Soil Maker is a Winner at York Region Sci-Tech Fair

NEMARKET - April 16, 2009 - The Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority (LSRCA) proudly presented the LSRCA Award to Geoffrey Sem at the York Region Sci-Tech Fair on Saturday, April 4. Geoffrey’s project, “Home-made Organic Soil Versus Commercial Soil in Plant Growth: Which is Better?”, demonstrated a high degree of scientific analysis and incorporated a number of conservation values and actions.

The LSRCA Award is presented to an outstanding project related to protecting, restoring or conserving natural resources, such as water, forests, land, and fish and wildlife. The award is open to students attending school in the York Region area.

In his first experiment, Geoffrey, a student from Richmond Hill, composted 12 different household-wastes then mixed the compost with shredded paper. Then he planted seeds in his mixture and a commercial potting soil. To conserve water, Geoffrey recycled bath water into his pots.

The result was disappointing – none of the seeds in Geoffrey’s mixture grew and it stank. Not giving up, he hypothesized that this was because the mixture was too dense and not aerated. So Geoffrey added some cedar wood chips to his mix and tried the experiment again. This time the seeds germinated and grew. In fact, four out of his twelve different composting mixes exceeded the growth rate of the commercial potting soil. And the soil no longer had a bad odour.

Geoffrey’s project supports the values the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority promotes through its composting of household waste and shredded waste paper, the use of wood chips instead of peat moss and recycling of grey water. In addition to winning the LSRCA’s environmental conservation award, Geoffrey’s project also took home a gold medal from the York Region Sci-Tech Fair. With the gold medal, Geoffrey will be traveling to Winnipeg in May to compete against more than 480 other young scientists at the Canada-Wide Science Fair (May 9-16).

The Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority’s prize of $100 does not entitle the conservation authority to any part of Geoffrey’s intellectual property. Interested gardeners must contact Geoffrey for his soil recipe.

The conservation authority’s interest in environmental concerns extends beyond the watershed. As the LSRCA continues to focus its efforts on the local, watershed scale, it supports environmental work that is done at the regional level and beyond. One way to support regional work is through partnerships with the York Region boards of education.

The LSRCA offers outdoor education programs for students at the Professor Smith Educational Centre and Scanlon Creek Nature Centre. For more information, please call 905-895-1281.