Benmudgett28
Registered: December 2011
Posts: 1
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Our Challenge
“We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will”(Chuck Palahniuk). Not one person is immortal, but the ideals that we leave behind can exist indefinitely. We, as human beings, have this idea that the earth is ours; place to trash and use up. But the reality is that we do not own the earth; the earth owns us. What we do to the earth, we do to ourselves. This is not a home just for just humans, but a place for all kinds of life. Generations are remembered for the great accomplishments they achieve, but consequently their great failures as well. It is time for us to do something to reverse the great slow bleed that we have caused and create morals and habits that will live on forever.
My name is Benjamin Mudgett and I am a junior at Windsor High School in Windsor, California. At Windsor High School we have a dynamic “core” system for our grade levels. Freshmen and sophomores are paired up in an alternating two year course while juniors and seniors are given a choice between seven different focus areas for their last years of high school. These seven areas are Humanities, Advanced Placement, Pre-Med, Digital, Arts, Vineyard (culinary and business), and lastly WISE or the Windsor Institute for Sustainability and the Environment. I chose WISE core and we focus on the issues at hand concerning the environment and the heroes who protect it. The way the earth is treated reflects us as human beings. In the town of Windsor we have one major flood channel, or a place where flood water can flow into the watershed. Traditional flood channels were concrete trapezoids where water lay stagnant. The Sonoma County Water Agency took on the task of turning natures’ flood channels, our creeks, into living flood channels where life and functionality can coexist in harmony. Windsor Creek goes right through our small town and meets up with the Russian River, the final channel in the watershed and the vein that leads to the ocean. Windsor Creek is where I conducted my Apprentice Ecologist Project.
Every time it rains in the Windsor Creek watershed, the water goes to the creek and ergo brings all sorts of litter to the creek, causing Windsor Creek to get polluted easily. Being a Steelhead Trout bearing stream, it is vital to protect Windsor Creek from harmful materials. This is where I chose to do my project, a full scale creek clean-up. By cleaning the creek we are preventing this waste from making its way to the Russian River, thus preventing it from flowing to the oceans which would pollute the whole world; we are all connected and anything that one of us does echoes outwards like ripples in a pond. This, more than any other reason, makes it important to think sustainably. At Windsor High School, I am president of our Eco-Club, a club that spreads awareness about the environment and methods of sustainability. I recruited the support of my fellow members of Eco-Club to help clean up this creek just down the street from Windsor High School.
We collected five huge bags full of waste that had become lodged in the creek such as plastic bags, cans, paper, spray paint cans, large pieces of wood and plastic, even whole tires that had somehow been taken to the creek. This project benefited the community because it helped teach the youth of our community how flood channels work and why they are so fragile. Those who helped in this project learned life skills about why it is important to take care of the earth and the benefits of thinking proactively. This project also helped the environment because we cleaned a major artery of Sonoma County and helped to keep the life in the creek free of harmful materials. We saved the lives of plants, animals, and more by taking this preventative measure and removing the trash from the equation entirely.
“You’re only what you give back”(Imogen Heap). We are only what we make of ourselves and others notice us most when we do good for our community and the environment. This project made me feel good about myself because it inspired me into action to do more for the planet and I hope that the other youth who helped were as moved as I. Doing good for the environment and getting exercise while you are at it really is a good feeling. It makes the impending challenge of cleaning up the mess we have created not so bad. It makes this challenge human, conquerable, just like us. It gives a chance at success for us and this one of a kind world that we were given, that is not ours, but something that we borrow from the future generations, something that we must take care of at all costs.
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