Local students learned the importance of wetlands ecosystems on a recent field trip to Lac La Nonne.
Environmental Day, an event sponsored by the Lac La Nonne Enhancement and Protection Association (LEPA), held at the Senior’s Lakeside Centre on Highway 33 on Tuesday, May 31, was attended by students from both Rich Valley Elementary School and Neerlandia Christian Public School (NPCS), LEPA president Greg Hall said it was a great day filled with education and sunshine.
“We’ve [LEPA] done this for about four years now,” Hall said adding the seniors in the area support the endeavour and are always excited to have kids come.
For the students, Hall said, the day was spent focused on the area’s wetlands — how to properly identify animals and plants, taking water samples, et cetera, and was a culmination of the units the students had been studying in both schools.
LEPA facilitator Penny Stephani agreed.
“Events like this have been going on here for about 10 years now,” Stephani said, adding it all started with the Lac La Nonne Watershed Stewardship Society (LWSS).
“I used to work at Agriculture Canada in Westlock before all of its offices were shut down, and parts of my job included water quality and education with children,” she said, adding when LWSS became defunct and LEPA stepped in, she was hired by the association to organize events like this.
The students, working with Stephani, were given the chance to use specially prepared canisters that held two temperature gauges on the outside, in order to test the lake’s water for temperature, turbidity, pH (potential hydrogen) and oxygen levels.
“This time of year, the plants are growing and the weather is good and so we typically see good oxygen levels in the lakes, normal pH levels, and when you’re doing samples like this, it is important to include all of the relevant information — date, time, location, even things you might not think are important, like cloud cover, all of it helps the people who look at these samples to determine whether or not results are in healthy, normal ranges,” Stephani told the students of Kim Sybesma’s Grade 4/5 class from NCPS, before allowing them to head to the lake’s edge for sample taking purposes.
“A healthy water pH is in the range of 5.5 to 9-9.5,” Stephani said. “Anything between that is OK for fish and other wildlife in the lake, but anything outside of that and things start to die.”
To put that into perspective, Stephani asked the students where they thought fluids such as citrus fruit juices, blood and ammonia were within the 0-14 range of pH.
Understandably, most thought the substances were closer to the middle of the range and considered neutral.
“Blood is a 6.8, but by contrast, the majority of citrus fruits and Coca Cola are highly acidic, ranking at a 2.5 or 3 on the pH range,” Stephani said, adding ammonia has a pH of 14.
“The students were really receptive and I think hands-on, outdoor-type learning is the best,” she said, adding the presenters were all highly knowledgeable and the material meshed well with the students’ curriculum.
