Yellow Fish Road

Cliona came to visit us from Yellow Fish Road™ in May, 2010. Yellow Fish Road™ is a Trout Unlimited Canada program that educates the public about the impacts of dumping household chemicals down urban storm drains. Storm drains (catch basins) are the drains found on the street by the curb. This is where rainwater drains off the street, goes through a network of underground tunnels, and then ends up in a local water body. Don’t confuse storm drains with manholes! Manholes are a not necessarily part of the sewage system – they could be access points to underground cables, pipes and other structures. In most cities, water entering storm drains goes directly into local rivers, streams and lakes untreated. These household chemicals can harm fish and wildlife, as well as reduce drinking water quality for humans.

Yellow Fish Road™ gave us the materials we needed to paint “yellow fish” symbols beside storm drains and distribute fish-shaped brochures to nearby households. These activities remind people to dispose of unwanted household products in an environmentally sound way, rather than allowing these to enter curb side storm drains.

Marking storm sewer drains and distributing the fish-shaped brochures on the Yellow Fish Road™ program informs residents in your community that anything that goes into the storm sewer system goes directly into the local water body. Reducing the amount of the products we use and using “environmentally responsible” products can reduce the amount and impact of pollutants entering the watershed.

Click here for In School Portion of the Yellow Fish Road™ presentation.

Click here for Out of School Portion of the Yellow Fish Road™ work.

Click here for the Delivering Flyers Portion of the Yellow Fish Road™.

Welcome to Glendale School Cliona!!


Cliona started the presentation by chatting with us about what we know about water in rivers and lakes vs. water in the ocean. We discussed fresh water and the need to protect it. Cliona had two wonderful fish hats that we got to wear.



After our discussion we all drew what we thought of fresh water areas like lakes and streams.





Then we got to explore what really goes into storm drains by acting it out on a model. As a class we placed vehicles in both city and farm areas. Then we added food dye to represent both fertilizer and pesticides. Next we sprinkled chocolate candy sprinkles to represent animal droppings. Then we sprayed water from a spray bottle to represent the rain. When it rains, all the herbicides, pesticides, fertilizer, droppings, garbage and pollution run into the storm drains which go into our rivers and hurt both the environment and the animals in it of which we are one. Birds, animals, people and plants are harmed by our actions. We need to think about how to handle growing in a more ethical and human manner.



Here we putting on the pollution throughout the community and rural areas. After we add the rain (water in a spray bottle, the pollution runs throughout the roads and into the ground water. Once it makes it into the storm drains, the polluted water goes directly into the rivers--UNTREATED!!

The Outdoor Portion of Yellow Fish Road™
Finally, we went out to inform the Glendale community by using yellow fish brochures that we placed on every door handle and by marking the storm drain sites with a stencil of a yellow fish. Here is some of the finished work...

Our first job in creating the stencils was to dust off the sidewalk and road. Cleaning the surface allows a cleaner surface on which to paint the stenciled image. If the surface is cleaner, the paint will better affix to the sidewalk and road.

	The kindergarten students took to this outdoor stenciling task with gusto in that they asked me if we could go out, even on rainy days. I opted to wait for the sunnier days though, much to their dismay.
In some situations, the storm drain was absolutely filled and blocked with natural debris and garbage. The students took great pains to remove this debris from the grates in the storm drain so the water can flow freely. We found the debris heavy, musty, actually growing in some cases and a home to creatures as we found some worms and a centipede in the "garbage".

We filled two garbage bags so full we could not even lift them to dispose of them. That is when Mrs. Pickering came to the rescue. She had a little red wagon and she brought it in for us so we could take care of the waste we created. With this tool, we were absolutely able to take care of the entire job all by ourselves.


		Look Ma! We got just am teensy, weensy bit dirty!

We could not believe our eyes at the amount of garbage created by nature's debris and true litter. The students were repeatedly asked why these particular storm drains had so much garbage when other ones had none. Problem solving is just part of our thinking, be it within the classroom or out in the community!
		Off we go with one garbage bag half full to pick up an overwhelmingly full garbage bag we had to abandon the day before. Our intent was to ask for parental help to pick up the heavy garbage, but luck would have it, with the red wagon, we could take care of the job all on our own.
Once the surface of the pavement and road was dusted and cleaned, as well as any blocked storm drains, it was time to create the stenciling. We learned on the job. Our first stencils were more like blobs in that we did not attend to holding the stencil still. The students came up with the idea that it was imperative to keep the stencil completely still while the painting was occurring. We had to anticipate the paint roller creating friction and pressure against the stencil which would cause it to want to shift.






The students decided that rather than just two students holding the stencil still, it may be better to have more students--up to one per corner of the stencil.




	We were enjoying watching each of our classmates creating the stenciled fish and words on the road.


In these surrounding photographs, you can see how carefully the students worked together to isolate the stencil and keep it immobile as the third student in the group uses the roller to apply the yellow paint. We showed amazing improvement as the process went on. Practice definitely does make perfect. .

The Flyer Delivery portion of Yellow Fish Road™
	Next we needed to deliver the flyer information onto the neighbors door knobs to inform them of the urgency of protecting the cleanliness of our water.




		Thank you for viewing our neighborhood outreach to promote appropriate water protection.