Valley students dish the dirt for soil prizes

Worms, water and plants in bright colors splash messages of "The Living Soil" in the 2004 Alaska Association of Conservation Districts contest. The strong agricultural roots of Palmer and Wasilla showed their presence in this competition as Palmer and Wasilla artists earned first-place awards in all four categories.

Posters by Hannah Richards of Palmer, a first-grader at Academy Charter School; Sunny Ostendorf, a second-grader from Midnight Sun Family Learning Center in Wasilla; Sara Cannon, a sixth grader, also from Midnight Sun; and Christine Peterson, a senior from Palmer High all earned top honors in the contest and will be entered in a nationwide National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) poster contest to be judged next fall.

This year's posters show as much variance as creativity. Richards's poster in the grades K-1 category features smiling bugs and a rain-splashed flower in primary colors.

"A World of Soil is a World of Life" states Ostendorf's poster, which also shows a house, birds, a girl, carrots and a tree. Ostendorf won top honors in the grades 2-3 group.

Cannon's poster, the winner from grades 4-6, shows life in a glass, with an illustration of a soil cross-section with its layers and organisms along with the slogan "Soil: More Than Meets the Eye."

Finally, an intricate perspective of the tiny organisms in the soil of the Palmer farming area sets apart "The Living Soil … Building From the Ground Up" by Christine Peterson, the high school winner.

Kirsten Sworts of Palmer also netted an award in the grades 4-6 category.

Grade school contestants earned $75 for first place, $50, second and $25, third.

The Soil and Water Conservation Society is an organization promoting the interdependence of humans and the natural environment. They actively promote the development of sustainable farming systems, pollution control, watershed health, and a host of other cooperative control measures. The SWCS is particularly concerned with promoting public education and activism. The Alaska chapter of the SWCS works toward this goal through such measures as this yearly poster and essay contest.

Poster entrants were solicited in each of Alaska's 12 Soil and Water Conservation Districts. All poster contest entrants at the state competition were winners at their local districts.

For more information on Alaska's conservation district's educational programs, contact Al Poindexter at ed.director@xyz.net or Eric Wade at aacd@mtaonline.net.