The Watershed Project
The Watershed Project grew out of an encouraging partnership with the East Kensington Outdoor Learning (EKOLogy) program in 2022, when our BC Environmental Education team began to dream about how students might move beyond coming to the A Rocha BC Centre for a class field trip, and instead, move to understand and care for their own local watershed.
A watershed is “a land area that channels rainfall and snowmelt to creeks, streams, and rivers, and eventually to outflow points such as reservoirs, bays, and the ocean” (NOAA), and everyone who relies on fresh, clean water, (i.e., all of us!) is invariably connected to a watershed. In fact, 90% of Canada’s drinking water comes from surface water. In the Fraser River Basin alone there are 12 major watersheds spanning 220,000 km2 (that’s 32 million football fields), sustaining communities and species alike, such as salmon, which rely on clean, flowing rivers to reach spawning grounds.
With generous support from TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, the vision has firmly taken shape, with seven schools in the Surrey school district participating in the Watershed Project. Each of the partnering schools are located near rivers and creeks, allowing students the opportunity to learn firsthand about the health of their local watersheds.
How does it work?
The Watershed Project begins with an initial assessment of the school’s local creek or river, particularly to find suitable access points for students to conduct their surveys safely. Teachers then take part in training sessions with the A Rocha team, including an on-site training where teachers get to use resources and tools found in our Watershed Kit to carry out the surveys.
Following that, teachers and students head outside, clipboards and dip nets in hand, to learn about and assess their watershed health. Using the Take a Dip kits provided by the City of Surrey, students measure water quality (including temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, nutrients, and turbidity), observe stream flow, identify aquatic invertebrates, record plant species, note salmonid presence, and assess the condition of the riparian forest.
Students jot down their observations and log their results as citizen scientists, sharing them with A Rocha, and the water quality test results with the City of Surrey.
Beyond the data collection, the Watershed Project invites students to pay attention and assess how their watershed is doing, how human activities may affect it, and how care can be practised locally. In the process of understanding their watershed, students learn to love their place, and grow in responsibility and action, one net dip at a time.
Criteria for Partnership:
School must be nearby to a stream, creek, or river where teachers can bring the kids to conduct surveys on a regular basis throughout the year. Components of the project will be dependent on continuing funding.
Partner Schools
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East Kensington Elementary School – Erickson Creek
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Semiahmoo Trail Elementary School – Anderson Creek
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Xw’epiteng Elementary School – Little Campbell River
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Douglas Elementary School – Little Campbell River
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Elgin Park Secondary School – Chantrell Creek
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Chantrell Creek Elementary – Chantrell Creek
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Maddaugh Elementary – Latimer Creek
A sneak peek of what’s inside the watershed kit
Kit supplies
- Binder (includes lesson plan and handouts for every survey)
- Stream flow measurement
- Bank measurement
- Riparian plant ID cards
- Water Quality surveys (City of Surrey Take a Dip tests)
- Aquatic invertebrate identification
- Salmonid identification
- Streamkeeper module sheets
- Take a Dip background info sheets
- Maps of the creek/watershed