Xeriscaping our School

2015 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Manothri Malikarachichi and Sadie Simpson from Montgomery School focused their project on implementing a xeriscaped landscape at their school as a pilot project to educate students and their community about the benefits of using drought-tolerant plant species in place of conventional water consumptive landscaping techniques.

Xeriscaping has many benefits and helps our local watersheds in a number of ways. By planting with native and drought tolerant plants you are reducing how much outdoor water is used in your home. These plants require much less water than conventional lawn and gardens. Some native and drought Student winner photo xeriscaping our school student action project tolerant plants only require the intermittent rain that falls through Saskatoon’s summers!

Xeriscaping is also beautiful. It provides pops of colour and beauty rather than the monotonous green patches of conventional lawns. Once a xeriscaped landscape is installed and established, there is little work needed. There is no need for excess watering, the use of pesticides, fertilizers or gas for mowing! All of these inputs on our lawn and gardens impact our watershed because they can wash into our storm drains and into the river harming sensitive aquatic habitat. But, with a xeriscaped garden, this doesn’t happen because those inputs are not needed.

The students worked with their school to install a xeriscaped landscape in their outdoor classroom area. They are hoping to receive neighbourhood support for long term maintenance in partnership with the school.

Turn Out the Lights and Join the Darkside

2015 Blackie, Alberta, Canada

The 8^th place winner of the 2014 Caring For Our Watersheds competition was Riley Tirkaylo from Blackie School. Riley was concerned about light pollution in his community. Light pollution has several negative impacts on the ecosystem and watershed including: unnecessary energy consumption, interfering with the resting, feeding and migration patterns of wildlife, and impacting insect behavior and mating activities.

To address the issue of light pollution in his community, Riley designed a project to educate people about the impact of light pollution and provide community members with samples of LED light bulbs provided by Fortis Alberta.

At Blackie’s “Green Day” event, Riley handed out hundreds of brochures that explained the hazards of light pollution and suggested ways in which people could reduce their energy consumption. Through collaboration with Fortis Alberta, Riley was also able to hand out free samples of LED light bulbs for people to use. These light bulbs are much more energy-efficient than the incandescent bulbs of the past.

Through this initiative, Riley has been able to inform people in his community about the negative effects of light pollution, provide people with alternative light bulbs and spread the word about watershed health and environmental stewardship.

Pollinators for the Watershed

2015 Bawlf, Alberta, Canada

Leah Marshall, grade 11 student from Bawlf School, grew up on a farm in the country and had seen a lot of the native forests and grassland be removed for increasing agricultural land. When the Marshall’s started beekeeping as a new hobby, Leah learned more about the threats to pollinators, such as decreasing habitat and wanted to do something to help. Her idea was to encourage students to plant small flower gardens that would provide homes and food for pollinators. In her words:

“The premise of this project revolves around making a plausible and realistic difference in recovering the populations of local wild pollinators (primarily bees). We plan on doing this via both the distribution of perennial wild flower seed packets and the education of our youth in this major issue that impacts us as humans immensely”.

Leah decided to focus on getting the word and the seed packets to grade 7 students who had a biodiversity unit in their science curriculum. She contacted grade 7 teachers across the Battle River Watershed to ask them to teach their students about local pollinators, and in exchange would mail a class set of seed packages. Each seed package had an informational brochure so that the students could learn more about the project and pollinators. Leah sent out 500 seed packages, the flowers of which are now popping up across the watershed!

Get a Tweet on This: Greening Golf Courses with Birdhouses

2015 Ponoka, Alberta, Canada

Avid golfers, Mina and Brooklyn from Ponoka were worried about what effects pesticides sprayed on the course would have on their watershed. As part of their Caring for our Watershed project proposal, they researched the effects of pesticides and solutions to reduce them. They found that birds are natural insecticides, eating many of the pesky insects that golfers dislike.

To build awareness of this topic the girls were present at the golf course spa event to give away information cue cards, cash wash coupons and natural beauty products. They also held a draw for a bird house. They hoped that the information and products would help people become more aware of what they use at home.

With help from local businesses and family, Mina and Brooklyn built 75 bird houses to put up at the two local golf courses (one house at each of the 55 holes plus extra) to encourage the natural reduction of unwanted insects. The golf courses were happy to be involved and support these young stewards. Mina and Brooklyn are happy to see their ideas in action and look forward to enjoying a round of golf with more beautiful birds on the course, and less pesticides in their watershed.

Save the Bees

2015 Calgary, Alberta, Canada

The 2015 first place winner in Southern Alberta’s Caring For Our Watersheds competition were Vicky Brandt, Rebecca Kroeker and Jaime Grassmick from Centennial High School, with their project “Save The Bees”.

