Connecting People with Nature
The Pacific Regional Center works to inspire people across the region to open the door and get outside! A daily dose of the outdoors improves children’s physical, mental and emotional well-being, and provides a life-long appreciation of wildlife and nature. Furthermore, our work with the Community Wildlife Habitat™ program helps create livable habitat for wildlife, and has turned into a movement across the Northwest. Our regional programs focus on climate change education, connecting people with nature, and environmental education advocacy. |
OUR PROGRAMS:
Certified Wildlife Habitats™
-
-
The Northwest boasts the most Community Wildlife Habitats™ in the nation! Washington state has over 25 actively engaged communities transforming backyards, schoolyards, businesses, community gardens, parkland and other spaces into environmentally friendly landscapes for wildlife. -
-
|
Backyard Wildlife Habitats™
Whether you have an apartment balcony or a 20-acre farm, you can create a garden that attracts beautiful wildlife and helps restore habitat in commercial and residential areas.
Certify your yard today.
|
Schoolyard Wildlife Habitats™
To help reconnect kids to the outdoors, the National Wildlife Federation assists schools in developing outdoor classrooms called Schoolyard Habitats™, where educators and students learn how to attract and support local wildlife.
Certify a school today. |
No Child Left Inside (NCLI)
The No Child Left Inside Act -- a critical bill for getting environmental education back in America's classrooms -- has just been re-introduced in this year's Congress. Passage of this legislation is especially timely given that today's kids spend half as much time outside as children did 20 years ago. Reconnecting our kids to nature will not only help improve the state of our natural world, but provide numerous health and educational benefits for our children.
This bill would support increased nature education and outdoor time in America's schools, and every state would be required to develop an environmental literacy plan to participate. These plans look at improved health and education programming, reaching under-served communities and increasing statewide conservation and outdoor recreation efforts. Currently, we are working with partners to pass the NCLI bill through the Oregon state legislature.
Eco-Schools (coming soon)
Earlier this year the National Wildlife Federation was awarded United States host status for the International Eco-School Program. Started by the UNEP in the mid 1990s, it now has 43 participating nations and 30,000 schools enrolled.
As coordinator for Eco-Schools USA, NWF plans a September 2009 launch and will be working with environmental education, green school, and science and civics education leaders across America to blend effectively with national, state and local green school efforts.
The Eco-Schools USA program has three key for goals for Americas K-12 schools: a) green the buildings, b) green the grounds, and c) green the curricula and student experience. We anticipate many thousands of U.S. schools participating in the program in the coming years.
- To download a fact sheet on the new Eco-Schools USA Program please visit our website: www.nwf.org/ecoschools
- Visit our award-winning climate change education site featuring the free NWF curriculum for An Inconvenient Truth: www.climateclassroom.org/
|
|
