Students study whether a reminder can reduce dog waste
February 19th, 2009 by cdunaganFor people walking their dogs, does it help to have a sign reminding them to clean up after their pets?
Corinne Gardner-Davis, left, helps Sarah
White mark a pile of dog poop at Island Lake park.
(Brynn Grimley | Kitsap Sun)
That’s a question that a group of students from Emerald Heights Elementary School in Silverdale hope to answer with a fairly reasoned scientific study. See reporter Brynn Grimley’s story and video in today’s Kitsap Sun.
Teacher Julie Eathorne seemed rather proud to report that her second- and third-grade students quickly got past the scatological humor.
“They’ve handled it really well,” she said. “The giggling, in fact, didn’t last very long. They started looking at it scientifically right away.”
In brief, the students counted dog piles before putting up signs along the trail at Island Lake County Park. Now, they’re in the process of counting piles again to measure the effect of the signs. They’re even factoring in the role of weather to decide whether a low number of piles can be attributed to the new signs or other factors.
Beyond the science, the students are learning something about how animal waste contributes to stormwater.
In Kitsap County, dogs produce roughly 11 tons of waste a day, according to county estimates.
“We’re trying to emphasize and get the message out about the scale of the problem, the health impacts and the proper disposal methods,” said Jayna Ericson of Kitsap County Surface and Storm Water Management Program.
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
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