Boise, Idaho — June 8, 2026— The University of Idaho’s Idaho Water Resources Research Institute (IWRRI) is proud to recognize the winners of the 2026 Youth Water Summit in southern Idaho. This inaugural event brought together more than 160 high school students to study local water issues through hands-on research, problem-solving, and public presentation.
Held May 5, 2026, at Expo Idaho, the event welcomed students from a wide range of school settings, backgrounds, and experience levels. For that reason, winners were judged within each school, helping ensure student achievement was recognized fairly across participating schools.
IWRRI, Extension, and EcoSySTEM at the University of Idaho partnered with the City of Boise Watershed, Ada Soil and Water Conservation District, Bogus Basin, Idaho Rural Water Association, and the Department of Environmental Quality to facilitate the Youth Water Summit and the year-long Confluence Project program that led up to it.
The 2026 southern Idaho winners represented Caldwell High School, Mountain View High School, Timberline High School, Idaho City High School, and Kuna High School. Their projects explored topics including pesticides, fish ladders, school water quality, invasive plants, microplastics, construction impacts, streamflow, algae blooms, dams, and soil health.
First-Place Projects
- Caldwell High School
Luis Perales and Billie Valenzuela— Potential Impacts of Pesticides - Mountain View High School
Quetzal Carillo, Makena Valko, and Quynh Nguyen— Invasive Plants - Timberline High School
Aubin Zubery, Lucas O’Neill, and Syzmon Rutkowski— Recreation Impacts on Water Quality in Boise - Idaho City High School
Mac Roeber, Cooper Smith, and Jackson Roeber— Affect of Snowpack on Streamflow - Kuna High School
Paisley Nelson, Jordan Daugnaults, and Colton Worthington— The ROOT of Soil Health and Water Quality
Second-Place Projects
- Caldwell High School
Noah Kissell — How Fish Ladders Work and Their Importance to Us - Mountain View High School
Eli Tristan and Dominick Tristan— Microplastics in Water - Timberline High School
Paxton Weniger, Eli, and Owen Keller— How Construction Affects Water Quality - Idaho City High School
Ryan Dewees, Ignacio Larracoechea, and Brain Earls— When Soil Meets Stream - Kuna High School
Lucy Armstrong and Dylan Palmbos — Algae Blooms
Third-Place Projects
- Caldwell High School
Ashley Sanchez — pH of School Water - Mountain View High School
Kobe Nash, Preston Nicolaysen, and Deacon Langston — Bank Type and Water Quality - Timberline High School
Lily Kelly and Alexandra Anderson— How satellite imaging can improve tracking of algae blooms. - Idaho City High School
Mitchell Davis, Daniel Evans, and Gabriel Sheirbon— How effective is the water filtration system in Idaho City at removing nitrates and nitrites and regulating pH levels? - Kuna High School
Jayden Jones and Julia Taylor— The Impact of Dams
Overall Project with Best Solution
- Timberline High School
Riddhi Patel — How Can We Make Our Waters Clean?
“The Youth Water Summit is an energizing day for students; it’s their chance to share and show off what they’ve learned about watershed science and the scientific process,” said Christa Howarth, Extension Water Educator. “Students don’t normally get the opportunity to interact with water professionals, so we’re grateful to the many agency staff who are excited to volunteer their time to judge projects and speak with students.”:
Youth Water Summit event sponsors included Jacobs Engineering, HDR, the Nature Conservancy, and Idaho Water Users Association, as well as in-kind sponsors Ada County and Expo Idaho.
For more information about the Youth Water Summit, visit iwrri.uidaho.edu/education-confluence/. If you wish to support the program next year, you can financially contribute here.
