Strategic Plan
Introduction
This strategic plan presents the vision, goals, strategies and actions supported by the five federal agencies which collectively sustain and direct the Hands on the Land (HotL) program. Hands on the Land is offered by Partners in Resource Education (PRE), an alliance of federal agencies that manage public lands or work with America's private land owners. PRE members are the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the USDA Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Coordinating and supporting agencies and organizations include: The National Environmental Education and Training Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Education and other public and private community partners.
Vision for Hands on the Land
Hands on the Land will provide a national network of field classrooms to enhance kindergarten through high school student-learning through the environment.
Program Goals
A) Enhance student learning in natural, historical and archeological settings.
B) Develop a framework to maintain and expand the HotL program.
C) Promote resource conservation through education.
A) Enhance student learning in natural, historical and archeological settings.
Goal Context: America's national forests, national parks, national wildlife refuges, and other public and private lands offer unique, yet often underutilized, teaching and learning opportunities. They are American's largest classrooms, comprising nearly one-third of the land area of the United States. Hands on the Land, a national network of field classrooms, is connecting students, teachers and parents to these lands all across America.
Strategies to be Used:
- Establish and improve federally supported field classrooms on public and private lands.
- Develop and implement hands-on activities that align with identified curriculum needs and applicable education standards.
Actions to Implement Strategy:
- Identify and support efforts to engage a wide diversity of students and teachers in HotL programs.
- Support the diversity in capabilities of sites and seek to provide learning opportunities through innovative programs (e.g. from full-service to self-service models).
- Establish a national partnership between Partners in Resource Education and one or more leading educational institutions.
- Establish partnerships between individual Hands on the Land sites, local schools (or school districts) and other supporting community partners.
- Establish and maintain a national HotL Internet site with links to local Internet sites.
- Provide distance learning opportunities including electronic field trips to connect HotL students and teachers.
- Inventory site-based educational resources, assess needs, and establish methods for curriculum-based program development and sharing throughout the HotL network.
B) Promote resource conservation through education.
Goal Context: Responsible conservation of our natural, historical and archeological resources, both public and private, depends on an informed and educated public. Federal resource management agencies have an obligation to provide current and accurate information about resources and management options to enable the public to participate in land management and policy decision making.
Strategies to be Used:
- Provide hands-on activities that foster learning about the environment.
- Provide Service-Learning opportunities that support resource management objectives.
Actions to Implement Strategies:
- Develop a national level partnership with The Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment Program (GLOBE).
- Work through GLOBE, or other similar programs, to collect and share environmental monitoring data in support of resource management programs.
- Develop national and local partnerships with service organizations to develop site-based Service-Learning opportunities for schools at Hands on the Land sites.
C) Develop a framework to maintain and expand the HotL program.
Goal Context: Development and expansion of the HotL program will require coordination between HotL sites as well as the establishment of a national framework for participation.
Strategies to be Used:
- Build national program infrastructure.
- Obtain needed funds, goods, and services from federal and nonfederal sources.
Actions to Implement Strategies
- Build public and private partnerships (local and national) that provide resources for the HotL program.
- Increase and/or stabilize PRE agency contributions as base funding for their HotL sites.
- Develop tools to promote coordination and communication among HotL sites.
- Develop and implement an outreach strategy to promote HotL within the sponsoring agencies and across the country
- Develop a how-to manual to guide individual site participation in HotL.
- Establish eligibility and evaluation criteria for HotL sites.
- Through HotL, develop and implement hands-on educational programs and materials for teachers and students that are focused on high priority resource management issues such as: watersheds, invasive species, forest health, the role of fire and others.
What's important to federal land managers? Classroom materials are now available on invasive species, fire, watershed protection, and forest resource management. 
