Growing up on our family farm that included land in Southern Alberta and Northern Montana, I spent countless hours working the land in spring, summer and fall. Over the many years residing and working in rural Alberta, and now in the big city, I have developed an appreciation for all that is associated with our natural environment.

I continue to spend as much time as possible hiking and skiing in our amazing Rocky Mountains as the seasons and weather permits. I believe there are a number of common sense ways to prevent unnecessary pollution to our land and water systems.

• Strive each day to reduce the use of chemicals, cleaners and soaps that end up harming our environment and water systems.

• Be cautious about what you are putting down your sinks, drains and street gutters.

• Use one half or less, of the usual soap to wash dishes, clothes, vehicles, and yourself. Use less household cleaners in general. Wash your clothes and vehicles less often, if you can stand it.

• Do not use a toilet as a garbage disposal for any items, plastic or otherwise. It clogs up the filtration system at your local sewage treatment plant.

• Do not flush unused medications down the toilet. Most fish do not require any pain medication, or mind altering substances.

• Support increased funding and improvements to your local water treatment and sewage treatment plants. Unfortunately, some major towns and cities in Canada, and elsewhere, continue to dump raw sewage into our rivers and oceans.

• Never litter, and always recycle everything you can. Check out AlbertaRecycling.ca.

• Avoid eating any fast food that is associated with excessive packaging, paper or plastic bags, napkins, Styrofoam, and lousy nutritional value.

• If you break down and resort to fast food, tell your local fast food personnel that one or two napkins will suffice instead of twenty, and that no bag is required if you are alone. Recycle your fast food garbage.

• If you spot litter on land or in the water, take a few moments and clean it up.

• Avoid accepting plastic bags at point of purchase, and avoid products like pop and water that come in plastic.

• Avoid cleaning any paint tools or paint brushes in the sink. It ends up harming the fish and other marine life.

• Eliminate the sink garburator in favour of compost with yard refuse, and feed food scraps to a pet.

• Clean up any oil or chemical spill you may have caused, big or small.

• Avoid washing your drive way oil spills towards the nearest gutter.

• Fix oil leaks in your vehicles, boats and machinery. Make sure your engines are tuned up and running smoothly.

• Recycle motor, transmission, and gear box oil.

• Recycle unused paint, and toxic cleaning solvents used to clean auto and machine parts.

• Avoid using chemicals to kill insects. Insecticides contain nerve agents that harm everyone, and bugs are here for a reason.

• If you are farmer, consider reducing the use of insecticides to kill pests like grasshoppers, and herbicides to kill weeds. A percentage of these chemicals end up in our food chain and water systems, and contribute to health problems including cancer.

• Avoid using fertilizer and herbicides on your lawn. A chemically induced lush green lawn is harmful to our water systems, and a waste of a time unless you really enjoy mowing grass.

• Forget to water the lawn as often as possible, and let the grass turn brown during periods of drought.

• Recycle your many plastic and metal water sprinkling devices.

• Water in the evening or during the early morning with sprayer in hand. It is quite relaxing, and a more efficient use of treated water.

• Trees and flowers need some water when it is dry. Incorporate rain barrels under gutters to capture water for your vegetable garden, flowers, and trees.

• Keep in mind that weed and insect chemicals, and oil spills, eventually wash into our streams, rivers, lakes, oceans, and ground water with the rain or as the snow melts.

• If you are a small business or Big Corporation, prevent chemical and oil spills before they happen. Find ways to reduce your use of chemicals as part of your business.

• Incorporate wind, geothermal, and solar generated electricity if you can afford it.

• Consider Government grants and tax incentives to adopt green technologies to improve the energy efficiency of your workplace and home.

• If you have land, plant more trees, and take care of them. Insist on more tree planting programs on public land, in our parks, and in our school yards. Many of our Canadian school yards have few or no trees.

• Plant a tree or two instead of placing another body full of embalming chemicals into a grave yard. We only have so much land to spare.

• Consider an eco-friendly funeral like cremation, and recycle your organs and eyes by signing your consent on your Health Care Card.

• While you are still breathing, recycle and donate your blood by making regular visits to your local Canadian Blood Services clinic. Call 1 (888) 2 Donate.

• Get involved as you can, and tell your Provincial M.L.A.s and Federal M.P.s, and your local Government officials to initiate and pass tougher pollution laws and penalties that include meaningful jail terms to protect our land, water and wildlife.

• Lobby your different levels of Government to use less chemicals and salt on our roadways, sidewalks, ditches, boulevards, parks, and on other public lands. It ends up in our water eventually.

• We should all take time to consider the impact each one of us has on our environment caused by our daily behaviours and choices; and strive often to become part of the pollution solution.

• Winston Churchill once said that any twenty year old who is not a liberal does not have a heart, and that any forty year old who is not a conservative does not have a brain. So try to have a heart and a brain, and do whatever you can each day to protect our environment for the many generations yet to come.

• And if you are charged with a criminal offence, call defence lawyer Sheldon Kaupp at (403) 288-7788. I will use the least amount of paper and chemicals possible to resolve your case, and I will recycle the paper in due course☺.