The environment is on a lot of minds this week, as the Town of Okotoks is participating once again in the annual Environment Week.
With China having hosted the 2019 Environment Day on June 5 with a focus on air pollution, Okotoks tied that concept into the weeklong education event, while addressing other local green and sustainable impacts.
“Environment Week is a global event,” said Toni Matthews, a conservation educator with the Town. “This year the theme is air pollution and it’s taking place in China. It happens the first week of June and we participate every year by running our own environment week events here in Okotoks that have a local impact.”
Matthews, a fourth-year ecology major at the University of Calgary, is one of four conservation educators with the Town. The conservation educators are summer students that work to promote green and sustainable programs at events in Town, as well as conducting school and day camp presentations and other educational opportunities.
“All of our events are geared towards educating people on ways that they can reduce their footprint and also ways of reducing how much you’re throwing out,” she said.
The week kicked off with the popular Repair Café, and included events focused on wildlife in Okotoks—presented by Katrina Jensen, education co-ordinator with the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation—and a clean air day fair on Tuesday.
The conservation educators took the event to the Foothills Composite High School and the Holy Trinity Academy Wednesday morning, after advertising the event in advance to maximize participation.
“The idea with the ‘Green Action Day’ is any student who brings their own coffee mug or reusable coffee mug gets a free cup of coffee,” said Matthews. “That’s just trying to encourage people to realize if you do bring a reusable mug it’s way better than having to take that paper cup every time you buy a coffee.”
The conservation educators partnered with Cobs Bread Bakery for the “Green Action Day,” and rewarded students for answering environment themed trivia questions with free pastries.
“It’s just to educate them and make them aware of conservation initiatives,” Matthews said.
The week also saw a river walking tour with the Okotoks Museum and Archives from led by museum specialist Kathy Coutts, and “Critters of the Watershed” on Friday at the EPCOR Environmental Education Centre, which focused on the animals, bugs, and plants in the river valley.
Led by the Nature LEAD program—a certification program for youth aged 11+ that covers environmental topics—the “Critters of the Watershed” event was part of their final assessment towards their practicum, said Carey Gruber, Okotoks youth social development specialist.
The leaders walked dozens of children through different stations, which included arts and crafts, a scavenger hunt, making plant starters from newspaper (which compost when planted), and learning about taking care of nature and wildlife.
Environment Week in Okotoks will end with their two biggest events: a clothing exchange at the EPCOR Environmental Education Centre and document shredding at the operations centre on Saturday from 10-2 p.m.
The document shredding service offered by the Town wouldn’t seem like an environmental initiative, but Matthews said it comes down to recyclability.
“When you shred your documents, it’s actually supposed to be properly bagged and then placed in your recycling bin, and I think a lot of people don’t understand that,” she said. “This free service is actually helping because then it’s not getting sent to the recycling plant and contaminating the bin.”
To shred documents at home, the shreds are supposed to be placed in a clear plastic bag for recycling. By shredding documents through the Town service that job is taken care of for you, said Matthews.
For more information on Environment Week or the conservation educators, go to Okotoks.ca.
