Bees: Small but Mighty

2016 Greeley, Colorado, USA

Bees provide up to 1/3 of our diet, which may seem small, but includes a variety of foods such as: fruits, vegetables, grains, and even meat. Kendra’s proposal was to plant gardens with bee-friendly flowers in the community to help these small workers.

By planting these gardens, bees are offered a constant source of nutrients and a healthy habitat that uses no harmful chemicals on the plants. The implementation plan was fairly simple, and included buying the supplies, finding locations, setting up gardens, and planting flowers and plants. “It is easy and anyone can do it.” States Kendra. “The smallest effort can make a huge difference.”

Timeline and Budget:

February 29, 2016 – Figured out location for project and contacted beekeeper Debbie Moors
March 1, 2016 – Brought home donated tires for gardens ($0)
March 31, 2016 – Shopped for garden beds and soil at Home Depot with Susan Payne ($360)
April 28, 2016 – Shopped for plants at Home Depot with Susan Payne ($330)
May 7, 2016- Set up multiple recycled tire gardens around the community
May 8, 2016 – Set up gardens ($0)

LIFE (Lacombe Irrigation Foods Experiment) & Beewise

2016, Lacombe, Alberta, Canada

Lacombe Composite High School has an active agriculture class and eco team, which have resulted in an amazing school greenhouse, aquaponics system and outdoor gardens.

One of the challenges that many schools face is having their gardens watered in the summer months when students are away.

The other challenge is watering the gardens efficiently to save water, while helping the plants grow.

Rachel Reitsma and Avy Lamb, students in the LEAFS initiatve, decided to conquor both Life & BeeWise native pollinator home outdoor gardens central alberta challenges by installing a drip irrigation system in their gardens. The irrigation tube (shown left) is dug into the soil to water the plant’s roots while minimizing the rate of evaporation. The system could also be set on a timer to water regullary, with options to delay watering if there is significant rainfall.

The other cool project implemented at the school this year is a Beewise- a home for native pollinators. Pollinators such as bees are facing a drastic decline in their population. This can harm the plants, including our food, which rely on pollinators.

This Beewise pollinator home provides much needed habitat, while ensuring the school’s gardens get the pollination they need.

Ducks Unlimited Bake Sale

2016, Bashaw, Alberta, Canada

Bailie McDonald in Bashaw wanted to Ducks Unlimited Bake sale Bailie with baked goods student action projects help protect her watershed by protecting wetlands. She learned that wetlands are important habitat for lots of animals, help improve water quality, and help store water for dry times.

Bailie wasn’t sure how she could protect a wetland, but knew that Ducks Unlimited did lots of great work in her area, including a site called the Pileated Project near her home.

After discussing her desire to help protect wetlands with her family, Bailie decided that one thing she could do was to bake some yummy treats and host a bake sale at her school. The money she raised could then be donated to Ducks Unlimited to help with their Pileated Project.

The bake sale raised $200 which was then matched with the Caring for our Watersheds implementation funding. She presented the $400 cheque to Ducks Unlimited staff and volunteers at a local event.

This project proves that no matter a person’s background skills, they are able to help improve their watershed!

Accommodating Biodiversity in Our Watershed

2016, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

2016 marked the third time Simran Panesar had entererd into the Caring for our accommodating biodiversity student planting central alberta Watersheds program, and the third time she was in the final competition.

Building on projects she had done in the past, in 2016 Simran wanted to incorporate tree planting and improving biodiversity at her new school, W.P. Wagner.

Her project was two parts, planting trees and putting up bird houses in the schools yard, which is part of the Mill Creek watershed.

To get help with the tree planting, Simran invited grade 6 students (who learn about trees and forests in their science curriculum) from her old school, A. Blair McPherson. The class was treated to a full day of activities including a pizza lunch, a leaf based art project, playing a biodiversity game, and finally, participating in planting trees.

The community organization Roots for Trees helped source the 45 trees, brought the equipment, and helped teach the students how to plant. The trees were a mix of native trees including Saskatoon, Lodgepole Pine, and Red Osier dogwood.
The bird houses have also been installed and are bringing more biodiversity to the school.

Tree Planting at Lubin Elementary

2016, Sacramento, California, USA

Sandra Longfellow, a student at the MET Sacramento High School, has a special connection to
nearby David Lubin elementary school. First, through a program at The MET, she was placed in long-term internship at the elementary school. Second, David Lubin is her alma mater. When she found out about Caring for Our Watersheds, she knew this was a great opportunity to contribute to and improve the school’s campus she knows so well. After a recent removal of a hazard tree in the kindergarten yard, Sandra noticed a huge area left with bare soil directly adjacent to the storm drain. She met with the kindergarten teachers and PTG members to discuss plans for planting a Tree Planting Caring for Our watershed implementation dirty hands new tree in the area, protecting it with a planter wall, and reseeding the remaining bare areas. The plantings would stabilize the bare soil and reduce sediment delivery to nearby waterways. Of course, the tree planting would also provide shade to the kids playing in the yard at recess and outdoor learning activities. Sandra organized special teams of kindergartners and their 6^th grade “buddies” to help with site preparation and planting. After the planting, she organized “work parties” with school parents to build the planter wall and finish the remaining work. Nutrien project funding helped to buy supplies, soil, plants, and seeds for the project, which will benefit both the environment and the school community for generations to come.

