Earth Day Essay Contest Winner: Rylee Hersh

Happy Earth Day! We are happy to announce this year’s Earth Day Essay Contest winner, Rylee Hersh from Sterling Intermediate School. Rylee’s essay answered the question “How can a middle school student be an effective steward of the environment?”

As the winner of the contest, Rylee received a hand painted field journal from local artist Heater A. Wallis Murphy and a day of white water rafting on the Wenatchee River with Orion Expeditions. We are also posting her essay on our website for the public’s edification. Here is Rylee’s essay:

     The enviornment gets worse and worse every year. Trash piles up, the air gets dirtier and dirtier, and plastic that can be recycled is thrown away. Middle school students can make positive changes to help manage the environment. They can manage their trash, do many activities to stop air pollution, and recycle. 

     Students can manage their trash to improve the environment. As Los Angeles Times states, when kids in a Los Angeles school district eat lunch, they take way more than they can eat. This is because of the rule where they enforce kids to take at least on vegetable. Kids don't like vegetables as much, so they throw it away. 18 million dollars worth of food is thrown away in Los Angeles schools. Kids have also made trash art, as Legacy International says. Trash piles up, students can do something about it!

     Students help by doing activities to prevent air pollution. The website EPA Victoria states that the largest cause of air pollution is cars. Cars burn fossil fuels. Car exhaust makes up most of the air pollution in the world. Legacy International describes how many kids have already taken action and decided to ride their bikes to school. Riding a bike to school won't give off the exhaust that cars do, so people can ride bikes to stop pollution in the sky. Middle school students can do many activities to stop air pollution. 

     Students improve the environment by recycling. The website Stage Of Life says that a plastic bottle can sit in a landfill for 500 years before even starting to compost. In other words, Stage Of Life recommends that kids and adults should not drink from plastic water bottles. Instead, use a refillable water bottle to help the environment. The same thing is happening with plastic grocery bags, plastic doesn't start to compost for hundreds of years while in a garbage dump, so use a reusable grocery bag too. Students can make a big difference by recycling. 

     It takes one small act to recycle a bottle rather than throwing it away. It takes a little bit of work to ride a bike instead of hopping in a car. It takes little effort to take food a kid will eat. Small acts lead to a big difference. Middle school students can change the environment positively. They can recycle, do activities to slow air pollution, and manage their trash. 

-Rylee Hersh

Well said and congratulations, Rylee!

Today’s snowpack is 42% of the 34 year average (ftp://ftp.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/data/water/wcs/gis/maps/wa_swepctnormal_update.pdf).