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The Leopold Education Project In South Dakota
The Leopold Education
Project (LEP) is a conservation and environmental education curriculum based on
the writings of conservationist Aldo Leopold, specifically A Sand County
Almanac. The Leopold Education Project uses multi-disciplinary activities
which foster critical thinking to teach about humanity's ties to the natural
environment. The mission of the LEP is to create an ecologically literate
citizenry so that each individual might develop a personal land ethic.
| On October 1, 2007 the
South Dakota Discovery Center signed a memorandum of understanding with the
Leopold Education Project to serve as the coordinating agency for the LEP within
South Dakota. The mission of the LEP supports the SD Discovery Centers
goals of:
providing effective and exemplary
training and resources to educators
and staff of youth and community organizations,
involving South Dakotans in
the stewardship of the environment. |
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The South Dakota Leopold
Education Project will be funded, in part, by the 319 Information and Education
(I&E) project, a grant from the US EPA through the SD Department of Environment
and Natural Resources. The 319 I&E project concerns itself with outreach
that informs or educates South Dakotans about issues that pertain to watershed
management, non-point source pollution prevention and water quality. South
Dakotans face if not new decisions in these areas, then decisions with new
options and ramifications. Developments in the alternative energy field
will only broaden and complicate the issues before land managers now.
Pheasants Forever is the
parent organization of the Leopold Education Project. Pheasants Forever
undertook the national coordination of the LEP as part of its mission to protect
and restore pheasant and quail habitat in 1992, assuming full oversight for
the LEP in 1995. Currently, there are trained educators in every state
with most states having trained facilitators as well. Additionally, twenty six
states have a state coordinator.
Getting the Leopold
Education Project off the ground in South Dakota will not be difficult.
South Dakota already has 70 trained educators and approximately 20 facilitators,
those that have been trained to conduct LEP workshops.
The short term goals of
the SD LEP are to:
1. Build awareness
within South Dakota of the Leopold Education Project and its objectives.
2. Identify and network those who
have been trained in the LEP.
3. Develop a facilitator
network.
4. Conduct
educator trainings throughout the state in cooperation with local Pheasant
Forever members and chapters. If you would like to be kept abreast of news and
announcements about the SD Leopold Education Project, please sign up for
our educator
newsletter.
If you would like to bring a Leopold Education Project training to your
community, please contact Anne Lewis at 605-224-8295 or via email at
annelewis@sd-discovery.com. |