These students were concerned about the decline of pollinators in our watershed, and the impact fewer pollinators may have on the native flora contained in the Bow River watershed. Passionate about educating their community, these students designed a brochure outlining why pollinator populations are in decline, why pollinators are important, and ways in which people can encourage pollinators in their yards (plant bee-friendly flowers, make a DIY bee bath etc.). To encourage people within their community to plant bee-friendly flowers, students provided free packs of native wildflower seeds (coneflower, lupine and gaillardia) with the educational brochures and passed them out in schools, garden centers and to their community at large.

Not only did these students teach members of their community about the local watershed and the importance of pollinators, they were able to educate students and teachers within Centennial High School about environmental stewardship and healthy watersheds.

Through this educational initiative, Vicky, Rebecca and Jaime passed out hundreds of brochures and native wildflower seed packs, informing people about the importance of pollinators and encouraging people to make their yards “pollinator-friendly”.

Lichens

2015, San Andres de Giles, Buenos Aires, Argentina

The focus of this project is to analyze the population of lichens found in trees within different areas of San Antonio de Giles town. The study of these lichens is important because they can be indicators of the quality of the air we are breathing. In order to define a parameter, the students plan to analyze the presence, or absence, of lichens in different parts of town. They also proposed an investigation on the density of the population of lichens and the analysis of the different types of lichens found. This analysis takes into account their color, appearance and the lichen’s grouping/type (foliose, fruticose, crustose). By analyzing the lichens the students are able to check and/or refute their hypothesis about the feasibility of solely using this method to monitor the quality of the air we breathe.

Parks for Native Biodiversity

2015, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

This project aims to create a place that will focus on increasing the community’s biodiversity. The goal is to reap the environmental benefits that emerge from creating a park of native vegetation at the town’s old railroad station. This will hopefully also entice tourists to visit the town because of the value created by enhancing the local nature of their flora and fauna.

With the help of the specialist in native flora Dr. Gabriel Burgueño, the students prepared and presented a draft to the Municipality of San Andres de Giles to manage the permits with the Railway authorities.

Currently, they are waiting final approval to continue working.

Southside Park Cleanup

2015 Sacramento, California, USA Students Cleaning Southside Park in Sacramento, Califormia

After Alexa Smith and Feliceya Torres coordinated a successful cleanup of riverfront Garcia Bend Park last year, they were inspired to continue the good work of watersheds stewardship. This year, the pair of MET Sacramento students submitted another proposal focused on Southside Park, which is adjacent to their high school.

While Southside Park is not directly on the Sacramento River, water moving over the land area enters several storm drains that run directly to the river. There is also a sizeable pond in the park, which provides habitat to resident ducks and geese. A clean up here would not only benefit the park aesthetically, but would also reduce the amount of debris entering storm drains, and thus river. This could also alleviate clogging of these drains during storm events, and local flooding. In addition, a cleanup would reduce waste entering the pond and affecting the aquatic habitat there.

As last year, they recruited several volunteers from their high school for the cleanup event completed in May of 2015. Project funds from Caring for Our Watersheds helped the students buy basic supplies for the event, including bags, rubber gloves, trash pick-up tools, water, and snacks for participants.

Nature’s Voice

2015, San Andres de Giles, Buenos Aires, Argentina

The students of this high school run their own radio show. Their project is to create a radio program to promote local birds and trees to the community, something they consider in need of better care.

Patricia Laffrati, a sustainable journalist, assisted in the implementation of the project by giving a workshop to the students about radio programming and digital media. In the workshop they learnt how to create and program materials for the school.

One highlight of this project for the students is that it is applicable to all school curriculum disciplines, meaning everyone can get involved. It not only educates the community on the
importance of the diversity of its flora and fauna, but the students learn more through these hands on, engaging experiences.

Wetland Creation

2014/2015 Gimli, Manitoba, Canada

Dean Mulroy and his team of fellow students proposed a very ambitious wetland creation project in Gimli, Manitoba. They wanted to expand an existing creek running along the school property into a larger wetland.

“The Willow Creek watershed, which is our area’s closest section, is along the western coast of Lake Winnipeg, also known as the Interlake region. It contains the rural parts of Armstrong municipalities, Gimli, Rockwood, St. Andrews, and all of the surrounding cottage country. This watershed’s drainage is roughly 1,210 square kilometers and contains roughly 620 km of ordered drains with two lake complexes”

They knew the natural filtering process would improve the health of the watershed as a whole. As well, they wanted students and community to benefit from the both the opportunity to study the area and its beauty. This team worked with the municipality, Manitoba Hydro, and the local Conservation District to ensure the feasibility of the project as well as to secure funding partners.

The success of this project is thanks to a dedicated team and strong community support!