Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 23.3.
Thanks to SOAR, young people have a chance to see, and even hold, a live,
wild bird native to their area.
that create strong emotional and cultural connections in the people who experience
them (fig. 23.3).
The Future: Integration of Restoration and Education
When I reflect on the almost thirty years of Prairie Plains Resource Institute, I think of
the assets we have been fortunate to pull together: incredible preserves representing
Great Plains ecosystems; a well-crafted field education prototype that can be adapted
to any age and knowledge level or site; a large-scale, high-diversity ecological restora-
tion process and infrastructure tied to effective ways of working with groups of people
on planning and execution of projects. We have accumulated and synthesized a
strong foundation of interrelating parts—a mix that is unusual among small and rural
conservation organizations—and we've done so in an agricultural area where such
conservation and education did not exist prior to 1980. These parts, if integrated more
deeply, can allow us to do much more in the future, with respect both to works on the
land and to many-layered involvement with more people. This is especially the case if
we remain true to our core values that helped us persist like the proverbial nonarro-
gant tortoise, keeping us focused on small, but important, details. Institutional mem-
ory of the early years is important as it reminds us of the reasons we are doing the work.
The 2002 grant from the Nebraska Environmental Trust that funded our purchase
of the Griffith Prairie and farm, one of the largest and highest-quality upland prairies
in east-central Nebraska, also set in motion our plan to build an educational center on
this land. An amazing barn within five miles of the property provided the idea for a
building design. We began the planning necessary to move and transform the barn
into a functional and architecturally beautiful center, and the primary facilitation
building of an evolving campus on the prairie. In 2007, the barn was moved onto its
new foundation, marking the beginning of construction, and is now nearing comple-
tion. The Prairie Plains Board dedicated it as the Charles L. Whitney Education Cen-
ter in honor of my father for his many years of service to the Institute. Barns were al-
