• Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society
• Trout Unlimited - Yellow Fish Road
• Alberta Conservation Association - "Boudreau Habitat Acquisition"
• City of Red Deer - "Green Deer Program"
• Lethbridge - Alberta Birds of Prey Foundation
• City of Red Deer: Recreation, Parks and Culture Department
• Calgary Zoological Society
• Oldman River Basin Water Quality Initiative
• I.C.O.C Trees for Life Canada
• Crescent Heights High School
• Ronald Harvey Elementary School
• Medicine River Wildlife Centre
• Calgary - Mobile Greenhouses for Education

Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society

Each year, Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society encourages the community to come out and help "Purge the Spurge!" "Purge the Spurge!" is a public education/awareness campaign to inform the public about the impacts introduced weeds (with an emphasis on Leafy Spurge) can have on native species. The event took place on June 21, 2004 at Fish Creek Provincial Park, where the public was invited to join the "Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society" pulling spurge plants from selected locations within the park. This event has been very successful over the past four years.

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City of Red Deer: Recreation, Parks and Culture Department

Red Deer boasts one of the most attractive cities in Western Canada, and the City of Red Deer would like to keep it this way by controlling litter. The Green Deer Campaign was created to enlist the cooperation of merchants, schools, community associations, local groups and residents in the cleaning of local areas. Each one of these groups commit to cleaning their immediate areas, while the City will keep a record of how successful each group was. The City also will deliver bags and pick up the trash at the conclusion of the event. What a great way to bring your community together!

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Calgary Zoological Society

Funding was provided to assist The Calgary Zoo's 'Flying Free' project. Expanding human activities are placing unprecedented pressures on raptors (birds of prey) leading wildlife rehabilitation centers to admit thousands of injured and poisoned birds each year. While many of the birds appear to heal sufficiently for release back into the wild, an extensive literature review shows that the migratory ability and long-term survival of rehabilitated raptors has not been evaluated anywhere in the world. The Flying Free project is designed to unravel this mystery, improve veterinary treatments and release strategies, and increase the public's understanding of migratory animals and the challenges facing raptors.

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Oldman River Basin Water Quality Initiative

For the previous five years, the Oldman River Basin Water Quality Initiative has been studying the water quality along the Beaver Creek on a monthly basis and gathering baseline data. Recently, landowners have begun to implement beneficial management practices (BMPs) such as installing frost-free nose pumps, fencing off river access, and improving wintering sites in order to reduce their impact on water quality. Funding was granted for this years project, which was to monitor the water downstream of three of these sites (lower Beaver Creek, near the mouth of the Little Bow River and at the bottom of the Battersea Drain) during the open water period when agriculture is most active. Ten samples will be taken during this period and the analysis will include nutrients, bacteria and field measurements. This water testing is important to make sure that the implemented BMPs are effective. To measure the level of success of these projects a comparison will be done with the new information to the baseline data collected in previous years.

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I.C.O.C Trees for Life Canada

Funding was provided to I.C.O.C Trees for Life Canada to assist in their "Grow-A-Tree Project". Children are amused and entertained through riddles, jokes and activities that provide information and knowledge about the role that trees play in maintaining the ecological balance on our planet. Each project kit contains work/activity books for children, a manual for the teacher, seed planting cartons for children, and seeds of an indigenous tree. Through the school year, teachers use the material in the teacher's manual to guide the children through their work/activity book. As a part of the environment activities, children plant seeds in the planting-cartons to grow a seedling.

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Crescent Heights High School

A grant was approved to fund a student-run recycling program at Crescent Heights High School. The funds were used towards purchasing containers and collection bins. The students believed that recognizable containers is one step toward raising awareness of the school recycling program. Having their own large collection bins has removed the need to pay rent on containers from Redi Enterprises. Crescent Heights High School has weekly paper and cardboard pick-up from the classrooms and common pick-up points. The students who run the recycling program have arranged for paper recyclables to be picked up twice a month, they believe this will accommodate their current volume and reduce garbage and garbage fees for their school. In addition, the students will begin to start collecting used ink jet containers that can be turned in for a donation to the local food bank.

