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History of Environmental Education in North Carolina
North Carolina has a rich albeit a somewhat spotted history in environmental education. In 1969 the state legislature enacted an Environmental Education Act and in May of 1971 the Governor established the Governor’s Task Force on Environmental Education. The Task Force had staff support from the Department of Administration. Under a grant from the National Department of Health, Education and Welfare the Task Force created a “General Master Plan for Developing Environmental Education Programs in North Carolina.” The report and recommendations are strikingly similar to today’s goals and objectives for environmental education programs as contained in the 1995 North Carolina Environmental Education Plan and both stress the importance of a central coordinating office.
Unfortunately, continued funding for implementation of the 1974 General Master Plan was not made available. Thus, responsibility for furthering environmental education within state government fell back into fragmented programs with little financial support. Individual environmental education programs survived, however, and some even flourished – relatively speaking.
Over time, programs such as the NC Forest Service’s Small State Forests evolved into Educational State Forests, the mission of the State Parks evolved from interpretation to include the Environmental Education Learning Experiences (EELEs) for each state park, and the Wildlife Resources Commission’s “Wildlife in North Carolina” magazine and it’s Project Wild set the bar for teacher training and adult educational resources.
A number of other excellent programs in various divisions of the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), under its many different names, were recognizing the value of environmental education and implementing their respective programs. The North Carolina Zoological Park, the Aquariums, the Museum of Natural Sciences, Project WET in the Division of Water Resources, Project Learning Tree, Coastal Management’s National Estuarine Research Reserve, the Division of Soil and Water’s Envirothons, and several others were placing growing emphasis on structured environmental education programs to complement the required standard courses of study under the Department of Public Instruction.
Yet these programs, with rare exception, operated in isolation of each other. The need for setting professional standards for environmental education, and for being more effective and efficient through collaboration and partnerships was widely recognized, but coordination among such widespread programs was challenging within a large bureaucracy.
In 1989, the Secretary of the agency that is now DENR, Secretary Bill Cobey, announced that environmental education would be the highest priority in the Department. He requested that immediate steps be taken to review the effectiveness of current educational efforts, to identify opportunities for new or expanded activity, and to recommend a plan of action. In March of 1990 an agency Environmental Education Team presented its Final Report and Recommendations to the Secretary. The report recommended, among other things, the establishment of an Office of Environmental Education, a long-term funding base for environmental education programs, education specialists in each division of the agency, and emphasis on establishing environmental education centers.
Outside of state government, many environmental education programs such as the highly acclaimed Sea Grant program, were also functioning and, most notably, an environmental educators professional association, Environmental Educators of North Carolina was established in 1990.
In 1993, the North Carolina General Assembly passed the second generation Environmental Education Act and, importantly, included continuation funding in the state budget for staff and operations for the Office of Environmental Education in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. In 1995 the Office of Environmental Education presented the North Carolina Environmental Education Plan to Governor Jim Hunt at a ceremony held at the Jordan Lake Educational State Forest. That plan was developed over an 18 month period with seven regional public meetings involving over 1,300 citizens.
In 1996 North Carolina announced the beginning of the nation’s first Environmental Education Certification program and in 1997 the first graduating class of twenty five educators was honored at a statewide Environmental Education Conference. In July of 2005 over 1800 educators have enrolled in teh program and more than 600 have achieved their certification. Based on demand from these certified environmental educators, in July of 2005 the Environmental Education Fund and the Office of Environmental Education announced the development of an Advanced Environmental Education Certification Program.
The North Carolina General Assembly’s support of environmental education was further demonstrated when in 1995 they appropriated $200,000 to the Office of Environmental Education for grants to school media centers and community libraries to build quality environmental education library collections. They continued that grant program until the state government budget constraints in the year 2000 caused the program to be put on hold until better economic times. However, funding through the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency allows some grant making to continue.
A compilation of environmental education programs was published in a “Teachers’ Guide to Environmental Education Programs and Resources” providing classroom teachers and other educators with a “catalog” of science based environmental education programs. Soon thereafter, a “Guide to Environmental Education Centers in North Carolina” documented over 140 (now up to 180) environmental education centers in 64 counties across the state, and an Association of Environmental Education Centers was established in 1998.
Foundations, business, industry, and the general public were interested in providing financial support for quality environmental education programs, yet at the same time not all were comfortable making donations to state government. For that and other reasons, the non profit organization, the Environmental Education Fund, was created in 1998.
The Environmental Education Fund encourages productive partnerships to support environmental education programs statewide. Its goal is a citizenry with the knowledge, understanding and skills that will result in more informed environmental decision making. Its mission, goals and objectives are set forth in its Strategic Plan and elsewhere on this web site.