2021 is the Girls of the Preserve's 2nd year at Loudoun Youth Step Up Program. A competition to find problems and create solutions (more information about step up can be found here) The project the Girls of The Preserve will present this year is named Hope Spots.

Hope spots was inspired by the organization Mission Blue. The purpose of Mission Blue is to explore and preserve the ocean. Please consider donating and if so let the Girls of the Preserve know how big their impact was by filling out a short form.

What problem have you identified?

The Ocean is dying.

Although the ocean’s health is being negatively affected in numerous ways, one of the main ways it is dying is because of people treating it like a trashcan. The ocean produces 85% of our oxygen and absorbs over 90% of the excess carbon dioxide. No ocean, no life, no us.

How/Solution Statement

Monitor and eliminate pollution in our nearby waterways.

How did we get here?

We initially started focusing on excess gasoline that spills into our waterways. We contacted our HOA to ask our landscaping company about the details of gasoline usage while mowing. Although it was a dead-end, this meeting opened up a new direction closer to our issue- the ocean is dying.

To our surprise, the watersheds in our neighborhood were unmonitored like a lot of waterways. So we decided to set up a permanent stream monitoring program in our neighborhood.

HOORAY! We have had just made a huge step towards cleaning up Goose Creek! There is an extreme amount of trash around our creek because of littering so we have asked the HOA to put a trash can. This will make it more convenient and remind everyone to be careful! Thank you for all your help!

Emma Lloyd started her first steps towards becoming a certified stream monitor almost a year ago with her mom, in a stream program at Chapman DeMary Trail in Purcellville. She was fascinated by what critters lived in all the ponds and how much they affected all the other creatures and the water. When she went on scavenger hunts with her mom, she found out how the little critters living in the streams could make the water so healthy! After checking out her first stream monitoring site at her grandparents, she said:

“ I had so much fun and have been enjoying stream monitoring ever since!”

We are following the same path as Emma Lloyd by becoming Certified stream monitors in our neighborhood, so we can help keep our watershed and community clean!

For further details visit Emma's Story: The Making of a Stream Monitor

For those who don’t know, Operation Haylee was a project to improve the neighborhood’s hummingbird population. The problem we reach now is the hummingbirds are being affected in not just a couple of ways but in hundreds of ways and so are many other plants and animals. Some of which are necessary for a hummingbird’s survival. In conclusion, to save the hummingbirds we have to save the ecosystem.

Operation Haylee now leads us to a bigger project called Hope Spots. Hope Spots, inspired by the organization Mission Blue, is a project to improve the health of our oceans.

You may ask, “How does our ocean affect our ecosystem here in Loudoun, many, many miles from the ocean?” The water IS our ecosystem. Our oceans are home to more species than we can count, and it creates over half of the world’s oxygen. An unhealthy ocean yields an unhealthy planet.

Then the opposite question pops up “How does Loudoun affect the ocean?” Loudoun County’s entire north side is bordered by the Potomac River. Anything entering the Potomac River flows down to the Chesapeake Bay, and then into the ocean.

So we teamed with Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy and National Audubon society to determine if our small creek is a healthy contributor to the Potomac River.

If anyone wants to help project Hope Spots or learn how to determine the health of their own stream please contact impactors.org@gmail.com

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