[Enesta Jones] 
Hello, and welcome 
to Green Scene, 
an environmental podcast 
you can take with you. 
I'm Enesta Jones of the 
Office of Public Affairs.
Since 1971, EPA has sponsored 
the President's Environmental 
Youth Awards.
This program recognizes and 
honors young people across 
the country for their commitment 
to protecting the environment 
and for their work on leading
community projects.
I'm joined today by Megan 
Gavin, an EPA environmental 
education coordinator and 
Youth Award organizer, 
and Isabella Todaro, 
a middle school student 
from Chesterland, Ohio. 
Isabella and other students 
are one of this year's 
award winners. 
Welcome to the show, 
Megan and Isabella.
[Megan Gavin, Isabella Todaro] 
Thank you.
[Enesta Jones] 
So Megan, let's start 
with the projects. 
Can you briefly describe 
some of them?
[Megan Gavin] 
Sure, they're pretty broad 
ranging, ranging from kids 
who do education about climate 
change to recycling to 
habitat restoration. 
Sometimes we have individuals 
or scouting troops. 
It's open to K through 12 
students, so we have a wide 
range of students. 
[Enesta Jones] 
And this program has been 
in existence for awhile. 
[Megan Gavin] 
It has, and we get lots of 
great applications from 
across the country.  
It's a really tough decision to 
figure out who wins every year.
[Enesta Jones] 
Isabella, congratulations 
to you and your team. 
Can you tell us more about the 
Wetlands Education Team and 
how it's helping Ohio?
[Isabella Todaro] 
We are a group of students, 
and we all go to the 
West Geauga Public School 
System, and we -- actually, 
a friend and I started about 
four years ago when we learned 
that Ohio has lost 90 percent 
of its wetlands.
Furthermore, we learned how 
important wetlands are, 
not only to the ecosystem, 
the environment and species 
that live in wetlands, 
but they're also important 
to us as people and our 
welfare and health.
So, we got to work. 
We've done different projects, 
mostly to educate kids because 
we think that by reaching kids 
we can reach the future, 
and also, kids can make 
a difference today.  
[Enesta Jones] 
And how are you educating 
students and the community 
at large about the importance 
of wetlands? 
[Isabella Todaro] 
We have gone to different 
schools and done interactive 
crafts and games and made it 
fun so that kids can really 
relate to it on
their level.
We've also been working on 
making the spotted salamander 
our state amphibian, which 
would bring awareness to 
wetlands because it's mandated 
in fourth grade curriculum that 
they learn about the state 
symbols, so if the spotted 
salamander becomes a state 
symbol, kids would have to 
learn about it.
Therefore, kids all over 
the state would learn 
about wetlands, 
which is our goal.
[Enesta Jones] 
And Megan, how are teams like 
Isabella's team helping to be 
environmental ambassadors?
[Megan Gavin] 
Well, it seems like the kids 
are definitely becoming 
stewards of the environment.
They're passing on EPA's 
methods to each other, 
and they're getting out the word 
that it's cool to do something  
for the environment.
And the kids are so into blogs 
and Web sites these days, 
and to spread the word about the 
Youth Awards, we're just really  
lucky that we have so many 
great applicants from across 
the country, and again, they're 
just really creative projects 
that they come up with that 
are mainly self-initiated.
[Enesta Jones] 
That's awesome.
And Isabella, how are 
the students reacting 
to your efforts?  
[Isabella Todaro] 
Everybody is so enthusiastic. 
It's amazing when you talk to 
somebody, and really, I think 
the biggest problem is 
people don't know.
So, once you educate them about 
a topic, it's so -- it's really 
exciting to see how 
enthusiastic kids are.
I mean, kids will be like, 
"Oh, no, don't fill that in, 
Dad, that's a wetland!"
So, that's really
our goal.
It's kind of like a 
grassroots effort.
[Enesta Jones] 
I was most impressed about your 
efforts to help change the 
endangerment status.
Tell us more
about that.
[Isabella Todaro] 
Thank you.
We build osprey nesting 
platforms.
An osprey is a bird that 
lives in wetlands.
And a nesting platform is 
obviously a platform that 
they nest on, but we built them 
and then erected them in parks 
in our area. 
And since we have, the osprey 
has gone from "endangered" to 
"threatened," which
is a step up.
It means that their population 
is increasing and doing better.
[Enesta Jones] 
What are some of the projects 
you're working on for 
the future? 
[Isabella Todaro] 
In the near future, we're 
trying to get the Spotted 
Salamander Bill passed like I 
said earlier, but also we just  
want to continue spreading the 
word about the importance of 
wetlands and vernal pools, 
which are a type of wetland, 
and educating kids.
Hopefully -- we've gotten it to 
spread past our community, 
and we hope to enlighten
the world. 
[Enesta Jones] 
We need some young people like 
you to come work for EPA. 
Can you tell us anything 
about that?
[Isabella Todaro] 
The group that I'm in, 
the Wetlands Education Team, 
I know that some of the kids 
would be completely interested 
in that, myself included.
That would be -- it seems 
like a dream job almost.
It seems really interesting.
[Enesta Jones] 
Thank you, Megan and Isabella, 
for being here today. 
[Megan Gavin] 
Thank you.
[Enesta Jones] 
Please keep up the good work in 
protecting our environment and 
making it healthier.
For more information on the 
award winners and projects, 
please visit www.epa.gov/peya.
See you next time 
on Green Scene.