Why this Matters to Me

My name is Ella and I am a Junior at Skaneateles High School, located in the Finger Lakes Region in New York. Growing up in upstate NY on Skaneateles Lake, the water source for the City of Syracuse, I’ve witnessed the consequences of contaminated water: shut-downs of drinking water, forced closures of lakefront summer camps, and destabilizing invasive species.  I've been inspired to understand eutrophication --how nutrients in a body of water cause the dense growth of plant life, leading to the death of animal life due to a lack of oxygen.  I’m dedicating myself to boosting awareness of the negative effects of nitrogen-rich fertilizers, and their effects on algal blooms and dead zones through NitrogenFootprint.org, and hope to change the perceptions and behaviors of consumers, farmers and regulators. We can farm, manufacture and landscape more sustainably, and I believe that measuring our "Nitrogen Footprint" is a first step in making this change.