Students to Learn While Creating “Outdoor Habitats”

Dallas, TX – Some of America’s leading wood and paper companies have united to educate local children about the environment by bringing forests to the urban classroom. Three local schools have been selected as winners of Project Learning Tree’s® 2006 GreenWorks! educational grant program for their plans to engage students in hands-on environmental learning, including urban forestry and schoolyard habitat projects.

The grants have been awarded ahead of National Arbor Day (April 28, 2006) and projects at each school will begin immediately.

The grant program, which was funded through a partnership with the Abundant Forests Alliance, was open to all Dallas-area schools interested in promoting environmental education, particularly through “service learning” projects that engage community volunteers, including students, teachers, parents and local businesses.

Project Learning Tree and the Abundant Forests Alliance are pleased to announce the following schools and projects have been selected to receive funding:

Obadiah Knight Elementary School and Thomas J. Rusk Middle School ($7,000) – These two schools plan to work together to create a Texas Native Greenhouse project to be developed and maintained by the middle school students.  The working greenhouse program will provide the plant materials to support an Outdoor Environmental Classroom (OEC) at Obadiah Knight Elementary School.  The OEC will be used as a model within the community to demonstrate the benefits of using native plants for landscaping. The middle school students will be "Greenthumb Mentors" to help the younger students.  Due to the schools’ demographics, the programs will be offered in both Spanish and English.

Robert E. Lee Elementary School ($5,000) – Students and community partners will plant trees and native plants, and maintain the native wildlife habitat gardens utilizing water conservation techniques.   One unique service aspect of the project is that the students plan to share cuttings from the garden with nearby retirement centers.

Harry Stone Montessori Academy ($3,000) – This project will encourage middle school children to mentor younger children in the planning, development and care of a schoolyard habitat garden to teach the concept of life cycles.  The garden will function as an outdoor classroom and inspiration area for the students.

These grants were selected from a variety of local entries that highlighted the outstanding environmental education programs both planned and underway in the Dallas metropolitan area.  For more information about the grant competition or the GreenWorks! grant program, please visit PLT at www.plt.org.

About PLT
Project Learning Tree® (PLT), the environmental education program of the American Forest Foundation, is an award winning, multi-disciplinary environmental education program for educators and students in PreK-grade 12. PLT is one of the most widely used environmental education programs in the United States and abroad.  Developed in 1976, PLT has an international network of more than 500,000 trained educators using six curricula covering the total environment.

About AFA
Members of the wood and paper products industry in North America have formed the Abundant Forests Alliance. We share information with consumers and customers about the many ways our industry is helping to ensure that with proper care and management there will always be abundant forests. We also listen and respond to environmental concerns about our forests and products. Through sustainable forestry practices, improved recycling and new technologies, our industry is helping to preserve the delicate balance between supplying the wood and paper products people need while giving the forest what it needs to flourish. By working together to renew, reuse and respect our forest resources, we can balance the needs of people with the needs of nature so forests can remain abundant. AFA members include Anthony Forest Products Company | Georgia-Pacific | Green Diamond Resource Company | Gulf States | International Paper | MeadWestvaco | Monadnock | Plum Creek Timber Company | Weyerhaeuser

For more information about Project Learning Tree, please visit www.plt.org.
For more information about the Abundant Forests Alliance, please visit www.abundantforests.org.