by 3rd Grade class, Ventura Charter School
Our watershed and Steelhead are in trouble…but YOU can help us fix that. We are the 3rd grade environment advocates at Ventura Charter School and we want you to help us in our journey to protect our watershed and all those who rely on it. What is a watershed? A watershed is a piece of land that has water that spreads to different things like rivers, tributaries, streams and ultimately a drainage basin (either the ocean or a lake).
The Ventura River Watershed is important to all animals and living things. If we have an unhealthy watershed, we may become unhealthy, along with the animals that rely on it. One of the most special animals in our watershed is the Steelhead Trout. The Steelhead Trout used to be a common fish in the Ventura River for people to eat. Now, this fish is close to being extinct. It is on the critically endangered list. Steelhead are very important to the river and help keep it clean. Since the Matilija Dam was built, it has stopped the Steelhead from swimming upstream to spawn so they are losing places to lay eggs. Also, the dam is full of sediment. This is a problem because we now have less sand on our beaches and sand has to be brought in to maintain our habitats along the beach and estuary. Sometimes trash can fall into the storm drains and end up in our watershed and ocean. If we use harsh chemicals and pesticides for grass, weeds, and washing cars, this can runoff into the watershed during heavy rainfall.
It’s important to raise awareness to the issues that our watershed faces. Some of the issues that our watershed faces are the Matilija Dam (a dam that blocks sediment from going to our beaches and blocks the Steelhead from migrating to their spawning grounds), the plastic pollution that makes its way into our watershed, the trash pollution that makes its way into our watershed, overusing water and urban things (streets, sidewalks, houses, buildings) being build in the way of parts of our watershed. We want a healthy watershed.
You can help by doing the environmental challenge week (see below) and by raising awareness to the issues our watershed faces. Your voice and actions matter! The good news is that we can help our watershed by making different choices. We can use less detergent or environmentally friendly detergents, or even make our own. We can stop using pesticides in our yards. We can try to take shorter baths and showers (like Navy showers). We can use reusable bags instead of getting plastic ones, or take items from the store and place them in a cart to bring to the car. We can avoid buying anything made of plastic or wrapped in plastic. We can get reusable water bottles instead of plastic single-use ones. If you’re eating a meal out or at school, plan ahead and bring your own reusable silverware and plates. These are just a handful of ways you can help!
So far, we have/are:
- Done trash clean ups so that no trash goes into our ocean.
- Raising Steelhead to release so that their population will increase.
- Reducing our plastic spork usage by using metal silverware during recess and lunch.
- Hosting an Environmental Challenge for our school and community. The environmental challenge is:
- Avoid eating 2 of the 4 most water guzzling foods (almonds, beef, cheese, rice)
- Cut your trash usage in half.
- Avoid buying anything that is or has plastic.
- Hosting a clothing swap at our Winter Boutique so that we create less waste and one person’s trash can be another person’s treasure.
Now it’s your turn. Thank you for reading this piece. Please join us and help our watershed forever. With love for the environment, The Third Graders at Ventura Charter School of Arts and Global Education.
