Community Partner of the Year: Recognizing the PEOPLE behind the PROJECTS
By Thelma Redick
07/14/04
Sheryl Sturges is exuberant when she speaks of Stephen Andrews, the winner of WHC's Community Partner of the Year award in 2003. "We knew our wetlands, we knew the issues, but we were not the experts in education—that’s why we needed Stephen," she explains. “It only took a meeting or two working together before he won the respect and admiration of our entire team,” Sturges says with a smile. Sturges works for The Dow Chemical Company (www.dow.com) and leads programs for the multiple-award-winning habitat, Dow Wetlands Preserve, where Andrews is an instrumental volunteer. The Dow team includes employees, retirees and community members who labor tirelessly to restore, rehabilitate and manage the wildlife habitat between the cities of Pittsburg and Antioch, California, along the banks of the San Joaquin River near its confluence with the Sacramento River. The Dow Wetlands Preserve is used for public enjoyment and education opening its doors for an annual Environmental Faire that draws 1,500 to 2,000 visitors.
Andrews represents the University of California at Berkeley environmental department by reaching out to local youth, enabling Dow to implement hands-on environmental science projects in a “living laboratory” within the wetland. Through exploration, mapping and writing, Andrews introduces students to the diverse world of watery habitats. Extensive field studies help students to recognize their roles in addressing complex environmental concerns. “I want to instill in my students not just a sense of stewardship towards the land, but a sense of stewardship towards the community. I want them to understand Dow’s commitment to the “triple bottom line” and to witness that economic productivity and environmental productivity do not have to be at odds with each other,” said Andrews.
Each year WHC opens the floor to nominations for being named the prestigious Community Partner of the Year. The award recognizes the outstanding contributions that community-based organizations or individuals contribute to Wildlife at WorkSM or Corporate Lands for LearningSM (CLL) programs. Companies nominate local partners who help plan, implement and sustain their site’s programs, which in itself is an honor. The 2003 finalists included:
- Stephen Andrews, Professor, Environmental Sciences Teaching Program
University of California, Berkley
The Dow Chemical Company, Dow Wetlands Preserve
- Milan Bull, Connecticut Audubon Society
Bayer Corporation, West Haven Facility
- Rebecca Sullivan, Educator, Robstown High School
Flint Hills Resources, LP, Wildlife Learning Preserve - Corpus Christi Complex Each of the corporate partners is as exuberant about their nominee as Sheryl Sturges is about Stephen Andrews, crediting them with being integral to the success of the habitat or CLL programs. The community partner brings expertise in science, education, policy or any number of topics to wildlife habitat team. And the finalists, dynamic individuals in their own right, are equally vociferous about extolling the virtues of partnering with corporations on these programs and the mutual benefits. These collaborative partnerships build community ties, as well as successful programs. Partnerships such as these are rewarding for both wildlife and community, and serve as a model to inspire others in the industry and public to join together for a common goal.
“For one thing,” Andrews explains, “Being a community partner allows my university level students to participate in active restoration work, such as Dow’s on-going projects to restore bunch grasses, willows and native riparian species. We also have on-going water quality monitoring programs and management research for invasive species dealing with non-chemical control of the water hyacinth. But perhaps most important is that my students don’t do this research within the “vacuum” of a laboratory or a closed academic setting. They have to interact with the community—they must teach about the process and their findings and be actively involved. This partnership allows a place to have a fully systemic approach to research where they can contemplate the social implications of what they do.”
Down to the southwest in Corpus Christi, Texas, Rebecca Sullivan, a local teacher, agrees that community-based partnerships are highly rewarding. Sullivan, a local teacher, helped initiate the CLL program at Flint Hills Resources, LP’s (www.fhr.com) Wildlife Learning Preserve, an outdoor biological and environmental classroom that annually attracts hundreds of area students. From October to May of each year, Sullivan and her class make regular trips to the site where they monitor the wetland areas in conjunction with the Adopt-A-Wetland Program at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi. (www.sci.tamucc.edu/ccsaep/adopt.htm) She teaches her students an understanding of the functions and values of wetlands, an appreciation for the areas and their inhabitants and to be able to defend the usefulness of wetlands to less knowledgeable or unappreciative individuals. She states, “It’s been a very good partnership for both of us. Although our district is considered 'rural,’ many of our students still had little contact with the wonders of the natural world. They never had the opportunity to pull a net through the local marsh, where saltwater and freshwater meet. If it were not for this program, that world would remain unstudied, even unseen.”
Lauren Dietz, Flint Hills Resources, commends Sullivan’s contribution to the success of the educational program. “We are especially proud of the way [her] classes teach students skills that will help them solve problems and be better thinkers when they leave high school.” Sullivan points out, that sometimes for her students, contact with the community scientists and refinery spokes-people is almost as valuable as the environmental study, offering them a priceless glimpse of career opportunities. She adds, “It’s always a learning opportunity for everyone involved. Sometimes what you learn may surprise you, but you’ll always learn something!”
“Through our partnership, kids are able to experience science in the real world, instead of reading about in a text book,” Milan Bull, Connecticut Audubon Society (www.ctaudubon.org), enthusiastically states. He points out that through creative partnering, the corporate environment becomes the natural history environment. At Bayer Corporation’s (www.bayerus.com; www.baycareonline.com) West Haven Facility, Bull assists the site’s wildlife habitat team with annual bird counts and bird-banding demonstrations. Important data is recorded about birds regarding their weight, sex and overall health. Some are tagged with lightweight aluminum identification bands on their legs and then released back into the wild. The last banding project resulted in the identification of over 25 neo-tropical migratory birds along the site’s extensive nature trails.
Bull also conducts educational programs for Bayer staff and, along with the Bayer’s staff and volunteers, he facilitates CLL programs focusing on the birds that invigorate and animate the entire corporate environment at the site. “People often ask why we should care about these animals,” said Bull. “These aren’t only beautiful birds, they animate our lives.” Dave Smith, Bayer Corporation, adds, “Milan has been with us from the very moment this habitat project began by conducting the first ecological assessment, and he continues to work with our CLL program throughout the year.” Bull reiterates, “The best thing about [CLL], is that it demonstrates that there is no separation between the natural world and the human world—it’s all one and the same. We share the same space and time. We can learn lessons from nature to make our One World even better.”
Sheryl Sturges from Dow concludes, “If there’s one bit of advice we’d like to offer companies who are beginning to build programs, it is: you don’t have to be an expert in education or environmental science to make a great program. You’ve got to have the passion and the commitment to build the right team and find the community partners who share your dreams and goals. When you find the right community partners things will start to happen and you’ll find you have so much creative energy—you can do so much more than you can alone.”
Honor your community partner in 2004! Visit www.wildlifehc.org/apply/index.cfm to download a copy of the application before the August 31st deadline. Contact Thelma Redick, WHC Education and Outreach Manager, at Thelma.redick@verizon.net.
Associated Link:
WHC Award and Accreditation Applications
Read More News
|
