Skip to content

Young environmentalist honoured with conservation award

After moving to Barrie and seeing trash along Lake Simcoe shoreline, Zoe Bystrov was driven to start Youth For Lake Simcoe Group

Barrie teen Zoe Bystrov has been recognized for her environmental efforts.

The Grade 7 student was awarded the Ernie Crossland Young Conservationist Award earlier today during the 39th annual Conservation Awards ceremony, after launching Youth for Lake Simcoe just over a year ago.

Bystrov was one of 29 individuals honoured by the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority (LSRCA) during the virtual ceremony. 

“This is our favourite event of the year. It’s a time when we get to hear success stories about people across the watershed who are helping to improve its health. We hope our awards ceremony gives them a sense of our appreciation for their efforts, efforts that positively affect us all,” said LSRCA chief administrative officer Rob Baldwin.

In a video shown during the ceremony, Bystrov said she’s always had a keen interest in the environment, noting she loves animals, nature and spending time outdoors.

“When I moved to Barrie, that passion grew even more when I got to spend time in the local woods and on the Lake Simcoe shoreline," she said. 

Living in Barrie and seeing the lake almost daily, Bystrov said it “broke her heart” to see trash being accumulated along the shoreline inside the watershed.

That's when she came up with the idea to create her Youth For Lake Simcoe Group, which was officially established a little over one year ago. To date, the group  which strives to serve as a strong youth voice in issues related to the local environment and to engage youth in delivering awareness and clean-up initiatives that will help protect Lake Simcoe  has conducted more than 30 clean-ups and collected more than 35 bags of trash. 

“You would not believe what we encounter during the cleanup of our shoreline and also of the woods, from plastic bottles, straws, styrofoam cups, dog poop bags and even dirty diapers. All of these items can take up to 500 years to decompose… polluting the soil and the water during that process,” she said. 

Bystrov said the future of her group is endless, and will include additional clean ups, create promotional materials and school presentations to educate youth on why Lake Simcoe and the watershed are important.

“We like to think of them as environmental heroes. Their selfless actions deserve recognition and serve as a reminder about the positive impact our activities can have," added LSRCA chair Wayne Emmerson, who is also York Region chairman and CEO.

Also honoured during the online ceremony were Oro-Medonte Township’s Rosemary and John Dunsmore, who received the George R. Richardson Conservation Award of Honour.

Full details about their achievements, including pictures and videos, can be found here.