Peace and Plenty Garden

2016, Bruxelles, Manitoba, Canada

Manon Ketsman from Nelly McClung Collegiate wanted to help with the restoration of a local community park.

“Bruxelles sits within the Pembina Valley Conservation District and is also within the Cypress River Watershed, which drains into the Assiniboine River. The region around Bruxelles is considered to Peace and Plenty Garden group photo student implementation have poor agricultural capabilities and much of the Southern portion of the Cypress River Watershed is considered moderately to severely at risk of soil and bank erosion.

The Peace and Plenty Garden will be a welcome addition and after much discussion it was decided that a water catchment would be a great addition to the park as it would add a learning area for students and it would be beneficial towards their education. This water catchment will teach the students about water conservation and how important water actually is as a resource when it comes to agriculture. They will use the water collected in the catchment to water the butterfly gardens as well as their vegetable gardens.”

No Fly Zone

2016, Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada

Taylor Bean was concerned with the amount of insecticides Farms were using to control fly populations. She knew there were more environmentally sustainable options available.

“Insecticides have shown to disrupt the balance of the ecosystem and many cannot be broken down by an organism’s body resulting in bioaccumulation”

With a three-pronged approach of fans, ecofriendly spray and fly sheets for the horses, she felt the need for insecticides would be removed.

To involve the community, Taylor purchased horse blankets that she would loan to other farmers to try them out in hopes they would switch over to this method.

“These blankets have helped so much in reducing the horses being irritated by the flies. The use of insecticides (fly spray) by horse owners is drastically reduced therefore reducing the effects on our watershed. The horses and the owners are much happier with the changes that the Caring For Our Watersheds project has allowed me to implement.”

Zapping the Zebras

2016, Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada

Although zebra mussels “are a Zapping Zebras Manitoba Student Project relatively new problem to Lake Winnipeg, as they were only confirmed in 2013” Brownyn felt it was important to raise awareness- and fast. “They reproduce extremely quickly and can rapidly invade new areas; the female zebra mussel lays approximately one million eggs in a year!” Zebra mussels create plenty of problems for water bodies, causing “millions of dollars of damage to the Great Lakes area alone.”

Since “the main way to prevent invasive species from invading Manitoba’s waters to clean any watercraft or water-related equipment that enters Manitoba waters,” Browyn decided to focus on an awareness campaign and boat wash at a popular dock in her community. Thanks to a contribution from Nutrien, she was able to do just that- her awareness campaign focused on preventing the spread of zebra mussels, along with water reduction tips and environmentally friendly boat wash, all for the sake of a healthy lake.

Native Communities

2016 San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

CE P T N°2. Students: Matias E. Bratche, Daniel Sandoval, Facundo Periz.

This project focused on developing a social network with the watershed community (families, students, schools) that focused on producing native species of plants. They gave the first production of plants to two different companies as an “end of the year gift”.

student action native plants

FIELD WORK

2015, CINCINNATI, OH, UNITED STATES
Field Work Image
Students from The Summit Country Day School took on a nice-sized project last year. With the help of their mentor, Sue Metheney, and their teacher Kat Roedig, they partnered with the Children’s Home of Cincinnati located on Madison Road to plant a meadow area with native plants. Summit students, Ellie Schwietering, Adelaide Tsueda, and Jenny Zhang first proposed creating a more eco-friendly plant area to improve the watershed quality. They first envisioned completely eliminating a lawn and replacing it with native trees or fruit and vegetable gardens. After teaming up with the Children’s Home they modified their idea and decided to plant a meadow, which is both aesthetically pleasing and more efficient in capturing storm water than turf grass. The meadow area will help to filter rainwater, slow runoff and attract native animals and insects to the site. It will also reduce maintenance time and costs for the Children’s Home, a win-win for everyone.

The mission of the Children’s Home is to transform the lives of vulnerable children through individualized treatment and education services that build the skills and confidence to succeed in life. Their programs help children overcome social, behavioral and learning challenges every year. Ellie, Adelaide, and Jenny worked with Tim Daugherty, the Facilities and Landscape Manager and several students and teachers at the Children’s Home to plant the meadow area. All of the students worked together to help transform an area on their campus to become a much more beautiful space.

“We’re happy that we got to work with the Children’s Home to finish our project and we are excited to see the meadow in full bloom this summer” said Jenny Zhang. It was such a beautiful day to plant and everyone enjoyed working together and helping to improve their watershed.