From the Education Director
by I believe that conservation of our natural resources is the most important aspect of our club’s mission. That may seem a strange statement coming from the CMC education director. However, of course, conservation and education go hand-in-hand. As Baba Dioum eloquently said, “We conserve what we love; we love what we know; we know what we are taught.”
CMC conservation director Vera Smith and I often joke that we are each so glad we don’t have the other person’s job. While I don’t have the stomach to attend endless public meetings, write position statements, and call politicians, I am thrilled that Smith and committed conservation volunteers are dedicated and skilled in these arenas.
However, I am even more excited as an educator because the Colorado Mountain Club is bringing our important conservation expertise into the school system. Smith helped our Youth Education Program pilot a new middle school curriculum unit; she is influencing not only today’s Congress, but also assisting tomorrow’s decision-makers and citizens develop critical thinking skills. “What is Wilderness?” will be refined and expanded next year to include optional visits to proposed wilderness areas and more in-depth study. Our Youth Education Program continues to build capacity, bringing the mountains into school classrooms and taking school classes into the mountains.
Likewise, I am thrilled to work on expanding opportunities for CMC members in areas that support the CMC mission, including conservation. Since its inception, the club has provided educational opportunities in art, science, and literature as well as recreation.
The success of the Wild Plant School is a tribute to our members’ desire to learn about and conserve the natural environment, challenging their minds as well as their bodies. Thanks to volunteers who became Native Plant Masters last summer, the Denver metro area school is offering eight weeks of field work and three evening slide shows that focus on plants, while the Colorado Springs school has scheduled four field days and one slide show.
Naomi Nigro, a Denver group member, has dedicated her spring and summer to teaching all of the field days with a variety of other instructors helping at specific life zones. Nigro, an excellent teacher, also gives back to the club as a volunteer instructor in the Wilderness Trekking School. As she said, “One of the best things about teaching is that you learn so much in the process!”