Around 250 fifth graders from each of Park City School District’s four elementary schools learned about conservation and eco-friendliness at Recycle Utah’s annual sustainability festival Monday.
A 20-year tradition, Recycle Utah Education Director Chelsea Hafer said the festival is meant to empower kids and teach them about environmental issues.
“A lot of the time it feels like some of these big environmental problems are not something that we can do much about, but we have examples of people who are dedicating their entire careers to sustainability in our community,” she said.
The students met some of those people Monday.
Gathered in a field west of McPolin Elementary, small groups rotated between 10 organizations. Each taught the students about a different aspect of sustainability and connected them with resources.
Wasatch Mountain State Park’s Kathey Donnell and her red-tailed hawk Zephyr were a fan favorite. With the hawk perched on her arm, Donnell taught the kids about what wild birds need to survive.
She then encouraged the students to keep Zephyr in mind when thinking about how to be sustainable in their own lives.
“She's also teaching about what they can do to keep the planet healthy,” Donnell said. “[With] her as the ambassador to think about, OK, there's other things out there that need food, water, shelter, and space.”
The Utah Department of Natural Resources educated students about the June Sucker, a threatened fish only found in Utah Lake.
Through a game of musical chairs, officials demonstrated how fish populations can be affected by drought and predators. June Sucker populations, they said, can indicate the health of Utah Lake’s entire ecosystem.
At the Summit Land Conservancy station, Sarah Tabak said the kids learned how the nonprofit protects water by saving land.
“We're doing this through a fun little game where they get to play conservationist for a day, buying properties before the developer gets all the properties, and their goal is to get the properties that protect the watershed the most,” she said.
Parleys Park Elementary teacher Gabriel Carreras said the festival allows students to connect what they learn in the classroom with the real world.
“It's a great reinforcement of the concepts that we teach, plus continuing to generate awareness and the importance of taking care of our environment,” he said.
The Swaner Preserve and EcoCenter, Summit Community Gardens and EATS, Mountain Regional Water Special Service District, Park City Library, Waste Less Solutions, local stormwater leaders and Summit County lands team also helped inform students at the festival.
