Starting May 1 the Town of Okotoks along with university students and alumni embark on a campaign of conservation awareness within the community.

Every year, four Conservation Educators will visit approximately 2,000 households to inform locals on water and energy conservation and waste management, as well as conducting a survey to gain more insight from residents on environmental initiatives.

Dawn Smith, Sustainability Coordinator for the Town of Okotoks, says the program is not just an opportunity for residents to learn about conservation, but an experience for the students as well.

"They're either recent graduates or third year students from universities, and they usually have a background in science or environment. Obviously it's usually one of their first jobs out of university, and they get to connect with the community and learn about real life scenarios out of the classroom as well."

Smith says the Conservation Educators can offer a lot of information on recent environmental happenings in town, such as the goldfish in the Drake Landing Pond, and Energy Rebates.

"The goldfish would be one part of their whole portfolio, and from that situation it would be from an education perspective, they would align it with Alberta Environment and Parks 'Don't Let it Loose' campaign. Making sure people aren't releasing aquarium based or pond based species into our watershed. They would also talk about Energy Programs, especially with the provincial programs being released this spring. Also obviously our waste program, this is our first summer with having an organics program as well. So they will be educating people how they can use the organics bins for their kitchen waste, grass and yard waste as well."

The Educators will also be at all summer community events, and will provide presentations at schools and summer day camps. The team will be working with several Town Business Centres, including Parks, Resource Recovery, Community Programs as well as EPCOR Water Services.

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