Earth Partnership for Schools: Ecological Restoration in Schools and Communities

Abstract

University of Wisconsin–Madison Arboretum’s Earth Partnership for Schools program works with students, teachers, and citizen volunteers to restore schoolyards and natural areas and to address diversity, pollution prevention, and ecological literacy across age, ecosystem, discipline, and culture. A ten-step restoration education process with more than 100 activities that address multiple learning styles is integrated with school curricula. The RESTORE (“Restoration Education, Science Training and Outreach for Regional Educators”) program has trained teams to bring Earth Partnership for Schools to a variety of ecosystems in 17 states and Puerto Rico, and has included more than 400 schools, 1,600 teachers, and 160,000 students. Key supporters and collaborators include the U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, and other public and private agencies, universities, arboreta, botanic gardens, and environmental organizations. Earth Partnership is inspired by Aldo Leopold’s “land ethic” that sees land as a community to which we belong, and was articulated so clearly in his beloved Sand County Almanac in 1949.