Riparian Repair

2012 Virden, Manitoba, Canada

Chelsi Malach is a passionate student who wanted to improve a local wetland called Eternal Springs, located east of the town of Virden. Along with local community members enjoying the site, this area is also used to teach younger students about the importance of watersheds and wetland conservation.

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While volunteering at the site as an educator, she observed severe bank erosion following the spring flood. There is also an increase in invasive species such as Purple loosestrife.

Her proposal was twofold: to create a buffer zone along the bank by planting a diversity of vegetation, and to assess the invasive species on the site. This would be followed up by manual removal and monitoring.

Chelsi partnered with the Upper Assiniboine Conservation district for their expertise and assistance. As well, the grade 12 biology class participated both in the removal of the invasive species and planting of local vegetation to stabilize the stream back. Her passion enthusiasm for this project has now been shared with the school and community.

The Caring for our Watersheds contest provided Chelsi with over $3,500 to make this ambitious project a reality.

Native Plant Campaign

2012 Calgary, Alberta Canada

The Native Plant Campaign (NPC) was an opportunity for youth in Calgary to learn about and get involved in ecological biodiversity within the City of Calgary. As the first-place proposal in Caring for our Watersheds 2011, the NPC was a project designed by youth for youth. Since the student authors were members of UNA-Canada’s Ripple Effect program at the time, UNA-Canada offered to be the mentor organization for implementation.

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Twenty-four youth, ages 14-20, volunteered their Saturday afternoon, despite the rain, to learn about and plant native plant species along the banks of the constructed wetland on Prince’s Island Park, Calgary. The event ran from 12:30-4:00pm on Saturday June 2, 2012.

The event began with a welcome from UNA-Canada and a brief overview of the upcoming Rio+20 summit in order to connect local actions with global affairs. Once the students had toured the wetland and learned about riparian health and native/invasive plant species, they spent the remaining time planting over 100 plants, trees, and shrubs. The following species were planted: Balsam Poplar, Aspen, River Birch, Paper Birch, River Alder, Chokecherry, Tawny Willow, Black Bud Willow, Pussy Willow, Silverberry, Dogwood, and Dwarf Birch.

One student said, “I really enjoyed the informational nature walk…I learned a lot and it made the plantings that more meaningful. I am definitely excited to participate in another event like this in the future.”

Monofilament Fishing Line Recycling Containers

2012 Colusa, CA, USA
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In looking into water issues in their small community, Aimee Galvez and Yajaira Cruz saw that there was a lot of fishing line thrown into the river by anglers who seemed unaware of the danger this could cause to local wildlife. Their idea was to place monofilament recycling containers at four local boat ramps and landings. They believed that by providing a place to recycle line and signs to encourage use, they could reduce the amount of line left in the river or on the water’s edge.
To start the process they first designed the aluminum signs that would be placed on top of the containers. The signs urged anglers to “Reel in and Recycle” to help keep the Sacramento River “tangle free” as used fishing line can pose hazards to wildlife, birds, and aquatic species. The signs also explained that the Colusa High School Environmental Science Academy would be maintaining the containers and collecting the line to be sent in for recycling.

Aimee and Yajaira then built the containers themselves out of PVC pipe, screws, and hose-camps. monofiliment3-2 They visited each landing ahead of time to see where the best place would be to put the containers, conferring with the landing owners and staff. With full support and permission of the landing operators, they installed the containers and signs. Nutrien provided $342 in implementation funds for the project, which will be an ongoing effort carried on by the students at Colusa High School during Environmental Science Academy service hours. They are thankful that they were able to make their idea a reality and provide a simple solution to a problem in their watershed!

Native Plant Pollinator Garden

2012 Antelope, CA, USA

Antelope High School student Melanie Mititelu has learned about the importance of native plants in providing habitat for local wildlife. She is especially concerned about the loss of habitat for pollinators, as we depend on them to pollinate most of our agricultural products. In many places, this necessary service of pollination is at risk from habitat loss, pesticide use, and introduced diseases. She decided she could help by planting native pollinator species in planter boxes adjacent to the school garden. By providing nectar sources to forage in, she would encourage bees and other pollinators to help pollinate the plants in their garden. Her pollinator garden will also serve as an educational tool for Environmental Science classes when they learn about the decline in honeybees and
the importance of pollinator conservation.

