In honour of National Indigenous Peoples Day, three Grade 9 science classes from Stanley Humphries Secondary School in Castlegar hit the streets with paint brushes and great white sturgeon stencils. Their mission: to paint bright blue sturgeons beside the storm drains, hand out flyers to local homeowners, raise community awareness about the plight of these ancient fish and remind residents that storm drain water does not go through the sewage treatment plant. The project was a Student Action Project, an important part of Know Your Watershed, a program of the Columbia Basin Trust, administered and managed by Wildsight.
With the gracious support of the City of Castlegar, students painted numerous storm drains around the local schools and toward Millennium Park and Zuckerburg Island to act as a reminder that storm drain water goes directly into the Columbia River and could impact our critical white sturgeon population and hinder fish habitat.
The white sturgeon is Canada’s largest fresh water fish, and these ancient armoured bony plated fish are found in only two B.C. watersheds: the Fraser River and Columbia River Basins. Reaching lengths of over six meters, weight of up to 635 kilograms and a lifespan of over a hundred years, these incredible fish need our help and support. Our local Grade 9 students would like to encourage the community at large to be mindful of what goes down the storm drains, including eliminating all plastics, glass, cleaning agents, waste oils and petroleum-based products.
Thank you to the local teachers, Ed Garlinge, Sommer Belanger and Branwen Hainsworth for their participation, and to Wildsight and Columbia Basin Trust and their continued support of the Know Your Watershed program, as well as the continued assistance of the City of Castlegar staff.