Washington, D.C. – Project Learning Tree® (PLT), the environmental education program of the American Forest Foundation, has awarded 32 GreenWorks! grants to schools across the country for community-based environmental projects. GreenWorks! is PLT’s service-learning community action program that engages PLT educators and their students with their local community in “learning-by-doing” neighborhood improvement projects.

Since 1992, Project Learning Tree has distributed approximately $375,000 to fund over 700 grant projects in communities across the country. This year elementary through college age students in 20 different states will design native plant gardens, preserve wetlands, construct hiking trails, start composting projects, and investigate alternative fuels. The grants are awarded in the preceding year, 2006, and projects are set for completion during 2007.

“GreenWorks! provides a leadership opportunity for PLT teachers and students within their school and community,” said Al Stenstrup, Director of Curriculum Programs for Project Learning Tree. “The projects strengthen students’ understanding of their relationship with the environment, develop students’ sense of responsibility toward their communities, and make a difference in how students think and act in their communities.”

The following are some of the projects that will take place in communities across the country during 2007:

• Britton Macon Area School, Britton, MI
This K-12 school and community partners will create a series of gardens and wildlife habitat areas surrounding the school. Staff will receive in-service training in PLT, environmental issues, and outdoor lesson planning in order to develop an interdisciplinary curriculum around this environmental project that uses hands-on learning to increase students’ science and literacy skills, and personal stewardship of the environment. Students will provide service to the community by planting and caring for the different areas and serving as guides for community visitors.

• Kathleen Clay Edwards Library, Greensboro, NC
This public library will partner Junior Master Gardeners with senior citizens from nearby retirement communities in an intergenerational gardening project. Together, they will design and construct wheelchair-accessible raised beds in the library’s Reading Garden and a wheelchair-accessible path. The project will be tied in with the Junior Master Gardener curriculum including site analysis, plant selection, and garden maintenance.

• Kirtland Central High School, Kirtland, NM
High school special education students will team with campus clubs to research, plan, create, and maintain a demonstration xeriscape garden on a piece of land left barren following a construction project. The students will educate their community about water conserving landscapes by guiding tours through the gardens, making interpretive displays, and giving presentations to community organizations.

• Casa dei Bambini Montessori School, East Amherst, NY
This Montessori school for children, ages 2-6, will purchase a two-chamber composter that will be placed on the front lawn of the school making it easily accessible to students and members of the community to recycle suitable household waste. Each spring, students will use the compost on the school’s flower and vegetable gardens that they help plan and care for.
 
• Girl Scouts of the Rio Grande, El Paso, TX
Girl Scouts, ages 5-17, will learn about wild habitats, native plants of the Chihuahuan Desert, and irrigation and water conservation as they build an educational garden at a rural community center. Professionals from Texas Parks and Wildlife, Texas Master Naturalists and Gardeners, and El Paso Water Utilities will help mentor and teach girls during the service-learning project. A Cinco de Mayo garden dedication event will include environmental education workshops, a guide for replicating this model in other community centers, and “girl-led” tours of the garden for community residents.

• City Academy, Salt Lake City, UT
Students in grades 8-11 will make their own biodiesel fuel from used vegetable oil for their school bus. Their goal is to have all City Academy field trips run on this domestic, carbon-neutral fuel thereby reducing their school’s transportation-related CO2 emissions by 50%. The students will educate others about biodiesel by giving presentations to other K-12 schools. A group of 8-12 students plan to take the bus on a longer “road trip” to promote biodiesel and engage in other service-learning projects.

“Project Learning Tree is proud to be a partner with the many education and community organizations that support youth environmental service learning projects” said Kathy McGlauflin, Director of Project Learning Tree and Senior Vice President of American Forest Foundation.

For more information about GreenWorks! and a complete list of Project Learning Tree’s 2006-2007 GreenWorks! grants awards, visit www.plt.org or contact Vanessa Bullwinkle, Director of Operations and Marketing, 202.463.2472, vbullwinkle@plt.org.

Project Learning Tree® (PLT) is the environmental education program of the American Forest Foundation. PLT uses the forest as a “window on the world” to increase students’ understanding of our complex environment and to help students learn the skills they need to make sound choices about the environment. Developed in 1976, PLT has an international network of more than 500,000 trained educators using seven curricula covering the total environment. The American Forest Foundation, a nonprofit organization, works for healthy forests, quality environmental education, and informed decision-making about our communities and our world.