Partnered and Prepared

2012 Crystal City, Manitoba, Canada

Jayden Dobson and Daria Hildebrand from Thomas Greenway Middle School proposed a project focused on partnership and education. They wanted to improve and maintain drinking water quality throughout the Pembina River Watershed by educating their community as they felt clean water is too often taken for granted. “People need to be educated on water issues in order to learn their part in being responsible as they learn to respect water”.
Their proposal was to create simple but effective signs identifying locations that are key drinking water areas while educating citizens about protecting our essential resource. The solution was achievable only if this duo could find the right partners within the community; and they did.

This project became a reality with parterships with the Pembina Valley Conservation District, the town of Pilot Mound, as well as Ducks Unlimited Canada. Nutrien provided $400 for the purchase of the sign and the Conservation District provided the installation.

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.

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.
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Children’s Activity Book

2011 Ponoka, Alberta, Canada

Caring for our Watersheds Contest Junior High Winners of 2010: Breanne, Jenna and Rachel wanted to tell a story of the importance of a healthy watershed. After researching the Battle River Watershed they decided that to have the greatest impact they should educate young people, which is exactly what they have done.
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Project Wake Up

2011 Ponoka, Alberta, Canada

Meghan Rain became interested in environmental issues when a highway was built through an untamed green space where she and the other neighborhood kids would play. She was sad not only because they lost their play area but also because there was a fox den destroyed. She has been determined to help the watershed ever since.

For her Caring for our Watersheds proposal, Meghan focused on the garbage and other pollution entering into the Battle River and other waterways and the impact on the animals.

“Fortunately the water we drink is cleaned and filtered but I can’t say the same for the animals. Animals of all shapes and sizes come to drink in our river; meanwhile pollutants and garbage float around inside of it.”

Meghan wrote a hip and catchy song called “Wake-Up” which educates people about the importance of keeping the waters clean. Meghan recorded the song and has shared it via email with friends, family and with over 100 people at the CFW Final competition.

Caring for our Watershed Kits

2011 Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

While most middle school students are worried about the present, Cassandra Schinkel is more concerned about the future. That’s why she took it upon herself to build and distribute Caring for Our Watershed Kits to help raise awareness and educate her peers about the importance of their watershed and of taking steps to care for their watershed.

Cassandra felt that it is very important to get children
involved at an early age so that they can be educated
about the environment and help preserve the world they
depend on for future generations. It’s important to raise awareness as many people take the watershed they live in, and the functions it provides, for granted. With her passion for raising awareness and of educating younger generations about the watershed they live in and what they can do, Cassandra hit 7 grade five classrooms in Lethbridge equipped with a 15 minute powerpoint presentation and 150 Caring for Your Watershed kits. Over 150 students heard her presentation and received a kit.

Each Caring for Your Watershed kit contained a watershed word search, bug jar, CFW seed bookmark, water warrior notepad, water warrior badge, water drop ball and a coloring sheet.

Cassandra wanted her project to be educational and fun at
the same time. What she didn’t expect to find out through
the implementation of her project was that she actually taught the teachers something about their watershed, as well as the children in the classrooms she visited.

Cassandra received corporate support for her project from Nutrien, Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, St. Mary River Irrigation District and the Oldman Watershed Council.

Otis and Friends: “The Mystery of Missing Water”

2011 Ponoka, Alberta Canada
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Kaitlin, Katie, Vickie and Melissa became involved in the Caring for our Watersheds contest as a classroom project at St. Augustine School in Ponoka. Their idea was to create a fun and educational books series for students in grades 2-4 about how their actions impact the watershed and what they can do to help.

The book series is called “Otis and Friends Environmental Adventures” with this premier book titled “The Mystery of Missing Water”. In the story Otis the duck’s pond is drying up due to high levels of water consumption in the nearby town. Luckily a special little girl who likes to walk by the pond notices the low water and her and her family start making changes to their water use. The neighbours take notice of their new habits and soon everyone is conserving water, saving Otis and his friends.

The book also has a fact sheet about the Northern Pintail Duck, who Otis is based on. There is also a list of 8 easy actions that families can take to reduce their water consumption. otis-3

The girls visited all of the grade 2-4 classrooms at their school for book readings, and the students all really enjoyed the book. After receiving funds from Nutrien, Keyera and Grey Wooded Forage Association for printing the book, they held a book launch party at their local library. The book has been distributed to all of the Parkland Regional Libraries, as well as through school visits by the Battle River Watershed Alliance.

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.”

Youth Nature Club

2010 Lethbrige, Alberta, Canada
Club
Tyson Bohnert from Lethbridge was awarded $1000 to create an on-line Neighbourhood Stewards and Nature Club mentorship program. He performed live presentations, and used different mediums of interaction including website, workshops, videos, pictures, to inform about nature related facts and issues.
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The Ripple Effect

2010 Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Samantha Hans wanted to raise awareness of water challenges and planned a water conference for high school students.

A Water Conference for Youth by Youth was held on Wed. May 11, 2011. The day started with an introduction of UNA-Canada and The Ripple Effect project. The Calgary Current, the Youth Advocacy Group, presented to approximately 50 high school students and their teachers explaining what they do, why they do it, and why they enjoy their involvement in the project. The group of students was then split up into two groups to discuss the basics of water usage, conservation, Calgary’s Watershed and sustainability. After a quick snack the students were back to activities which included ‘water’ Family Feud, learning about the ‘water cost’ of daily items and an interactive guessing game where countries were compared based on their water usage.

Students designed their own water sustainability t-shirts, and participated in various other learning activities including a presentation from My World, My Choice followed by three speakers with a career spin on water issues. Students were exposed to government, NGO and corporate perspectives, offering them a broader sense of career opportunities than what they would find at a career fair. Speakers included a speaker from Alberta Wilderness Association, Nutrien, and the City of Calgary. The day was filled with engaging information and new perspectives on water sustainability that the students had never heard before. Positive feedback was received from both the students and teachers who attended the conference; The Youth Advocacy Group of Calgary Current was impressed with the student’s level of engagement and immensely enjoyed their mentoring role and experience.