For immediate release: October 9, 2007

Media Contact:    Stephanie Kaleva

Bozeman, Mont. 09 Oct., 2007 – To encourage watershed-based, action-oriented education, the Project WET Foundation provided grants to 13 organizations conducting watershed education using the Discover a Watershed: The Colorado Educators Guide and other Project WET materials.

The goal of the program is to link lessons in the Discover a Watershed: The Colorado Educators Guide and other Project WET publications with local actions that lead to solutions. Project WET refers to this approach as ActionEducation™.  Through this project, participants learn about the Colorado River Watershed through Project WET activities, and then put their knowledge into action and, as a result, make a difference by addressing local issues.

Grant recipients and their projects appear below:

1) Sonoran Institute, Tucson, Ariz. and Vado Carranza, Mexico

Education: Teach graduate students about area’s environmental history and current restoration activities.

Action: Graduate students work at restoration site in Colorado River Delta in Mexico to develop site design and help local community children plant native trees at site.

2) School District 1, Yuma, Ariz.

Education: Conduct a two-day educator training workshop, focusing on Colorado River Delta, individual stewardship, and community involvement.

Action: Teachers tour city water treatment facility, Dole produce plant, the United States Bureau of Reclamation desalinization plant, and the East Wetlands Park restoration area.  At East Wetlands Park, participants engage in wetland restoration project.

3) Satori Charter School, Tucson, Ariz.

Education: Teach about local and regional watersheds.

Action: Students take field trips to the Sweetwater Ground Water Recharge Facility and Audubon Wetlands where they participate in field studies and collect data in the Rillito River wash measuring water tables.  Students then plan a water festival and teach students, parents, and community members about water stewardship. The Watershed Management Group also provides an environmental educator to work with the class to build a rainwater harvesting system for the school, and, at the festival, the educator teaches students, parents, and community members how to build rainwater harvesting systems for home.

4) Colorado Project WET/Colorado Watershed Network, Breckenridge, Colo.

Education: Hold a watershed conference featuring a six hour educator training workshop.

Action: Participants identify and remove noxious weeds from a wetland area and replant native plant species.

5) City of Flagstaff, Ariz.

Education: Water conservation water festival for 1,000 4th grade students and their teachers.

Action: After participating in the festival, students conduct water audits at home. The audits are collected by teachers and returned to the City of Flagstaff for analysis and use in the City’s water conservation education and planning efforts.

6) Pronatura Noroeste Sonora, Mexico and Baja California, Mexico

Education: Educate teachers about the Colorado River and its Delta.

Action: Educators design a project to involve their students in local community wetlands conservation and restoration activities.

7) Mosaic Academy Charter School, Aztec, N.M.

Education: Educate students about the region’s geology, the dynamics of deposition and erosion, and the formation of fossils in river sediment rock formations in their area

Action: Students use GPS and digital cameras to record the location of fossil sites and build a database, create maps, etc., with a focus on stewardship of these resources.  The goal of the project is to have students learn GPS technology and resource mapping techniques and build a GIS database of significant fossil sites (mostly undocumented) in the area in order to help preserve them. The data collection is coordinated with databases developed by BLM and the NM Museum of Natural History and Science and shared with these institutions

8) Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Ariz.

Education: Provide future educators with the tools needed to teach about water resources in the classroom.

Action: Future educators teach children in area schools as part of their required coursework.  Participating classrooms’ teachers evaluate the future educators’ performance.

9) University of Nevada – Las Vegas Public Lands Institute and Clark County School District, Las Vegas, Nev.

Education: Two all-day field trips.

Action: Students measure habitat parameters for quagga mussels (water temperature, pH, water clarity, and plankton) to determine if Lake Mead provides the conditions needed for this invasive species to thrive. They also look for evidence of the mussels. After investigating the impacts of the mussels on the Lake Mead environment, the students devise a management strategy focusing on preventing the spread of quagga mussels to other waterways and reporting their recommendations to the National Park Service and Nevada Department of Wildlife. Students also develop a video highlighting the quagga mussel invasion of Lake Mead and what individuals can do to help stop the spread.  

10) Willow Bend Environmental Education Center, Flagstaff, Ariz.

Education: Educate children about water resources in preparation for a service learning project.

Action:  Students work with Willow Bend and Native Movement Southwest staff to install a rainwater harvesting system and drip irrigation system for a new Native Edibles Garden at Willow Bend Environmental Center.  Students also help plant the garden.

11) Cherry Creek Stewardship Partners, Denver, Colo.

Education: Two-day workshop with field sessions.

Action: Teachers participate in a local wetland restoration project by creating a vegetation and habitat monitoring program and implement it with students and local Home Owners Association.

12) CEDES (Comisión de Ecología y Desarrallo Sustentable del Estado de Sonora), Riito, Mexico and Sonora, Mexico

Education: Prepare students for a field trip through the Colorado River Delta from the international border to the Gulf of California.

Action: Students learn about the Colorado River Delta’s ecology and work in several areas to clean up trash and remove tamarisk.

13) City of Gallup, N.M.

Education: Water conservation festival for students and teachers with educational activities taking place in the classroom prior to the festival.  

Action: Students participating in the festival conduct home water audits, and the data collected is used by the City of Gallup in water conservation planning and education.

About Project WET

Since 1984, Project WET, an award-winning 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, has dedicated itself to the mission of reaching children, parents, teachers and community members of the world with water education.  Project WET achieves its mission of worldwide water education by:

• publishing water resource materials in several languages.
  
• providing training workshops on diverse water topics (i.e., watersheds, water quality, water conservation).
  
• organizing community water events, such as Make a Splash with Project WET water festivals and the Global Water Education Village™.
  
• building a worldwide network of educators, water resource professionals and scientists.

On the web at www.projectwet.org.