Blog for the 2010 NEEEA Conference in Vermont

The 2010 NEEEA Conference is being held in VT this year (the conference rotates through the 6 New England states - it's in MA next year!!), and although that's cool enough all by itself, the folks in Vermont are planning all kinds of really great stuff for this year's conference. They've got a conference blog at: 2010designourfuture.blogspot.com; it's a great way to stay in touch with what's going on with the conference - check it out!!

Richard Louv's Blog on Children and Nature

One of my MEES colleagues sent around an article from Richard Louv's blog: "Field Notes from the Future" - something I probably should have been aware of before now, but wasn't. Richard Louv is the author of the powerful book Last Child in the Woods, which (among other things) deals with an issue he termed "nature deficency disorder"; an topic environmental educators all over the world have have since taken on. All the blog articles all well worth reading (and there aren't that many, so get started!), but there's an article on there that really struck me called Singing for Bears. Read it.

Predators and an Overabundance of Whitetail Deer in MA

I'm giving a talk on predators tonight at the Y; in preparation I was thumbing through an old issue of Massachusetts Wildlife (Nov. 2006), as I had seen mentioned on the cover an article about whitetail deer over-population. After reading the article, I have to say I'm even more fired up for my talk. It did a good job discussing the history of whitetails in New England, their human-caused decline and re-growth, and talked about the challenges we face living with a large, abundant mammal so close to our civilization. Hunting, however was the only method mentioned as a means of restricting the deer population (discounting natural causes which would result in ecosystem destruction and disease and starvation for thousands of animals). The article discussed the pros and cons people feel about hunting (while mentioning that the author - Tovar Cerulli - is a hunter himself) and proposed it as the best viable solution to the deer problem.

I happen to think that hunting is an excellent form of population control for our out-of-control deer population (and agree with the author that it's our best solution right now). And I also happen to think that a healthy predator population (i.e. - wolves) is also a potential solution. Reintroduction of wolves is a very controversial topic - no doubt about it. But much to my frustration, the author didn't even MENTION the role predators naturally play in keeping ungulate populations healthy and stable, and that fact that our top level predators are missing here in New England - and that's a big problem. Regardless of how you feel about an issue like predator re-introduction, to not even mention it as an ecological issue drives me crazy. People can continue on their way with their misconceptions about predators big and small, ignorant of how imbalanced our forests are without the biggest ones present. I'm SO glad I'm running my program this evening. **Stepping off my soapbox**

As an aside, I will be leading a tracking program in the central MA region this Saturday, January 16th from 10 - 12:30. If you're interested in attending, send me an email and I'll get you the details.

Random Bits from an Outdoor Ed Director's Office

Things found in my office, following crazy-busy summer and fall seasons...

• Rubber chicken
• Various short (and some not-so-short) bits of 'dead' climbing rope
• The skin (and fur) of an eastern coyote
• Slinky
• Defective steel carabiners (still waiting to be sent to manufacturer)
• Lots of warm clothing
• Slightly smashed wasp in identifying jar (left over from summer - "do you know what this is??")
• 29" auger drill bit
• Large box of galvanized nails
• Recurve bow (belonging to co-worker)
• Hand-made shark fin for shark costume (consisting solely of corrugated cardboard and duct tape)
• "Herbal Armor" bug repellent (still sitting on desk, despite current 30 degree weather)

I won't get into the loads of paper and books scattered all over, but at least I have time to clean up now...

Wolf Double Talk

One of my colleges brought to my attention a newspaper clipping about guy who brought a live wolf to the library in the town next to us for a children’s program the other day. There was a photo and blurb in the local paper, and the photo showed a guy with a wolf on a leash sitting between his feet.

I will put aside the fact that the wolf in the photo looked more like a skinny husky than a wild wolf for the moment, to say this… after going to the website for his organization to find more info out about them (and I won't name the individual or his organizaion until I have spoken with them directly), I am quite upset about the message they are sending. I'm not out to bash his organization, because I'm sure that they have great information intheir programs and I'm all for wolf education - we need more of it, not less! And I do plan to either attend one of their programs, or talk with them by phone to pose my questions.

But what are you REALLY saying when you bring a ‘wild’ animal into a public setting that has been “raised by us at home”… ? Even if they say to their audiences that wolves shouldn’t be kept as pets, they are giving a double message (do as I say, not as I do). Right on their website is information about pups they are raising and socializing with opportunities for the public to (by paying) go camping and ‘play with the pups’. There’s a fine line when working with wildlife for educational purposes, and I think these folks have crossed it.

42nd NEEEA Conference

I spent this past weekend at the 42nd annual NEEEA (New England Environmental Education Alliance) Conference at Sargent Center in Hancock, NH. The last time I was able to spend the weekend at a full NEEEA conference was 6 years ago - the last time the conference was in NH, actually. One of the reasons I love being at NEEEA (yes, in addition the renewed contacts, professional development and other 'official' goodies) is that it essentially is a weekend of camp for educators. For anyone who knows me even slightly, you know I love camp - so this is just a blast, as far as I'm concerned. There wasn't much chance of my not attending this year; I'm on the board for both NEEEA as well as MEES (the Massachsuettes Environmental Education Society). For those outside of our little ee world, the six New England states each have an environmental education organization which is what makes up the population of NEEEA. Just to be confusing, you aren't automatically on the NEEEA board, if you're on the board of a New England state org. I'm the MA state rep for NEEEA, so happen to serve on both, but there are plenty of people on other state org boards that aren't part of the NEEEA board.

Hmm... this post was supposed to be more about my weekend at the conference, rather than a run-down of ee orgs in New England, and now it's late and I need to go to bed. I'll continue my weekend post tomorrow.