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EPA awards Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington nearly $189,000 for Environmental Education

Release Date: 06/24/2008
Contact Information: Sally Hanft, EPA Env. Ed.Grant Coordinator, (206) 553-1207, [email protected] or Tony Brown, EPA Public Affairs, (206) 553-1203, [email protected]

(Seattle, Wash. June 24, 2008) As part of its ongoing effort to enhance environmental education in the Pacific Northwest, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded $188,969 for education programs in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

According to Sally Hanft, Environmental Education Grants Coordinator in EPA’s Seattle Office, this funding will promote and advance environmental literacy and sustainable practices.

“These grants support projects that allow students, teachers, and citizens to learn more about ecosystems, climate change, health and food, ocean health, and fisheries management," said EPA's Hanft. “We are impressed year after year with how much the recipients are able to accomplish with these grants. With environmental education grants, we get a great bang for our buck. ”

These grants are awarded to local organizations, not-for-profit organizations, government agencies, schools and universities whose projects strive to increase people’s knowledge and awareness about the environment and its associated challenges. The grant recipients, projects and funding amounts are as follows:

Alaska

• Prince William Sound and Technology Institute – $15,000 – Lindsay Butters, (907) 424-5800, P.O. Box 705 Cordova, Alaska 99574 - Cordova Clean Oceans Project - Clean Ocean Robotics teaches sixth-grade students on how to become skilled in the use of robotic technology and its potential application in oil spill response. Students learn about ocean health and robotics via classroom presentations, workshops, and field trips to local sites. Furthermore, five groups of students from grades 4 – 12 (roughly 110) will participate in marine debris removal during the 2009 National Environmental Education Week.
• Takshanuk Watershed Council – $11,259 – Emily Seward, (907) 766-3542, P.O. Box 1029 Haines, Alaska 99827 - Green Careers - Green Careers is a vocation-based internship program for high school students. The program offers a series of internships that integrate existing high school curriculum with rigorous, individualized job training experiences in local fisheries management, tourism, and fish and wildlife law enforcement organizations. This program builds on the Eco-Studies program funded by EPA in 2003.

• Idaho Department of Fish and Game – $14,978 – Amy Parrish, (208) 287-2833, 600 Walnut Street P.O. Box 25 Boise, Idaho 83707 - Trout in the Classroom- Teacher Training - This project provides training for 60 “Trout in the Classroom” 4-12th grade teachers in a 1-credit, 15-hour workshop throughout Idaho. The training covers trout biology, habitat requirements, water quality, and tank care. “Trout in the Classroom” is an existing program in Idaho in which teachers and students raise trout in a classroom aquarium and release them into the wild.
• Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute (PCEI) – $23,354 – Greg Fizzell, (208) 882-1444, P.O. Box 8596 1040 Rodeo Drive Moscow, Idaho 83843 - MY WOODS: Moscow Area Youth Working Outdoors Offering Direct Service - PCEI staff provides schoolyard/field experiences for approximately 550 students and 20 teachers to explore a variety of native ecosystems, empower and instruct teachers in the delivery of environmental education, and host a five-week summer program for highly motivated students.

• Resource Innovations Group – $24,281 – Robert Doppelt, (541) 346-0786, 5247 University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon 97403 - Climate Brigade Program – This project 1) completes a model for outreach to households around climate change and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; 2) runs two pilots on outreach to businesses in Eugene on the same topic; and 3) plans to disseminate the model regionally and nationally. The program trains 50-100 Climate Masters during a ten-week train-the-trainer program modeled after the Master Recycler program and mobilizes a brigade of citizens to fight global warming.
• Environmental Education Association of Oregon (EEAO) – $40,813 – Linda Rhoads, (503) 234-3326, 133 SW 2nd Avenue Suite 307 Portland, Oregon 97204 – Watershed-focused Leadership Development for Sustained Environmental Education Programs and Stewardship – 70 formal and non-formal educators and community representatives from across Oregon will come together to create educational solutions for watershed stewardship, ecosystem protection, and sustainability. EEAO will lead, manage and facilitate an 11-month planning process culminating in a three-day leadership clinic for participants to design and create action plans for watershed-focused educational and community engagement projects.
• Lane Community College - $14,673 – Jennifer Hayward, (541) 463-5594, 4000 East 30th Avenue Eugene, Oregon 97405 – Lane Community College’s Sustainability Infusion Project (SIP) – The SIP program equips roughly 220 college faculty members with the skills and tools necessary to infuse concepts of sustainability into existing teaching curricula. The college is hosting two “train-the-trainer” workshops to train a total of 20 faculty members. The trained faculty members train 10 additional faculty members, each providing those teachers a strategy for infusing sustainability into all aspects of student learning across campus departments.

• Evergreen State College – $29,611 – Jean MacGregor, (360) 867-6608, 2700 Evergreen Parkway NW Olympia, Washington 98505 – Curriculum for the Bioregion: Integrating Environmental and Sustainability Concepts in Introductory College Chemistry and Sociology Courses – The project’s goal is for 24 chemistry college faculty members and 24 sociology faculty members to participate in professional development experiences that introduce selected regional environmental issues relevant to introductory chemistry and sociology classes. The teachers examine the environmental curriculum resources that are currently available in these disciplines, work collaboratively to integrate the sustainability concepts with core concepts that they already teach in their introductory classes, and introduce and evaluate at least one environmental “Teaching and Learning” activity in each class.
• Community Agricultural Development Center (CADC) – $15,000 – Dr. Albert Kowitz, (509) 499-1360, 985 S. Elim Colville, Washington, 99114 – Food and Environmental Stewardship – Food Choices that Support Sustainable Agriculture – CADC is partnering with Quillisascut Farms and Washington State University Extension in Stevens County to train high school teachers in health and food science programs. They are learning how to evaluate the impacts of food choices on the environment footprint. Fourteen teachers from across the State of Washington are attending a five-day training at the Quillisascut Farms training center. The focus is on food choices that result in a healthier diet for students and support a more sustainable food production and distribution system. Issues that will be addressed include pesticide use, fertilizers, energy usage, soils, surface and ground water, and animal, vegetable, and fruit production.