Photo: Totem pole on display at Stonybrook Institute until end of August

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Children place stones at the altar in front of the totem pole at the Watershed Institute on April 24.

A 16-foot totem pole is on display at the Watershed Institute until Aug. 31. The exhibition, “Kwel’ Hoy: Many Struggles, One Front,” is on a cross-country tour with a goal of uplifting efforts to protect water and land. The totem pole, created by the House of Tears Carvers of the Lummi Nation in northern Washington State and southern British Columbia, has been on display in communities threatened by pipelines over the past six years.

The Watershed Institute is the new name for the former Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association. The name was changed at the organization’s annual meeting on Monday. Two awards were also presented at the meeting. Kathleen Biggins and C-Change Conversation, a volunteer-led association committed to promoting non-partisan dialogue and education about climate change, received the Edmund W. Stiles Award for Environmental Leadership. Jeanne Muzi and Colleen Schantzer of the Ben Franklin Elementary School in Lawrence received the Richard Rotter Award for Excellence in Environmental Education. The two teachers have run the Streamkeepers program since 2006 at the elementary school, allowing students to gather information, make observations and report details about the Little Shabakunk Creek behind their school.

 

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Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.