Hands on the Land

Life certainly takes many twists when engaged on an exploration of environmental education programs in the USA. After flying from Portland to San Francisco, we picked up another hire car and travelled south to our next stop Santa Luis Obispo and our stay with the One Cool Earth director, Greg Ellis. Arriving in Santa Margarita after dark, we were met by Greg and whisked up a winding road and dusty track deep into a canyon. There we were met by a group of young people living in the canyon community. Enthusiastically engaged in living a sustainable lifestyle, this group of university graduates had combined to develop an eco friendly settlement, complete with an organic vegetable and herb garden, a fruit orchard and chickens. Vincent, an engineering student was creatively constructing a yurt made from clay filled bags to compliment his adobe house built into the side of the canyon. Utilization of solar energy and water saving projects made canyon life surprisingly comfortable and very sustainable.

One Cool Earth director, Greg Ellis was actively involved in encouraging this sustainable living philosophy into the surrounding schools. At Liberty High School, Greg introduced us to senior students who were enthusiastically engaged in the program to restore a substantial piece of waste land on the school boundary. With the active support of the teacher, Bob Bourgault, Greg has developed a comprehensive program of tree propagation and an organic vegetable garden of which the senior students are justifiably proud. The great benefit of these programs is that they expose these senior students to a possible employment field and allow practical students the opportunity to engage in activities that allow them to use their creativity and problem solving skills. The trees once well grown are to be sold to farmers and market gardens to form windbreaks and restore denuded areas of land in their local region.

Life Lab Gardens in Californian Schools

A second visit was to a private school Laureate College to meet a teacher colleague of Greg’s, Heather Noyes who has established a Life Lab garden at the college. This also afforded the opportunity to speak to the teaching staff and hear their views of environmental education. Immensely proud of their impressive garden and the work of Heather, the teachers spoke positively of the benefits to the students the Life Lab Garden made. The difference was reflected in the way the students responded to outdoor learning and they spoke of their commitment and interest shown in this practical learning experience.

The third visit arranged by Greg was to the San Luis Obispo Botanic Garden to meet Theresa Lees, Regional Co-ordinator of the California Regional Environmental Education Community Network (CREEC), to see the Children’s Garden of Exploration. Here on a hot, sunny Californian afternoon with the vultures wheeling overhead, I discovered that this was a place where children could connect with nature by engaging in a practical gardening opportunity. From Theresa I learned of the newly approved K-12 Californian curriculum in environmental science and of the inclusion of Life Lab gardens in schools in the region. An important aspect of this project was of particular interest to my research, the training of volunteers to work as master gardeners to assist in these innovative garden projects in schools. Further information can be found on the website: www.lifelab.org.

life up a canyon in Santa Margarita along with its many squirrels, vultures, blue jays and delightful humming birds was a unique and very worthwhile experience and one for which I remain very thankful to One Cool Earth’s director, Greg Ellis.

Judith Hill (An Aussie Observer)