Water Wise: Water Conservation & Watershed Health Education
The Water Wise & Watershed Health program was designed to make use of all available
mediums to educate and engage a wide range of people in conscious acts of water
conservation. Radio & newspaper ads and articles, art exhibits, displays (including
interactive), musical performances, parades, signage, business projects, school classes
(including Outdoor school sessions & modules to 3 communities) & hands on ‘by the water’
and storm drain sessions. An added bonus was free Cable TV coverage of Water Wise tips
and the shorts designed for a video from the Up Your Watershed performance Water Wise
assisted with, coordinating the school classes and event details with musicians.
Our education of school age students reached over 55 elementary, secondary, & alternate
classes, with students offered 6 modules on water conservation, watershed health, water
chemistry, waste & groundwater, water quality (bottled water) & water treatment/systems. All
lessons show how water relates to our lives and the fish & wildlife reliant on healthy
watersheds. Instructors used models (working mini aquifer and 3D watershed), and fieldtrips
for hands on experience. At the Outdoor school, modules –Invertebrates, The Perfect Stream,
Ecological Webs- Species at Risk, Watersheds and Winter Snow Science Module are taught
and mini-water wise sessions given to each school group (25 classes/800 students). Signage
and brochures are set up throughout many centres and businesses in the region throughout
the year. Within the communities, Water Wise also targets stores selling ‘water friendly
products’ and gardeners (with Xeriscape workshops and brochures on rain barrels /draught
hardy plants & xeriscape methods). Water Wise promoted sustainable water practices and
Seafood choices at events: Children’s Festival, WL Stampede Parade, Aboriginal Days, Earth
& World Water Day, and this year participated in Aboriginal Days, where our three ‘Salmon
Sisters’ 6 foot mascots were apart of the parade and events.