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Ronald Harvey Elementary School

The Living Wise Program combines classroom activities with hands-on retrofit projects that students perform in their homes with their families. This combination yields tangible conservation results and strong learning impact, effectively shaping new resource use behavior and attitudes. The Living Wise Program is comprehensive, providing all materials, supplies, teaching tools and support needed by teachers and participants. Students conduct an audit to determine areas in their homes where their families are using water and energy inefficiently. Families work together to improve efficiency by changing habits and through the installation of the conservation technologies provided to each student in their "Resource Action Kit". These activities foster family cooperation and help educate parents on the benefits and wisdom of conservation. This is a great way to help build new habits and motivate conservation practices while providing information in a fun format.

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Medicine River Wildlife Centre

The Medicine River Wildlife Centre (MRWC) is Alberta's largest wildlife hospital and education centre. MRWC requested funding to upgrade all existing outdoor hospital cages and the construction of four new compounds. Wild animals and birds which have been injured due to human intervention in the environment are given a second chance on life to recover at MRWC. Once fully rehabilitated, the former patients are returned to their natural habitat. The outdoor hospital cages play a vital role in the success of our rehabilitation process. Indoor intensive care areas are kept quiet but can never be as healing as a piece of the natural habitat. This is why wild patients are removed from the indoor hospital as soon as possible and put into safe environments outside that simulate their natural habitats.

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University of Alberta Future Truck

Teams of students from the top fifteen North American universities are challenged to re-engineer a conventional, mid-size Ford Explorer into a lower-emissions vehicle with at least 25% higher fuel economy - without sacrificing the performance, utility and safety consumers want. The teams employ cutting edge technologies, including advanced propulsion systems, lightweight materials, and alternative fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel.

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Calgary
Rockyview School Division
The Green start Project - Mobile Greenhouses for Education

The Greenstart Project travels to schools with a classroom in a mobile greenhouse that is fully equipped to enhance the delivery of curriculum based objectives through hands-on inquiry based activities. This collaborative learning opportunity will increase student awareness and appreciation for the importance of plants globally for our survival and locally with emphasis on plant species indigenous to Alberta. It is the only mobile greenhouse educational program available. Educators recognize this as a unique way to engage the elementary, junior and senior high students with inspiring environmental learning with meaning.

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Trout Unlimited
Yellow Fish Road

Yellow Fish Road^TM(YFR) is an educational, community-based environmental action program aimed at youth across Canada. Participants paint yellow fish next to storm drains and distribute fish-shaped brochures to surrounding residences. These activities remind residents that anything that enters the storm drain system ends up in the local water body, untreated.

Since 1991, Trout Unlimited's Yellow Fish Road program has reached thousands Canadians with the messages of watershed stewardship and pollution prevention. The program has grown considerably over the past two years, developing partnerships with youth groups and municipalities and reaching new communities. 2005 alone saw a six-fold increase in participation over 2004, reaching over 7000 children and almost 28,000 households.

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Alberta Conservation Association
(Edmonton, St. Albert and Spruce Grove)
"Boudreau Habitat Acquisition"

This project would involve acquiring the necessary funds to purchase a 14.5 acre parcel of land for sale in the community of Faust, Alberta, to protect a large blue heron rookery that the land supports. This property would be maintained as undisturbed wildlife habitat with minimal maintenance costs involved. Public access (non-motorized) will be maintained providing recreational opportunities such as bird watching, hiking and photography. Although a small area of land, these forested parcels on the south shore of Lesser Slave Lake are extremely valuable to conserve for fisheries and wildlife values. Development along this south corridor of the lake is rapidly expanding which means remaining native parcels, especially those currently used by wildlife for breeding, must be protected. The acquisition of this property supports the organization's goal of securing habitat along the Lesser Slave Lake shoreline and protecting essential nesting habitat for migratory colony nesters.

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City of Red Deer
"Green Deer Program"

The Green Deer Campaign encourages local community groups, schools, service clubs, families and residents to make a difference and participate in garbage collection initiatives. The garbage collected is usually in public areas, school yards and green spaces throughout Red Deer. In 2007 Green Deer added an educational component to the campaign.

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Lethbridge
Alberta Birds of Prey Foundation

Funding provided would be used to purchase food to feed the injured birds in this organization's care. Mice are especially needed to feed orphan babies that are brought each spring. Four years ago the only local bird-food supplier permanently closed. Although a new local source has recently been found, supply still does not meet the need. The facility is the only wildlife rescue centre which serves all of southern Alberta.

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