Celebrating Youth Voices: Winners of the 2026 Environmental Photo Contest

This year, Tri-Valley CAREs had the privilege of hosting our first ever Youth Environmental Photo Contest! We invited young people ages 10-25 to share how they see and experience the environment and environmental justice issues in their communities.

Our team of judges were truly blown away by the submissions. Each photograph offered a unique perspective: some captured the beauty of the natural world, others highlighted pollution, climate impacts, or inequities that often go unseen. Together, they tell a powerful story about how young people are thinking about the environment today.

After careful review by our judges, we are excited to announce the winners of this year’s contest:

🏆 First Place ($750): Jacob Dartez – Deep Blue

🥈 Runner-Up ($250): Willow Yundt – Life Behind the Gates

🌟 Community Award for Tracy & West San Joaquin County ($500): Ellie Creighton – Inconvenient Placement

We also want to recognize all of our participants. It takes creativity, thoughtfulness, and courage to share your perspective, and every submission contributed meaningfully to this project. All participants will receive a certificate in recognition of their work and an 11×14  print of their work on canvas.

Join Us for the Exhibit & Award Ceremony!

To celebrate these incredible young artists (and Earth Day), we invite you to join us for a community exhibition and award ceremony:

Venue: Tracy Library, Wadsworth Room, 20 E. Eaton Ave, Tracy

Date: April 21, 2026

Time: 5:30 – 6:30 PM

During the event, all submitted photographs will be on display, and we will celebrate the winners and present awards and certificates. We’ll also have food and time to connect with others in the community.

If you’re not able to attend that evening, the exhibit will remain on display at the Tracy Library Display case throughout the month of April.

This exhibit is part of our broader work in Tracy and West San Joaquin County to support community awareness and engagement around environmental issues. We hope you’ll join us in celebrating this work.

This project was partially funded by CalEPA.

Dominic Zupo

Portland, Oregon is often hailed as an environmental and progressive utopia. However, the reality is that there are, and have been since its inception, systematic injustices at the heart of its environmental ethos. The construction of Portland Interstate Five corridor is a prime example of this inconsistent identity. The creation of Portland's I-5 was a model of environmental injustice masquerading as urban renewal. The city bulldozed hundreds of homes in the historically black Albina neighborhood with some home owners receiving as little as 50 dollars in compensation for their displacement. The project ripped the neighborhood apart and subjected the remaining residents to pollution and the health impacts that come with it. Today, the Oregon Department of Transportation is in the process of widening a section of I-5 near the Rose Quarter. Greenwashed and billed as a new socially conscious infrastructure process, the city is seemly ignoring that the widening project will not only run closer to Harriet Tubman Middle School bringing more pollution, require the demolition of a neighborhood bike bridge, on top of the glaring fact that ODOT’s own commission determined that widening I-5 will not be a long term solution to traffic. The city of Portland is headed down a path of recreating the disasters of its 1960s urban renewal greenwashed in today's language. Portland must decide if it will continue down this path or change course to align its actions with the identity it seeks to espouse.

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