Opportunities for restoration abound – just look around. A vacant lot, a fetid drainage ditch, a barren field, a weed-choked park — these are all candidates for restoration. They represent POTENTIAL habitat and functional ecosystems with the right kind of intervention by people. Environmental restoration is an emerging field, and a recognized way to reverse environmental decline. But it can be complex when it’s done properly. Learn about environmental restoration principles. Reach out to others with expertise and experience. Find the organizations and agencies that are undertaking the effort to bring nature back, so your group can successfully undertake it, too.
Educators
Place-based education using a restoration project is an exceptional way to bring meaning, relevance, and interest to a curriculum. It is also a way to get kids intrinsically motivated to not just learn, but to create their own knowledge. It integrates some of the most innovative approaches to learning: thematic instruction, cooperative learning, service learning, multi-disciplinary instruction, hands-on/minds-on, and constructivism. Yes, this style of teaching does take more effort and commitment on the part of the school and staff, but the rewards can be so worth it. Teacher satisfaction skyrockets, as does student engagement. And schools become centers of community life, as they should be. The primary source for information on adopting place-based education is from STRAW itself. Other important sources are provided here.
Parents
Nobody is as important an advocate for their children as parents. If you were inspired by A Simple Question, then why not work to acquire a similar experience for your child? Share the film with other parents, with your PTA, with teachers and school administrators. Let them all be inspired by what is possible to achieve through meaningful, community-based, school-centered environmental restoration project work. Find out what it will take to bring such a program to your child’s school. Collaboration is essential in changing a school’s culture, and if others see the value in such an enterprise, the process has already begun! But be realistic. Change can be slow and not without discomfort. Schools have many constraints under which they must operate, so become informed and be patient and persistent. It’s worth the effort. To learn more about bringing place-based education to your child’s school, check out these resources as you network with others.
Landowners
Landowners are critical players in any community-based environmental restoration project. Besides the property on which the work happens, landowners provide a knowledge base and a cultural context that can enrich the experience for all. Working with community groups can be a new experience for many landowners, so communication and collaboration are important elements to a successful project. It is important to establish important parameters like project goals, conditions, schedules, responsibilities, and expectations with all participants from the outset, and to re-visit these as the project progresses. Working with an advisory group like your local Resource Conservation District or Land Trust can be beneficial to working relationships and project outcome. You can learn more about collaborating with community groups here.
Resource Managers
If you are a land manager, a park ranger, or a resource steward of any stripe, then you probably have projects you would like to accomplish but lack the means to do them. Why not partner with a school or community group that is eager to undertake longer-term service projects? Not only will the resource benefit, so will the project participants and so will your relationship with the larger community. The synergies from such a relationship are unlimited, particularly if the project is a significant one that requires an ongoing commitment. There may be important constraints that are integral to management of your resource, but there may also be a mandate or even a history of working with community members. More and more agencies, trusts, and management organizations are finding ways to collaborate with their communities. You can learn what others have done here.
Community Groups
Although A Simple Question makes the case for school-based environmental restoration and place-based education, other community groups can take on these projects, too. Church congregations, boy and girl scout troops, corporations, civic and service organizations, and others can take a stand for nature and bring it back where it has been damaged. It does require an ongoing commitment, often several years of continuity and engagement. It also requires discovering local repositories of expertise — people and groups with whom and with which to collaborate. But reaching out to others and rallying around a civic project with such great potential reward is its own reward. Models for success already exist, and we encourage you to look into them here.