Martinez Watershed Rangers Clean Up Mountain View Park
Students from John Muir Elementary School in Martinez walked from their school to Mountain View Park to get outside, connect with nature and take action for the environment. The young Environmentalists were buzzing with energy and excitement as they assembled under a large elm tree for a safety talk and an introduction to the day’s events. KftB Educator Yvette Diaz Samayoa explained that students would be rotating through three stations: a Trash Cleanup Station, a Five Rs Station, and a Watershed Health Assessment Station.
At the first station, Ms. Yvette reviewed the Five Rs (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot) and called on several students who provided examples of each of the Five Rs. “Rot is like when you throw away your apple core in the compost and it starts to break down, and worms eat it!” explained Tatum. Who can give me an example of Reuse?” asked Ms. Yvette. “An example of Reuse is when you have a water bottle that you use every day,” suggested Maxwell.
Ms. Yvette showed students many cards with different images, each pertaining to one of the Five Rs categories. In an educational and fun Five Rs relay race, students grabbed a card, figured out the correct category and bin to place it in, then ran to tag their next teammate. Eva received a card with an image of a thick styrofoam sheet, or polystyrene foam. “I know that styrofoam is really bad for the environment. It’s best if you say NO to styrofoam,” she exclaimed, and quickly dropped her card into the ‘Refuse’ category.
Watershed Health Assessment
The John Muir Environmentalists were excited to perform a Watershed Health Assessment to determine the health of their local watershed environment. “What do you think is an example of a living or nonliving aspect of the environment at Mountain View Park that may indicate our watershed is healthy?” asked Ms. Yvette.
“If there are birds and animals around that could mean it’s healthy,” suggested Tyson. “If the play structure and water fountains aren’t dirty or rusted or broken, it means it’s healthy,” said Adrian. This observation sparked a conversation about the importance of having access to clean parks and greenspaces that allow communities to access and enjoy nature. “Storm drains are healthy because they help with flooding and carry stormwater away,” said Sebastian.
“Do you see anything that might indicate the watershed is unhealthy?” asked Ms. Yvette. “I think all the oil refineries around here are unhealthy! I hate them, they make the air bad,” exclaimed Wyatt. “If there’s trash everywhere, the watershed is unhealthy,” said Allison.
Students received worksheets with three columns: healthy, unhealthy, and in-between. They explored the park and recorded aspects of the local watershed habitat according to these categories. After the investigation, students shared their findings. “I think healthy trees and healthy animals equal a healthy watershed,” said Hudson. “Dirt is healthy because we need it to grow trees and plants, but it could also get into our water and pollute it, so we put it into the ‘in-between’ category,” said Akilah. “We saw trash everywhere!” exclaimed Harrison. “Trash pollution is bad for the watershed.”
After assessing the health of their watershed, the young Environmentalists concluded that signs of trash pollution meant that there was room to improve the health of their watershed. Determined to take action to clean up this local greenspace, they eagerly proceeded to the next station.
Trash Cleanup Station
With buckets and tongs in hand, the young Environmentalists raced across the greenspace in all directions, calling out to one another with an exciting trash find, or shouting out places to find more. They were very excited for the chance to take action to clean up their watershed environment. Our young Environmentalists were determined to search even hard-to-reach places. They diligently searched under trash cans for any stray pieces of litter that had overflowed out of it or got blown in the wind. They scoured underneath bushes and in tangled roots and undergrowth. Vivianna even discovered a bit of plastic packaging tangled in some tree branches above her head, and carefully extricated it.
“There’s a lot of trash around the bleachers near the baseball field. I think people eat snacks during the games and then leave their trash. That’s bad! How could they do that to the Earth?” wondered Tatum. “I saw tons of trash behind the field. We should go back there and see how much trash we can find!” Aiden said. “There was so much trash, but we had to leave some behind because our bucket was overflowing!” remarked Alexa.
“We found a cell phone!” students began to shout with excitement as Maria held up a smashed-up iPhone, clutched between their tongs. “Would this count as metal or glass?” asked Presley, the recorder for her group. “You could count it as both!” replied Kathryn. Ms. Yvette told the class that e-waste like iPhones, computers and machines have to be recycled in a special way and assured the class that she would dispose of it properly.
KftB Communications Coordinator, Amy Asmussen, asked the Environmentalists what type of trash they found the most of. “We found mostly plastic trash,” replied Melissa. Avery ran a finger down her worksheet, counting her tally marks, and reported to Amy, “We collected more than 150 pieces!”
The young Environmentalists from John Muir Elementary School were very proud to improve the health of their special local greenspace.
