What are the Environmentally Active Kids of Tuc-El-Nuit

up to this year?!

The first problem startswith salt and water…

The Senior E.A.Ks are the SALT of the earth!

The town of Oliver has a secondary sewage treatment system.

Reclaimed water from this system is used to irrigate a golf

course, 2 vineyards & other green spaces around town.

That’s a GREAT idea, isn’t it?

Think again!

There’s too muchsalt

in the waterAnd it’s killing

the trees!

The E.A.Ks got involved when they discovered that reclaimed water was going to be used on

the school grounds.

Worried that their trees would be dead before they got to grade 8, the kids started:

Googling!

Calling!

Touring!

What they discovered was not what they expected…

“Mineral salts are always

present in the soil in

different amounts”

“Through history, too

much irrigation always

leads to salinization of

the soil, which leads to

desertification and the

collapse of civilizations!”

Salinization is the build

up of salt in the soil.

Desertification is when an

area turns into desert

due to too much salt

killing the plants

“Adding NaCl (sodium chloride) speeds up this process...and industrial and residential water softeners are the main source of these salts.”

Too much NaCl kills plants in 3 ways:

1. It causes dehydration

2. It blocks photosynthesis

Too much NaCl kills plants in 3 ways:

3. It creates a waterproof salt pan

Too much NaCl kills plants in 3 ways:

There is NO GOOD WAY to remove salt from the

ground!

Salt also can’t be removed by sewage treatment systems!

Back to Oliver, turns out that the golf course has

tried to plant new maple trees, but they can’t

survive in the salinized soil.

The pines are also dying, from too much salt and overwatering. The old

maple trees are not expected to last much

longer either.

The E.A.Ks concluded that there is no safe amount

of salt that can be added to reclaimed water.

There are only 2 solutions:

Ban water softeners

Stop using reclaimed wateror

The E.A.Ks sent their results to the paper and the town.

They have also visited a school board meeting

and talked to the trustees about the

problem.It’s a work in progress!

Project Two: Flushed Away!

Problem: Find an alternative to the continual flow urinals

in the school toilets!

Solutions:

Install a timer

Buy dry urinals

Put motion sensors on the urinals

The E.A.Ks have decided on the timers, but Tuc-el-nuit may be closing down soon so that project is on

hold for now…

The Junior E.A.Ks areWinging It!Project 3

Did you know that 14 of the province’s 16 species of bats can be found in

the Okanagan Similkameen?

And did you know that 6 of these species are listed

as being at risk?

The Junior E.A.Ks decided to help the bats out by

building 14 summertime homes!

Bats can eat up to 1000 insects a night!

We hope they eat lots of mosquitoes, because

they can give us the West Nile virus.

The 14 bat boxes will provide the bats with a safe and cozy place to

spend the summer.

The Junior E.A.Ks are also responsible for Tuc-el-nuit’s Western Bluebird

trail. This is the 15th year!

Over 1,000 Western Bluebirds have been

fledged over the years!

The Junior E.A.Ks have concluded that winged

critters are very effective insect munchers.

They are:

Environmentally Friendly!

EntertainingInteresting to learn aboutInexpensive

and

So skip the insecticides and pass me another

piece of plywood!

Thanks for watching!