This February, Conservation Corps Newfoundland and Labrador’s (CCNL) new television series, EcoVision, is airing every Tuesday night at 8:00pm on ROGERS TV St. John’s. Each episode will also be available for free on CCNL’s Youtube channel.

CCNL is a unique, non-profit organization that has been offering the province’s youth training and employment in environmental and cultural preservation for 25 years. To celebrate their silver anniversary the organization hired two young filmmakers, Stephanie Tucker and Graham Godden, to create EcoVision, a TV series that explores successful, eco-friendly initiatives in the province.

“Our province has everything from electric cars, to kids developing hydroponic gardens, to NASA conducting climate research. However, a lot of people don’t realize any of those things are happening, which is where we come in.” Tucker explained.

Each of the series’ 26-minute episodes focuses on a different environmental theme. Some of the topics explored include local strategies for addressing Waste Management, Green Technology, Gardening Initiatives, Ocean Protection, Food Sustainability, and Climate Change.

“We want to reach as many people as possible, so we thought that television would be a great way to tap into a new audience.” Tucker explained.

Filming the show took Tucker and Godden all over the province, they stopped into more than 25 businesses, classrooms and organizations to document environmentally friendly projects in action. Tucker hosts the show, interviewing people in communities across Newfoundland and Labrador about why they’re passionate about issues like climate change and what they’re doing to make a difference.

“I was surprised in new ways with every interview I conducted! I was really impressed by how dedicated the teachers in our province are to educating their students about climate change.” Tucker wrote.

Tucker described a project she learned about at Holy Spirit High in Conception Bay, where a teacher and his students are tracking shark migration patterns and examining how the patterns relate to climate change in our province.

Tucker was especially excited about a project in Conne River, where a team of youth are using bioremediation activities to control erosion of a culturally significant area.

“These youth are making a real and lasting impact in their community.” Tucker wrote.

Tucker hopes EcoVision will motivate viewers to take action to protect the environment in their own communities. For her, one of the most inspiring things about the show is that it demonstrates how projects that are designed to help the environment, especially ones that involve youth, often help build community as well.

“One of our goals with EcoVision is to hopefully show the people in our province that when we make choices that are positive for our planet, a direct result is that those very choices also have both social and economic benefits, and this is truly what living sustainably is all about!” Tucker wrote.