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.

Whales in Wine Country- Pareena Gupta

There they are—massive humpbacks painted across the digester tanks of the Livermore Water Reclamation Plant, set against rolling hills on one side and the rush of CA-84 on another. Bold reminders of how our everyday actions shape the environment.

Darren Greenwood, then water resources manager of this facility, painted these murals as a
message to the community: what flows down our drains and storm sewers ultimately affects marine life in the Bay. Wastewater from every shower, every dishwasher, the chlorine we use, and the microplastics from our laundry travel through an unseen system beneath our feet, arriving at this round-the-clock operation that treats 2.3 billion gallons of wastewater annually.
About 1.5 billion gallons of this treated wastewater is discharged into the San Francisco Bay, and 0.8 billion gallons are recycled for local irrigation and fire protection. Items like wipes, grease, and other solids are screened out at the plant and often end up in landfills. Even in advanced treatment facilities, managing wastewater at this scale comes with environmental costs, and small amounts of contaminants can still pass through, harming aquatic ecosystems. Climate change is already warming and acidifying these same waters, stressing
the very marine life painted on these walls.

There's irony in that. And urgency.
Every thoughtless pollutant down the drain connects local homes to this facility, to the Bay, to the ocean. The next time you drive down CA-84, look at these bright blue whales—caught between science and scenery, humans and machinery, art and reality.

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