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CHS Environmental Experience: Creating Signage to Promote Recreational Consciousness Across the Mat-SU Waterways:
I chose to take up creating waterway signage as my environmental advocacy project for 2 main reasons. Initially, Many recreational users in the Mat-Su are either unknowledgeable or careless when it comes to preventing their pollution, which has lead to endless issues (e.g. abundance of coliform bacteria, low dissolved oxygen, increased Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, etc). Secondly, although the AK Department of Environmental Conservation is monitoring and maintaining these waterways year round, they have not implemented a sign system like this at many of the waterways in my community. As members of this community it is our responsibility to educate and implement preventative lifestyles, because preventing water pollution is much easier than restoring already polluted water. Ultimately, my new understanding of this led me to the conclusion that providing my new found knowledge to the rest of my community is necessary, and would be most efficiently spread through a signage movement. Within this process I created 9 signs, made specifically for each waterway, while also creating and posting flyers in various locations throughout my community. I distributed the 9 signs at 6 different waterways (Cottonwood Creek, Cottonwood Lake, Lake Lucille, Wasilla Lake, Matanuska Lake, and Finger lake), at specific locations that experience a high visitation from recreational users (boat launches, entrances, docks, etc). My 3 goals, which drove the whole process/creation of my project were to create signs/flyers that warned, informed, and provided everyone an opportunity to educate themselves to a higher degree. On these posters was a specific warning on a leading pollutant at the waterway, that could be reduced by our actions, while also including a QR code that will lead to a page including: a explanation of my mission, a Q&A with AK DEC, a list of all my sign locations, and other Resources to expand your knowledge on the subject. These posters on top of my flyers (also included the qr code), ultimately created/proposed the opportunity to create a new understanding to anyone they contacted, on the influence each individual has on our waterways as a recreational user.
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