PLT GreenSchools! and U.S. Forest Service: Nurturing Conservation Education
PLT GreenSchools! and the U.S. Forest Service: Partners for the Future
By Al Stenstrup, Director of PLT's GreenSchools! program.
The PLT GreenSchools! program is built on partnerships, and one of our key partners since the program’s beginning in 2009 has been the U.S. Forest Service, which has provided funding and staff expertise every step of the way. As Director of the Conservation Education Program at the U.S. Forest Service, Dr. Safiya Samman (pictured in the center of the photo) has been personally involved in many of PLT’s GreenSchools! activities here in Washington, D.C. and across the country.
With Forest Service support, four of our D.C. GreenSchools! recently celebrated the conclusion of 2011’s International Year of Forests with performances of If the Forest Could Talk, an original theater production by the Missoula (MT) Children’s Theatre. Dr. Samman attended one of those performances. She also helped students at Miner Elementary School in Washington plant a tree outside their school. Forest Service support has also helped nurture several school gardens now thriving at D.C. GreenSchools. At the national level she has been a strong advocate of PLT GreenSchools! by speaking at national events and assisting at various workshops and professional development programs.
With its emphasis on hands-on learning, student leadership, and results-oriented action, the PLT GreenSchools! program sets the stage for young people to grow into adults who embrace what Forest Service pioneer Aldo Leopold called the “conservation ethic.” Leopold would be proud that Dr. Samman and his other successors at USFS are helping empower a new generation to create healthier, safer, more environmentally friendly schools and communities.
A Vital Partnership for Learning—and the Environment
By Dr. Safiya Samman, Director of Conservation Education for the U.S. Forest Service.
The measure of a good conservation education program is the spark you see in a child’s eye the first time their small world connects to the larger world around them.
We at the U.S. Forest Service are fortunate to be able see this spark in the eyes of the 25 million children we reach through conservation education and recreation programs each year. Our partnerships help make that happen, and PLT GreenSchools! is no exception.
GreenSchools! launched in five Washington, D.C., schools in 2009. Since then the power of the GreenSchools! program is that it sets the stage for young people to grow into adults who embrace a conservation ethic. Through the science, math, and technology skills developed by completing the program’s investigations, children become empowered to create healthier and safer environments. Indeed, they are quickly learning to become our environmental stewards of tomorrow.
PLT helps us transform the lives of kids, who in turn transform their schools and communities. Through hands-on learning, such as planting gardens, kids learn where they stand in the world and the power they can harness by taking on a positive role in improving the world around them. Through something as simple as planting a garden, children learn where food comes from, how to eat a healthier diet, and how they can help to eliminate “food deserts.”
We are proud to be a part of a program that has grown from five schools to more than 1,000 schools across the nation.
Photo: USFS Conservation Education Director, Dr. Safiya Samman, helps students plant a tree at Miner Elementary School in Washington, DC.
