The popular ‘My Growing Tree’ program, traditionally delivered to all McKean County elementary school first graders in April for Arbor Day, took a hiatus during the pandemic. This fall, the McKean County Conservation District, with the Potter County Conservation District and PA DCNR Bureau of Forestry, re-worked the program into a remote kit that could be delivered to schools without visiting classes.

The remote kits loaned to teachers include a lesson plan, videos, activities, and additional resources.

Click here to read the entire article. 

This program was made possible by a DEP Environmental Education Grant.

During the PACD Education & Outreach Committee meeting on July 13, 2020, the committee discussed the continuing need to create educational content that can be accessed virtually. As a result, PACD Software Specialist Nick Yeagy will host a webinar for conservation districts on creating educational videos. Nick’s full-time job is to create instructional videos for the Clean Water Academy. During the webinar, Nick will share his knowledge and experience to help districts create a video, including providing suggestions for hardware and software and sharing general tips for producing higher quality videos.

The Zoom webinar will take place using Zoom Friday, July 31, 2020, at 10:00 a.m. and is open to all PA conservation district staff, directors, and associate directors. Please send any topics you would like covered or questions you would like answered to Nick at nyeagy@pacd.org by July 28, 2020. You will also have the opportunity to ask questions during the Zoom session.

Please RSVP to Shannon Wehinger at swehinger@pacd.org by July 30 to receive the information to access the webinar.

Thank you to the PA Department of Environmental Protection for supporting PACD in this educational endeavor.

The NACD Stewardship and Education Committee is excited to announce the release of the 2021 Poster Contest and Stewardship Week theme: “Healthy Forests = Healthy Communities.”

Trees and forests are critical in providing clean air and water, healthy soil, abundant wildlife habitat, and valuable resources we use every day. Rules, entry forms, and other resources for the 2021 NACD Poster Contest will be available for download later this summer.

The 66th Annual Stewardship Week will take place April 25-May 2, 2021. For more information, visit the NACD Stewardship Program webpage. 

PACD created a public service announcement (PSA) to encourage citizens to plant native plants.

Materials include:

• Script and audio for 60-second version
  
  
• Script and audio for 30-second version
  
  
• Script for 15-second version
  
  
• 60-second animated version

Click here to view the webpage of materials https://pacd.org/?page_id=20773. Please share the PSA scripts with your local radio stations. Conservation districts and partners are encouraged to share the animated version on their social media channels.

More resources for teaching environmental education from home are now available. Huntingdon County Conservation District (HCCD) and the PA Envirothon have new things to share.

HCCD is creating some virtual field trips in the form of short videos and photo albums, including:

• Learn how we monitor water quality and about what lives in the stream
• Look at invasive species
• Tour a vernal pool
• Sample macroinvertebrates

Click here to view the videos and consider sharing them on your social media! (You must be logged in to Facebook to view.)

Pennsylvania Envirothon is hosting an online challenge week (“Pennsylvania Envirothon Week”) from May 18-22, 2020, to give this year’s students a chance to test their knowledge and stay engaged in the program. This challenge will only be available for high school students who were already participating in this year’s Envirothon. Click here to learn more. 

Events conservation districts planned to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22, 2020, were canceled or modified due to the COVID-19 crisis. So what can we do to mark this momentous occasion? PACD suggests encouraging folks in your county to have a neighborhood trash pick-up while maintaining social distancing guidelines.

Another way to honor Earth Day with kids is to distribute the “We All Live Downstream” otter coloring page and the “Good Neighbors Activity & Coloring Book” through social media.

Please share your Earth Day messages on Facebook and tag @PAConservation.

The National Association of Conservation District’s (NACD) 65th annual Stewardship Week is less than a week away! Stewardship Week will take place April 26-May 3, 2020, and will celebrate the theme “Where Would We BEE Without Pollinators?”

Due to COVID-19 (coronavirus) concerns, we encourage everyone to find virtual ways to celebrate the importance of pollinators, such as hosting a pollinator webinar or delivering a PowerPoint presentation for your conservation district’s poster contest. To help you start a Stewardship Week campaign in your community, visit NACD’s website, where you’ll find a toolkit, social media graphics, and flyer that you can distribute electronically. Click here to access these Stewardship Week resources.

The Pennsylvania Association of Environmental Educators has created a new resource titled, “Teaching Environmental Education at Home.” The page consists of online options for fun and interactive environmental educational experiences for students to do by themselves or with their parents.

Click here to view the resource. 

Click here to read an article from Elk County on activity tips. 

Pennsylvania’s county conservation districts were awarded over $67,000 for forty-one pollution reduction projects in twenty-nine counties. These projects educate adults on water pollution prevention. Projects are funded through the Non-point Source (NPS) Pollution Prevention Educational Mini-Grant Program. The projects will take place over the next year.

Click here to read the entire press release and here for a summary of funded projects. 

Financial and other support for this project is provided by the Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts, Inc. through a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection under Section 319 of the Clean Water Act, administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

JUST IN TIME FOR BACK TO SCHOOL!! The National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) has announced the 2020 Poster Contest theme: “Where would we BEE without Pollinators.” PACD will be accepting photos of your county’s winners until June 30, 2020. We are very excited to see all the artistic entries for this year’s theme!

Click here to read more.