Earth Day

Watershed Watch Earth Day Poster Challenge logo.

Congratulations to the winners of the 2026 Watershed Watch Earth Day Poster Challenge!

The Watershed Watch Campaign invited Santa Clara County K-8 students to create, inform and inspire through the Watershed Watch Earth Day Poster Challenge. The Challenge offered cash prizes for first and second place winners in three age brackets: K-2nd, 3rd-5th and 6th-8th grades. To create their artwork, students responded to one of two prompts: “How can you prevent water pollution?” or “What do you love about our local waterways (creeks, rivers, lakes)?” Posters were judged by Santa Clara Valley Urban Runoff Pollution Prevention Program (SCVURPPP) members on the criteria of originality, clarity and expression of theme.

This year’s winners are:

K-2 Bracket 

First Place: Shivansh M., Milpitas Second Place: Jonathan F., San Jose

Poster showing seven reasons to love local waterways, including wildlife habitat, clean drinking water, farming, recreation, and bird migration.
Poster contrasting a healthy forest and stream with an industrial, littered landscape and messages to stop pollution and protect nature.

3-5 Bracket 

First Place: Mia M., San Jose Second Place: Rudhvi L., Milpitas

Poster showing turtles in polluted water imagining a clean, tree-lined habitat while a factory emits smoke.
Poster encouraging people to protect water by picking up trash, recycling, and keeping Guadalupe Creek clean for wildlife.

6-8 Bracket 

First Place: Aahana N., Milpitas Second Place: Aadya K., San Jose

Poster contrasting a colorful, healthy ocean ecosystem with gray scenes of industrial pollution and marine debris.
Poster showing a child collecting litter from a beach at sunset.

Thank YOU to all of the students who participated!