Ontario Nature’s second annual Youth Writing Contest

Today’s adolescents are a well-informed group. Quite often, they are disarmingly knowledgeable about pressing environmental topics: climate change, air pollution, endangered species. No doubt they wonder what kind of world they will inherit when they are their parents’ age.

So, for Ontario Nature’s second annual youth writing challenge, we asked kids in grades 7 and 8, “What will the environment be like in 2050?” Members of the selection committee – Gary Clement, winner of a Governor General’s Award for his children’s book The Great Poochini; Stephanie Foster, director of the Centre for Environment and Sustainability at Upper Canada College and an Ontario Nature board member; and Caroline Schultz, Ontario Nature’s executive director – can attest that choosing the winning essays from the more than 100 submitted was not easy. Published here are the top three, which the judges found to be insightful and thought-provoking.

The writers of the winning essays received their awards at Ontario Nature’s annual general meeting in June. Waste Management, Inc. sponsored the contest.

Weeping Wetlands

by Jenna

Sitting on a bench, looking into a little creek; a small trout swam by. Ducks were quacking and splashing their wings in the water. A butterfly landed on a leaf, moving its wings up and down slowly. The sun danced through the window onto this imitation of a wetland. People began to come in, flooding the pavilion at the zoo to see what they could have seen 50 years ago. The Canadian wetlands were close to gone because they were seen as a waste of land. Wetlands were so full of life like fish, birds, amphibians and small mammals. The marshes used to have tall and majestic whooping cranes. But the government flooded and poisoned their land to get rid of mosquitoes. Large marshes were bulldozed to build small cities that grow into big cities that take out other wetlands and forests. As always, man doesn’t know what he has until it is gone.

A little girl stopped to watch the ducks playing in the water. She watched them as though she were seeing them for the first time. The swamp where I used to see the ducks swim, filtered the water we drink, was removed for a mall. There used to be a small creek by the school where that girl goes; it absorbed rain and melting snow, and reduced flooding like it was a sponge. Then it was cut off for a playground.

I got up and walked with the crowd into the next room. An indoor pond full of salmon was next on display. I started thinking about when I was a little girl and I’d see them migrating through creeks. “Over 95 percent of southern Ontario’s wetlands are gone. Please enjoy our display of what they would have looked like,” read the plaque near the exhibit. I started asking myself some questions: If I had said something about the bulldozing of Mallard’s Marsh, would the species of mallard ducks not be endangered? If I had helped on the Earth Day cleanup of the swamp, would it still be there? If I had cared when I was a little girl, would our wetlands still thrive? If it took God millions of years to create Earth, and it took man only thousands to destroy it, are we next? These thoughts went through my head from then until I was home. In 2050, the wetlands of Canada have a dim future.

Near my house there still is a marsh. Every year birds flew through to head south. The government called me a lot and asked that I let them put in a shopping mall. I was going to let them until I visited the zoo that day and saw what would be gone. Thirty types of migratory birds would never get south. The salmon that go through would never lay their eggs. I decided that I would bring the mayor and convince him that my marsh is important by showing him my wildlife and how it helps us in general.

Three Years Later

Ever since the mayor said he was going to leave my marsh alone, I’ve seen frogs, salmon, whooping cranes, canvasbacks and even deer, most of which I didn’t think lived here anymore. I see them every week, and it has shown me that it is the most rewarding thing I have ever done.

Just Change

by L. Jarvis

And in later news tonight, we will be with scientific experts discussing the dramatic climate change that has affected us over these past years, and what it might have in store for us in the years to come.” Sarah clicked off the TV.

“What a waste of time,” she muttered to herself. Sarah checked the time … half past one. With nothing better to do she decided she might as well leave early for her visit with her dad. Sarah got up, grabbed her purse and cell phone, and then paused and thought to herself, “Jacket? Or no jacket?” She looked outside. Being the middle of November in Toronto, you would expect it to be cold, maybe even some snow. But for the last many years the temperature had been drastically getting warmer. Sarah decided she might as well bring her jacket in case, and then she left. Once she walked outside she immediately regretted bringing her jacket. It was boiling out. She was happy, though; she loved the heat.

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