A local student won first place for Manitoba's 2018 Caring For Our Watershed student contest.

Noah Penner from W.C. Miller Collegiate in Altona won $3,000 from Nutrien to complete his project, as well as a $1,000 cash prize.

The contest has over 280 entries received from over 360 students in the province.

Penner's proposal is called "Parkland Greenway, Grass Planting", and involves the health of ditches in the town.

"My project is about planting native grass species in a ditch near the northwest end of Altona," explained Penner. "This has a couple benefits, the main one being to slow down drainage in order to get rid of excess nutrients."

Getting rid of excess nutrients is beneficial for wildlife in the area. This is because fertilizer from fields are filled with nutrients, causing excessive growth of invasive plants and poor water quality in the ditches, which runs off into waterways.

Excessive nutrients also causes a lack of oxygen, which is a threat to fish. In turn, animals that rely on stream fish for food are then effected.

Penner said he was introduced to the Caring For Our Watershed contest by his Grade 12 Biology teacher. His father also helped him with the grass planting idea.

"My dad has a lot of ties to the area, he's the developer of that area, so I saw a way that I could kind of grow it and see through some of those ideas," he added.

Penner said he'll soon start preparing the ditch to be planted.