a small part in improving aquatic life and increase water quality.

Riperian Restoration

2016 Berthoud, Colorado, USA

Emily’s proposal was to repair a section of the damaged riparian zone (the river bank) of the Big Thompson River by planting grass seeds to promote a healthier river.
In 2013, one of the biggest floods in Colorado history occurred. This flood not only destroyed many homes and businesses, but also changed the course of the river and took out a multitude of trees, grasses, and shrubs in the riparian zone. Without this vegetation, an excess of sediment can run into the river, and a number of unwanted problems can result from this. For example, the depth of the river decreases which increases the temperature of the water. An increase in temperature can decrease the amount of fish and other macroinvertebrates that are able to live there, and therefore decreasing the amount of biodiversity in the river. Replenishing the vegetation will help to prevent future flood damage and maintain the health of the river. Emily’s solution for these problems was to gather volunteers and plant seeds and a variety of plants along a highly damaged stretch of the river bank.

Timeline and Budget:

Feb. 2016- End of March: Multiple correspondents/ conversations with Wildlands Restoration Volunteers in order to join forces in a project they had already begun.
March 2016: Hung flyers and spread word about the project in order to gather volunteers. Budget of $10.
April 2nd: Planted native grasses along a 1 mile stretch of the Lower North Fork of the Big Thompson. Total cost was $3,338. Caring for Our Watersheds contributed $800.