In Focus
Organizational Members in FOcus Charlottesville, VA The Living Education" Center for Ecology and the Arts What is living education? The word "living" implies change, dynamism, vitality, and...
...Their extensive ecological consequences include fragmenting wildlife habitat, introducing exotic pests and pathogens, increasing stream sedimentation, accelerating erosion, increasing wildlife mortality, introducing toxic runoff, and increasing access for logging, mining, poaching, and off-road vehicle abuse...
...Missoula, MT Wildlands Center for Preventing...
...The word "living" implies change, dynamism, vitality, and healthy diversity...
...At LEC, education comes alive as students are continually challoads and road building are among the worst threats to wildland ecosystems, lenged to respond to real-life situations using the tools they have gained in the classroom and in the world outside...
...Central to all studies is an awareness of ecology and the natural world, and the development of personal artistic expression...
...Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads, P.O...
...Box 7516, Missoula, MT 59807, 406/543-9551, WildlandsCPR@ wildrockies.org...
...Students ages 13 to 19 work together in this four-year alternative high school program toward a 24-credit, advanced diploma...
...The Generation Green young professionals group is a forum through which younger members of TGC engage in education, advocacy, adventure, and service initiatives...
...The resulting proposal suggests a host of plausible alternatives that, if implemented, would bring the region into air quality compliance, improve water quality, create more public transportation choices, and increase the value and intimacy of existing neighborhoods and communities...
...Living Education Center for Ecology and the Arts, P.O...
...Through a series of Road-Ripper's Workshops, they train activists in thwarting, closing, and revegetating wildland roads, halting motorized recreation, and using sound biological and legal practices to influence public land management...
...Seeking to recreate a tapestry of roadless wildlands through removing and preventing roads and limiting motorized recreation, they work toward the protection and recovery of large-scale wilderness and biodiversity...
...By talking and working with those who effect change— developers, business people, city planners, activists, organizers, politicians, and artists—students experience firsthand the forces that shape community...
...But when you consider that almost any human presence in a landscape necessitates a road, whether temporary or permanent, and that most "popular" environmental threats would not be possible without roads, the automobile's best friend soars to the top of the list...
...Integrating conservation biology, activism, and legal expertise, Wildlands CPR acts as a clearinghouse, providing activists with the tools needed to keep environmentally damaging roads out of U.S...
...Through its "get out there and do it" approach, LEC empowers young folks with knowledge and the ability to act positively and creatively on behalf of the entire ecological community...
...So what are the implications of associating it with "education...
...The Center is located in Charlottesville's "historic downtown" pedestrian mall, allowing students walking access to an extended campus that includes public libraries, universities...
...TGC's work to promote and stimulate environmentally sustainable growth in Georgia revolves around issues of water and air quality and natural areas protection...
...There is no doubt TGC will be at the center of this work, helping citizens find a collective and active voice in shaping their communities...
...With its rapidly expanding population, highest per-capita vehicle miles driven per day, and failure to meet federal air standards, Atlanta faces challenges that demand cooperation and communication on many levels...
...The Clinton Administration has recently been working with the Department of Agriculture to develop an interim protection plan for roadless areas in the national forests, and Wildlands CPR is educating decision makers and the public about the issues at hand...
...The Center's emphasis on hands-on learning allows students to form relationships with a variety of community members and to participate in diverse activities, such as monitoring city council proceedings, apprenticing in a community theater company, or working with an alternative residential construction company that uses recycled tires and rammed earth...
...Atlanta, GA The Georgia Conservancy Perhaps there is nothing more important to the health of a community than the existence of a common gathering place, where the spade work of breaking down obstacles of personal difference yields to the fertile soil of common ground...
...Since the school is set in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, students also have immediate access to a rich biological and cultural mountain ecology...
...According to the Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads, roads and road building are among the worst threats to wildland ecosystems...
...Through its education and advocacy programs, TGC researches and monitors issues, disseminates information, connects business, government, and community interests, and fosters solutions by building consensus...
...They uphold that any policy to protect roadless areas must include a moratorium on resource extraction as well as road construction, recognizing that the recreation of roadless areas is only the first step in a broader strategy to restore larger wildland ecosystems...
...Box 2612, Charlottesville, VA 22902, 804/971-1647...
...NW, Suite 400 S., Atlanta, GA 30309, 404/876-2900, tgc@mind-spring.com, www.gaconservancy.org...
...The Georgia Conservancy is one of a number of groups that serve a similar purpose—bringing people together to find common cause and collaborate...
...And through presentations and publications, Wildlands CPR informs the public about the environmental damage caused by roads and opportunities for road-related activism...
...Their end—to balance the demands of social and economic progress with the responsible stewardship of Georgia's vital natural resources—makes them a vital point of convergence for a diverse range of individuals who would otherwise have little occasion to dialogue...
...Roads If you asked an assortment of people to list the foremost threats to wilderness, the typical response might include extractive industries, industrial air pollution, expanding population pressures, or other popular notions of environmental destruction...
...public wildlands...
...Blueprints for Successful Communities is topically similar to the Livable Region Campaign but gathers, instead of grassroots groups, an assortment of builders, developers, bankers, architects, and local government officials...
...businesses, nonprofit organizations, theaters, art studios, galleries, bookstores, and other resources...
...Wildlands CPR is a national network of grassroots groups and individuals working to reverse the severe ecological impacts of wildland roads...
...The Livable Region Campaign is a collaboration among over 40 organizations to craft long-range plans to guide transportation and economic development in the Atlanta region over the next 20 years...
...Interdisciplinary to its core, LEC's program is project oriented, exploring aspects of history, literature, science, and civic awareness...
...This educational alchemy entails understanding one's relationship to place and community—both human and natural—as an integral part of the learning process...
...The Georgia Conservancy, 1776 Peachtree St...
...The Living Education Center for Ecology and the Arts is creating an organic model of high school education that integrates experiential, community-based learning with work done in the classroom...
...Their Infrequent Driver program encourages members to choose driving alternatives—mass transit, bike riding, or walking—and has accumulated over 11,000 "not driven" miles to date...
Vol. 2 • June 1998 • No. 3
