By Scott Roblin

Ocean Bridge’s Doerksen spearheading local water sustainability initiatives

Jun 5, 2019 | 5:17 PM

COUNTY OF NEWELL, AB – It doesn’t matter if you live in Medicine Hat, Brooks, Calgary or Edmonton, you won’t be seeing any ocean front property in this province.

Ocean and waterway education have never been key talking points in Alberta, which has prompted one local woman and the national organization behind her to try and change the conversation.

Hays resident Brandi Doerksen spearheaded an initiative to clean up the shores of Redelback Bay along Lake Newell on Tuesday night.

She said it all comes from a passion for water sustainability that she cultivated from an early age.

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“I grew up on a farm, I’ve always been interested in the environment,” said Doerksen. “I thought Ocean Bridge was a great opportunity to kind of broaden my horizon and see what experience I could gain from it.”

It’s been a whirlwind eight months for the 23-year-old, who joined 39 other Canadians in October as part of the Canada Service Corps’ Ocean Bridge program.

The goal of the project is to educate Canadians coast-to-coast about the issues surrounding the country’s various oceans, rivers, and lakes.

Issues that Doerksen said are often forgotten about in landlocked Alberta.

“We need water for irrigation and for crops,” she said. “I don’t think people realize that even if you’re from a landlocked town, you can still make a difference.”

The best could be yet to come for Doerksen, who used her background with Ocean Bridge to earn a job with the local Eastern Irrigation District.

She’ll be part of two service expeditions over the next six months, connecting with projects in both Ottawa and Lake Superior, Ontario.

“We’re going to be doing water quality sampling, fauna sampling, habitat sampling for this company just to give them an idea of what needs to be conserved,” said Doerksen.

Doerksen’s work is inspiring other young Albertans who participated in the clean up like Grade 9 student Alysha Mehlhaff, who said she’s wanting to take a more active role in waterway health.

“I feel like my class and my age is starting to really understand it, that’s just probably because of school a little bit too,” said Mehlhaff. “But, I feel like it is really forgotten about.”

Grade 5 student Torynn Plumb also made the trip out to Lake Newell and said it was a proud feeling getting to see their impact on the water and the surrounding area.

“I can say that I’ve helped the environment and that I’ve saved some animals,” said Plumb.

And according to Mehlhaff, it’s the mentor ship from people like Doerksen that could carry over to a new generation of conservationists.

“She’s kind of a role model to me and I can really look up to her,” she said. “When I’m a little bit older I can start doing stuff like this and helping out my community a little bit.”

Joining Doerksen as Ocean Bridge youth advocates this year include Medicine Hat’s Jass Baidwan, Calgary’s Angela Driscoll, and Taylor Maton from St. Albert.

Doerksen meanwhile will be flying to Ontario next week for her first service mission at Lake Superior, a trip she’s itching to get started.

“People think that you have to be from the coast, you have to live by an ocean to make a difference,” she said. “But, even just education, which is a main part of Ocean Bridge, can go a long way.”