CONSERVATION
AWARD
Ray Receiving grant creating the Land And Water Management Course from the Minister of Education
The Upper Assiniboine River Conservation District is honoured to announce our Conservation Award for 2011. This year we present Ray Cochrane.
Ray is a biology and science teacher at the Virden Collegiate Institute who the U.A.R.C.D. works with to provide environmental education opportunities and hands on experiences to students from the Virden area.
A brief biography of Ray is as follows:
 |
·
Graduated
from Brandon University with a Science degree, Major in Zoology; Minor in
Botany. |
|
·
Worked for 8
years as the Field & Research Supervisor with the City of Winnipeg,
Parks & Recreation Department, Insect Control Branch. |
|
·
Went back to
university to eventually become a biology and science teacher @ Virden
Collegiate. |
|
·
Various classes
have participated in conservation practices/competitions with the UARCD and
other conservation agencies: |
|
·
Riparian tree
planting Scallion Creek, Virden 2005 |
|
·
Tree planting in
the Bosshill Creek (Studer
gully), 2006 |
|
·
Stream
monitoring/tree planting Virden, 2007 |
|
·
Stream
monitoring/macroinvertebrate sampling & identification, Oct. 2009 |
|
·
Tree planting at
Virden Collegiate, June 2010 |
|
·
Stream
monitoring/macroinvertebrate sampling, Oct. 2010 |
|
·
Shoreline clean
up Scallion Creek Virden, Sept. 2011 |
|
·
Caring for Our
Watershed provincial competitions – individual students of the Grade 12
Biology classes won 1st place in both 2010 and 2011. These
students were awarded $1000 each. Three other student submissions were
selected to be in the top 10 within the province. These
students were also recipients of financial awards. |
|
·
Wetland Centre of
Excellence is an ongoing program based at Eternal Springs with funding from
Ducks Unlimited. VCI students act as mentors for ecological outdoor
activities for Grade 4 classes. It started in the spring of 2010. |
|
· Land Management/Water Conservation course has been developed with UARCD and is offered to students from Reston Collegiate, Elkhorn School and Virden Collegiate. It is an online course which includes outdoor activities. The course is recognized for credit by Assiniboine Community College in Brandon. This course was selected as the winner of the 2008 Premier Award for School Board Innovation. |
CONGRATULATIONS AND THANK YOU!
PAST WINNERS: 2010-The
Johnson Family 2009- The
Greaves Family (Silver Bend Ranch) 2008-Mickey
& Gloria Hersak (Conservation Farms) 2007-Wayne &
Isobel Basso 2006-Grip Fast
Farms Doug Turnbull & Carol Lanz-Turnbull & Family 2005-Ryan &
Kendra Sitko & Family 2004-Huybrecht
Family 2003-Waller Family
Farm 2002 - Bob
& Barb Kostesky & Family 2001 - Ja-Lyn Farms- The Lowes
Family. 2000 - Mark & Cindy Morton & family 1999 - Les & Marlene Bryant & family.1998 - Cyril & Teri Laferriere &
family 1997
- Kevin & Kay Lelond & family
