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Stories of Children and Youth

FLORIDA

Programs aim to engage youth in environment, outdoors

One of the enduring challenges in the environmental movement, at least in this part of Florida, is attracting young people. That’s ironic because today’s youth will be the ones who will have deal with the results of whatever environmental policy neglect brings to the state that Florida’s current, aging environmental activists can’t persuade those in power to fix.

The first step in attracting a younger constituency is to create some buzz that will attract them. That is, why would anyone get involved in caring about the environment if they don’t know anything about it? That’s where some programs that target young people come in.

There has been a recent round of publicity by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to promote the Junior Birders program. The package includes a curriculum aimed at third and fourth graders that encourages them to discover what birds are in their community, where to look for them and how to identify them under what’s called the “bird detective” approach. If the students can identify 15 species of birds native to Florida (no parrots, starlings etc.), they can qualify for the Hummingbird level certificate offered under the Wings Over Florida program to attract beginning birders.

The Wings Over Florida program, which first began a special program to appeal to beginning birders in 2003, has other levels that will offer challenges and here’s where the buzz comes in.

The official Florida bird list includes more than 400 species, which means once a student reaches the Hummingbird level, they might wonder what the next challenge is. The program also offers certificates for those who have seen at least 50 species (Cardinal), 150 species (Florida Scrub-Jay), 250 species (Black Skimmer), 300 species (Reddish Egret) and 350 species (Swallow-tailed Kite). But simply spotting a certain number of species of birds or anything else, although fun and sometimes fiercely competitive, is just an entry point into a larger world.

The Wings Over Florida application asks questions about applicants’ involvement in other conservation programs and commitments they’ve made to wildlife and conservation as well as to list their favorite birdwatching sites. Obviously, some of these questions are not appropriate to pose to children, but introducing them to some of the bigger conservation questions of the need to protect and manage wildlife habitat important to bird populations is appropriate if it’s coupled with environmental education lessons.

This is important for a couple of reasons.

The population of active birdwatchers in Florida and a lot of other places is aging. It’s important to recruit a new generation of people to help with everything from continuing annual bird surveys of all kinds to becoming involved in conservation issues.

Incorporating environmental education takes recreational birdwatching beyond simple listing to a deeper knowledge of how birds and other wildlife function in Florida’s ecology, what threats they face and what people can do to lessen their impact on wildlife.

This is also a good way to begin training future scientists.

I often tell people it’s wonderful if you like birds, but it’s also important that someone is willing to go deeper and learn the science.
There are community-based examples of ways to encourage the natural curiosity young people have toward productive ends.
When I attended a nature festival in Lake County last year I encountered a representative of something called the Family Nature Club, which is sponsored by one of the local churches, whose activities include field trips, science activities, wildlife watching, games, crafts and more.

I’ve also heard that some local birdwatchers in Brevard and Pinellas counties have organized what they call Young Birders Clubs to encourage young people to get outdoors and learn about birding and the environment.

Of course, there are also traditional youth organizations, such as the Boy Scouts of America and the Girl Scouts whose activities include exposure to the outdoors.
More resources for involving young people in environmental studies and activities is available at http://www.childrenandnature.org/.

Youth habitat contest
The Florida Wildlife Federation will again award a commemorative plaque and an age-suitable gardening book to the Florida youth or group of young people 12 or under who have helped to establish and maintain a habitat for wildlife at home or on school property. The deadline to enter is March 31.

Participants should include information in their entry explaining why their project provides food, water, cover and a place to raise young for local wildlife. The entry should include photos of habitat and children working to create it. To enter,email patricia@fwfonline.org or call the Tallahassee office at 850- 656-7113 for more information, if needed.

Tom Palmer
25 January 2015

http://environment.blogs.theledger.com/14248/programs-aim-to-engage-youth-in-environment-outdoors/

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