Caring for Our Watersheds 2023: Ideas into Action

Eco-Week

Moses and his school’s Green Earth Club hosted their first Eco-Week. This collaborative set of events included a clothing drive, community clean-up, gardening project and plant sale, as well as a “Lights Out Day”.

The clothing drive resulted in 20 full black garbage bags (500 articles of clothing!) filled with gently used clothes, including jackets, shoes, pants, and socks. The team worked hard to upcycle these items, and were able to redistribute them to over 100 students within the school community.

The community clean-up initiative was also a massive hit. Students gathered 9 full garbage bags of trash from around the neighbourhood and local pond with a team of 30 individuals.

The gardening project received numerous compliments for showcasing thriving plants and the positive impact they’ve had on the school environment. 

The Lights Out Day was a fantastic demonstration of a commitment to energy conservation. The entire school participated by turning off all lights, and the collective effort was both inspiring and impactful.

They also hosted a massive plant sale that helped raise money for future initiatives by the Green Earth Club. 

Bat Boxes

Mary-Ann is a student at Willow Creek Composite High School in Claresholm. 

To spread the word about her project she engaged with multiple local municipalities as well as started a Bat Box Building Club.  Phase 1 would see one to two bat boxes placed at the Frog Creek wetlands as she saw it as an ideal location to provide maximum benefits to the citizens in the south end of town and the golf course.

In Phase 2, bat boxes would be placed at Pine Coulee, Clear Lake and Willow Creek parks, with at least one to two at each park.

Phase 3 would see putting the bat boxes in the M.D.. Possible locations could be the town lagoons, and at the end of the Frog Creek ponds. So far she has had good interest from the M.D so the club will be busy!

Trees and Beads

Taylor and Kyptin raised money for tree planting by selling jewellery. They wanted to give people an opportunity to participate in something beneficial for the environment. Their goal was to expand awareness by encouraging others to share their platform. With each purchase made they would donate to a local tree planting group. They advertised their product on a variety of social media channels, on a local radio station, and with schools. 

The Sustainable Development Goals they focused on were #6 Clean Water and Sanitation, #13 Climate Action, #15 Life on Land, and #17 Partnerships for the Goal. 

They partnered with Trees Canada and were able to get 125 trees planted by May 2023. Some future partnerships they want to make were with AWES, 2 Billion Trees program, and Trees for Life. All profits that are made will go towards the donation. They have been able to start a sustainable business that helps the community and environment. 

Brush Off Invaders

First place winners, Cassy and Emmett were concerned about the presence of invasive plants in their watershed, so they came up with the idea of boot brush stations. Since invasive plant species can get onto the shoe’s of hikers, a boot brush can stop the spread into different areas. A benefit from these stations is that native plants will continue to thrive in the environment, and parks will not have more management expenses due to controlling invasives. 

They started with building stations to install into parks around their county and city with the help of their class. A sign is attached to each station with information on invasives and why it is important to use these stations before going onto a trail. They were able to incorporate messaging from Play, Clean, Go! Cassy and Emmett were able to work with their local municipalities to get permission to put their stations in 4 parks. They even donated a few to their local watershed group. 

Willow Staking

Jade’s project was on reducing erosion of river banks after seeing the consequences of flooding in the Bow River. They decided on willow staking along banks that have little to no vegetation. Willows can survive in wet environments and their root system can prevent erosion while filtering pollutants. Some of the other benefits to their project is improving biodiversity and providing habitat and food for wildlife. 

The Sustainable Development Goals Jade focused on were #6 Clean Water and Sanitation, #13 Climate Action, #14 Life Below Water, and #15 Life on Land. 

They partnered with Friends of Fish Creek to learn how to properly willow stake. There was a call for volunteers and funding from the community to be able to complete this project. Jade chose a location with little vegetation and where other projects had already been implemented to ensure better results. Her target was to plant 100 stakes along 50m of stream bank. With the help of the volunteers, she was able to complete their first planting.