The following programs and individuals are the winners of EEAW’s 2005-2006 Washington Environmental Education Awards. Their programs have inspired us with examples of dedication and sincere devotion to preserving our environment. We appreciate their profound efforts and are thrilled to recognize them with these awards.

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our appreciation to the award judges, the many people who nominated their special environmental educators, and to the nominees themselves for their important and exciting work in environmental education.

Special Thanks
goes to the Cispus Learning Center
for donating the award plaques.

2005~2006 Judges

Dory Dawson, Wesley Bernegger - Bennington College

Kelsi Kruger - White Pass High School

Jonathan Pistotnik - AmeriCorp Volunteer

Jesse Garner - Cispus Learning Center

Joe Fenbert, Susan Fortin - Washington Student Leadership Program

Award Winners

Formal Educator Award

Jami Ostby Marsh

Jami graduated from Western Washington University in 1994 with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Education. She is responsible for programming at the West Valley Outdoor Learning Center. The center reaches environmental education goals by striving for new ways to improve student learning. For example, Project Wild, Project West, and Project Learning Tree are interdisciplinary programs that join environmental stewardship with community involvement and real world scientific experience. Center staff works closely with classroom teachers to develop environmental education curricula that meet the Center’s goals as well as the curriculum standards of local school districts.

Jami believes that students learn best when their learning is based on personal experience. Through connecting students to the natural world, Jami and staff promote better appreciation and understanding of the environment and help create proactive community members.

Nonformal Educator Award

Sue Fisk

Sue’s educational background is in biology, environmental science, and chemistry. Her career has taken her from more formal teaching to the non-formal development of Eastern Washington’s premier outdoor learning center, Chewelah Peak. As Director of the Chewelah Peak Learning Center, Sue is dedicated to supporting applied environmental education for the Center’s students. Her role includes the creation and delivery of programs and services to the students, teachers, and communities served by Chewelah Peak. In three short years, the Center has become a focal point for nonformal environmental education. Sue’s ability to develop programs and connections in a brief time span has enabled Chewelah Peak to expand from 1,500 students in 2003 to 11,000 in 2005. The Chewelah Peak Learning Center gives Eastern Washington its only true residential outdoor learning center.

Nonformal Educator Award

Honorable Mentions

Katie Frevert

Environmental education must not only be seen as the study of the great outdoors but should include the relationship between environmental and human health. Katie is involved in the “Integrated Environmental Health Middle School Project,” which supports students in community-based research in environmental health issues.

Katrina Landau

Katrina’s work primarily serves community members in the City of Tacoma, WA,—an ethnically, culturally, and socio-economically diverse city. Katrina manages and implements outreach, including media releases, publications, and community programs under a WA Department of Ecology Public Participation Grant.

Community Catalyst Award

International District Housing Alliance

Wilderness Inner-city Leadership Development Program

The International District Housing Alliance (IDHA) began in 1975 as a grassroots community group that organized low income residents of Seattle’s International District (ID) neighborhood, focusing on housing and development issues such as home environment and public safety. Their mission today is to improve the quality of life of Asian and Pacific Islanders (API) of Greater Seattle by providing services related to sustainable community-building and low-income housing.

          IDHA’s Community Building Program houses a youth leadership development program called Wilderness Inner-city Leadership Development (WILD). WILD, established in 1997, focuses on environmental health and justice issues providing cultural and language appropriate services to low-income communities otherwise ignored by the environmental movement. Youth participants enhance their sense of identity, community, and civic responsibility, while helping to bridge cultural and language barriers to community understanding of environmental issues. Their role as community advocates is critical to the long-term health of the community.

IDHA has merged some WILD activities with IDHA’s adult community building activities in the Intergenerational Program. This program brings together the assets of bicultural and bilingual youth with culturally and language-knowledgeable adult community members to develop educational programs that effectively reach immigrant and refugee populations.

Community Catalyst Award

Honorable Mentions

Friends of the Hidden River

The Brightwater Environmental Education Center is a new environmental education center to be built in Woodinville at the Brightwater wastewater treatment center. Friends of the Hidden River has worked for the past four years to make the environmental education center a reality.

From the Park to the Sound: A Guidebook to Puget Sound

Puget Creek is an urban stream in a 66-acre park in Tacoma’s North End. The creek runs through a lowland western Washington forest from a spring in the hillside to its estuary in Commencement Bay. The Puget Creek Restoration Society has put effort into restoring the creek to its former status, which includes a small salmon run. Their restoration work has included ridding the watershed of invasive plants, planting native vegetation, day lighting the stream, and raising funds to establish a fish ladder under Ruston Way.

Salmon Watchers

Salmon Watchers is a volunteer salmon-monitoring program through which each volunteer receives a 2-hour educational training and further shares this education by talking with citizens out in the field. The program’s success and excellence are derived not only from its focused purpose and the educational value of reaching so many people, but also in its monitoring of the collected data.  This program is celebrating its 10-year anniversary this year!

Organizational Excellence Award

North Cascades Institute

The mission of North Cascades Institute is to conserve and restore Northwest environments through education. The Institute was formed in 1986 to provide field-based natural history experiences, which has been at the heart of its work ever since. The Institute facilitates direct experiences in nature that lead people to care about the world around them. When people learn more about the environment, they make better, more informed decisions.

          In July, the Institute opened North Cascades Environmental Learning Center in North Cascades National Park. This remarkable residential facility was developed in partnership with the National Park Service and the City of Seattle. The 16 building campus includes two labs, a library, a dining hall, a classroom, three lodges, staff and graduate student housing, a composting facility and administrative offices. The Learning Center is a model of sustainability. The Institute has incorporated foodshed, restoration, and green building initiatives into the operation of its facility.

          The Institute offers more than 70 adult seminars and retreats each year. Instructors include the finest scientists, artists, writers, educators, and conservation professionals in North America. They teach in small, intimate groups that offer powerful, life-changing experiences in the natural world.

Nonformal Educator

Organizational Excellence Award

Honorable Mentions

Olympic Park Institute

The mission of Olympic Park Institute (OPI) is to provide educational adventures in nature’s classroom, inspiring a personal connection to the natural world and responsible actions to sustain it. Established in 1988, OPI conducts residential field science education for K-12 students. OPI endeavors to create a community atmosphere in which all students experience support and success. From its campus on the shores of Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park, students embark on all day explorations of complex and awe inspiring rainforest, marine, and alpine ecosystems.

Pacific Education Institute

Today’s children become competent, responsible decision makers who base decisions upon their deep understanding of the intricate relationship between our natural and social environments. PEI provides teachers with tools such as: (a) professional development, (b) research on student learning, and (c) resources about the environment to help their students become socially and scientifically literate citizens, adept at decision making, and engaged in a lifetime of discovery.

President’s Award

Susie Vanderburg

Susie has stepped up on many occasions to help support activities and organizations in an effort to help raise awareness of environmental education in Washington State and the Pacific Northwest. Susie is a past EEAW board member, works for Thurston County, and is the president of the Northwest Aquatic and Marine Educators Association. She is an asset to the environmental education community and many of us have benefited from her guidance and experiences.