Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 23.2. Shadowing the program to learn how it is done, a middle school teacher is as-
sisting with the SOAR fish and crawdad release.
tional adventures (fig. 23.2). Moreover, there is a need to educate people about press-
ing technical and social issues, like understanding and managing groundwater. We
also like to explore deeper cultural issues, for example, provoking thought about the
perceptions and realities of our region's history and natural bounties.
Granted, little of the foregoing narrative specifically addresses the subject of eco-
logical restoration. We do incorporate activities with seeds and prairie planting in
SOAR when possible, and we discuss restoration ideas with adults on many field trips,
but restoration concepts and methodologies are not yet fully integrated into our edu-
cation program. The fact that this is presently our functional reality does not belie the
strong connection between education and restoration nor our intent to build more
restoration/education program structure in the future. I submit that there is no point
doing restoration without a strong educational component. But, perhaps the converse
is also true—that there is no point, given present global realities, in doing nature edu-
cation without including restoration. Of course, this may beg questions of the term
“restoration” itself. What are we restoring? What is the our target for success? What is
our human role? To me the term “restoration” is very inclusive; in addition to restor-
ing nature and natural processes, it can also include human and spiritual compo-
nents. It requires a holistic view. We may be restoring a bit of ourselves, so to speak,
as we kindle a new relationship to life on Earth, or a region we are attached to and
wistfully hope becomes a better place for our children. And what is education if
not a gateway to always renewing our mind with new ideas—or at least having the
discussion?
We see the future of restoration and education as a unified whole—positive and
proactive, dynamic, involving sense of place and knowledge about ecosystems derived
from experiencing them up close. We must develop a restorative culture around na-
ture, agriculture, and community, essentially making a map in people's heads that in-
cludes neat places with interesting things in them like wild plants and animals (biodi-
versity), noticeably beautiful places, vibrant towns surrounded by vibrant farms, places
Search WWH ::




Custom Search