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For her garden, Melanie chose plants that bloomed at different times throughout the year to provide a continuous food source for pollinators. She chose plants all native to California so that they would not require much irrigation or fertilizer. However, she did install an irrigation system to help these plants get established during the first few years.

In addition to providing particularly good habitat for pollinators next to the school garden, this native plant garden will be used to educate students and teachers at Antelope High School on the benefits of native plants, as well as botany and plant ID skills. Next year, they plan on adding interpretive signs that identify the native plants and explain their important role in agriculture and the environment.

Milk River Stabilization Project

2011 Milk River, Alberta, Canada

Jessie Tollestrup, an Erle Rivers student, submitted a proposal to Caring for our Watershed contest. Her proposal was on bank stabilization due to erosion problems on the Milk River. She proposed building willow wattle fences at a location where stream banks are being eroded. Continue reading…

Students Create a Demonstration Garden to Showcase Native Plants

2011 Arlington, Virginia, USA

When sixth grade science students at H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program examined stream conditions at Gulf Branch in Arlington, they noticed that the vegetation alongside the stream was dominated by invasive species, including garlic mustard along the paths, Japanese honeysuckle growing out of logs, and English Ivy, its vines snaking their way up trees, on the ground and almost everywhere else. Following up with the county’s invasive plant coordinator, they arranged to join in a garlic mustard pull in the park and tour a native plants demonstration garden, where they helped plant native honeysuckle.
Continue reading…

Lake Winnipeg Watershed Model Project

2011 Gimli, Manitoba, Canada
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Gimli High School students Cole Wear, Christine Durocher and Erik Isliefson are concerned about the health and sustainability of Lake Winnipeg. They believe an understanding of watersheds is very important for stewardship and sustainability. As a class project, they constructed a model of the Lake Winnipeg Watershed. The project was created by Enviro Club members with support from a local Conservation District.
Continue reading…

Native Plants – A Step Toward Improving Our Watershed

2011 Campbellford, Ontario, Canada

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.

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.

Planting Trees for Battle River

2011 Ponoka, Alberta, Canada

These smiling faces are those of Courtney and Rhyliegh from St. Augustine School in Ponoka. After doing research on the Battle River Watershed, they realized a very important factor in the water quality of their town and watershed was erosion. Their proposal was to plant trees along the Battle River to prevent shoreline erosion.

After winning 1st place in the Final Competition, they decided to turn their proposal into reality and implement a tree planting at a local park near their school in Ponoka.

With the support of the Ponoka Home Hardware and Trees Canada the girls received 30 trees of various sizes. The town of Ponoka also supported the girls by having staff and equipment on hand to dig holes and water the planted trees. Fellow students from St. Augustine took the afternoon to come help plant.

Courtney and Rhyleigh were very happy to help their town and watershed have better quality water, animal habitat and air quality. They look forward to visiting that park for many years in the future

St. James Global Leadership Peace Garden

2011 Calgary, Alberta Canada

As part of the Grade Nine Global Leadership Program at St. James School, Veronica Skebo and Charlotte Hardwicke-Brown participated in Caring for our Watersheds. Their idea was to expand their school Peace Garden to incorporate a rain garden.

It took more than just two students to fulfill this project. There were twenty-four students and staff working together. The final project measured around 110 metres squared. The team choose native trees and shrubs such as, White Spruce, Pincherry, and Aspen trees, Common Juniper, Red Twig Dogwood, Yellow Twig and Dwarf Birch shrubs.

Veronica said, “The different types of native plants give a more environment friendly feel and give diversity to the entire garden.”

With the help from Nutrien, North Glenmore Park Community Association, St. James Parent Council and the Education Society, the team raised $5,600.

Veronica went on to add, “The purpose of the garden
was to create and promote awareness and education
on the effect of watersheds and how we can help protect them. We also created the garden to preserve our watersheds through the use of a rain garden concept. We took a lot of time to learn about this concept and make it into a real life plan. Now that I see the amount of rain we gather, I know the concept works well. We believe that the concepts we have put into making this garden work will help protect the watersheds and all of the organisms that live off of the watersheds. The peace garden was originally created so that students can learn outside about our ecosystems and environment and now with the expansion, the peace garden will be used much more with the different concepts that were incorporated.”