Last week, 50 Grade 8 students from Parkland Middle School pushed up their sleeves and pulled weeds for three hours at Elizabeth Lake, filling nearly 40 heavy-duty garbage bags.

The weed pull was a special Student Action Project, organized as part of Columbia Basin Trust’s Know Your Watershed program.

East Kootenay Invasive Plants Council summer students Hope and Blair educated the students about weed identification and pulling techniques, and provided the gloves, bags and tools. Some of the invasive weeds pulled by the Grade 8s included yellow toadflax, dalmatian toadflax, burdock, thistle, knapweed, mullen and curled dock.

“The coolest part of the weed pull was how keen the students were,” said Dave Quinn, Know Your Watershed Educator. “It is hard work pulling weeds in the hot sun, especially pulling plants like dock that have these huge roots, or spiky thistles, but the kids got right into it! Controlling weeds has been a huge challenge at Elizabeth Lake, but with efforts like this, the area has the best chance possible to provide great habitat for native plants and wildlife.”

Know Your Watershed is a regionally based watershed education program of the Columbia Basin Trust delivered throughout the Canadian portion of the Columbia Basin since 2010.  Administered and managed by Wildsight, the program is designed specifically for students and supports teachers in delivering the Science 8 curriculum.  Students take part in two classroom sessions and a full-day field trip to increase their knowledge and awareness of their watershed and water-related issues in their communities.

Wildsight

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