Originally published in Seven Mile Times' Endless Summer Issue, 9/1/2015
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I loved autumn, the one season of the year ...
(FO R WETLANDS) A I S S WI TH U LO R VE M O FR
ts, Baltic Sea Fields of gold at Olone
Region.
Lake Sapsho, Smolensk Lakeland National Park. Boris, a white stork at Smolensk.
Exchange Program Bridges Cultures for Environmental Education By Dr. Lenore Tedesco of The Wetlands Institute he Wetlands Institute has been creating and delivering highquality, experiential wetland education for decades. Since its founding in 1969, environmental education and wetland stewardship has been a cornerstone of the institute’s mission. This year, thanks to a grant from the U.S. State Department, the institute has extended its wetlands education to the international level. The Wetlands Institute ( T WI), Wetland Link International (based in the United Kingdom) and Wetlands International Russia (based in Moscow) have teamed up to generate an international dialogue between wetland centers in the United States and Russia. This project, “Russia-USA Wetland Center Exchange Program: Linking People and Wetlands,” is working to identify and implement the best practices in environmental education. A second, pending grant has been sought to support the development of outreach and education activities that can be shared among partner centers in both countries. The program – which will culminate with a three-day conference at The Wetlands Institute – is based on a desire Endless Summer 2015
to directly link wetland educators to foster greater cultural understanding, while exploring the different historical contexts and approaches to environmental education utilized in each country. The United States has a long history of making natural areas accessible to people in addition to embedding environmental education and outreach into visitor programs. U.S. wetland education centers are widespread and utilize a variety of innovative approaches to teaching in and about wetlands. For
Driftless Area Wetland Centre & Khassky State Natural Reserve partners at the Oglakhty Areas Visitors Center, Khassky Reserve.
most of Russia’s history, natural areas have been strictly protected and largely off-limits to the public. This has changed in recent years: Wetland education visitor centers are being opened and programming is being developed to encourage outdoor and environmental education. The exchange program is designed to have six centers – three from each country – work together and learn from each other. The Wetlands Institute is partnering with the Smolensk Lakeland National
Park, located near the Belarus border about seven hours west of Moscow. In my role as TWI’s executive director, I joined our director of educational program development, Brooke Knapick, in Russia for 10 days in April, visiting project partners from the national park. The park has a newly opened visitor center located in an area with numerous beautiful lakes. Similar to TWI, the park’s visitorship is heavily seasonal. The park is vast and has a strong focus on interpretive signage and self-guided educational programs. Its mission includes preservation and education about cultural resources in addition to natural resources. Brooke and I toured many areas of the park, visited the local middle school, participated in a regional overnight environmental education and service project, and worked with park naturalists, foresters and research scientists to get a greater understanding of the educational initiatives being offered by the park. The park shares some interesting natural-resource riches with TWI. Notably, Smolensk Lakeland National Park is situated on a flyway whereby migratory birds moving from Siberia down to continued on page 72 WWW.SEVENMILETIMES.COM
Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall. ~F. Scott Fitzg erald
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participating in education programs as well as touring area facilities and visiting natural areas in Cape May. We are excited to be able to time their visit with the great migration through Cape May and explore ways we can link education about global migration. All participating wetland centers are situated along major migratory flyways, so developing and sharing linkages related to these resources is an interesting facet that we are exploring. The Wetlands Institute will host a conference for all of the project partners in mid-October. We will share the
Brooke Knapick & Lenore Tedesco with forester Sergei, fisheries specialist Vladimir & natural resources mapping specialist Dmitry on fisheries field trip …
The Wetlands Institute Fall Migration Festival
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Africa utilize the park during migration. This flyway is a parallel flyway to the Atlantic flyway through Cape May used by birds moving between the Arctic and South America. While the osprey is a key conservation target species for TWI, the common stork is a conservation target in Smolensk. Smolensk Park also has a comprehensive program in fisheries management. These parallels provide for wonderful opportunities for collaborative educational programs for visitors to Smolensk Park and TWI. Full immersion into the park’s programs allowed us to explore commonalities between the two centers and share ideas for new programs and initiatives, exhibits and signage and community involvement. Extending our education programs to an international level such as this is an important next step in TWI’s development. In May and June, two other wetland centers in the United State visited with partner centers in Russia. The six wetland centers participating in the program offer a diverse array of centers from different geographic regions, with different areas of expertise and educational focus. Together, we are exploring approaches for using social media in environmental education, sharing data and program materials, developing opportunities for programs in America to be linked to programs in Russia, and producing a bilingual manual of best practices for wetland centers in both countries. The Khakassky State Natural Reserve, located in the Steppe zone of Khakassia in southeast Russia, is working with the Driftless Area Wetlands Centre in Marquette, Iowa. The Khakassky State Natural Reserve includes vast areas of taiga and steppe ecosystems and numerous large lakes and wetland Endless Summer 2015
rich wetland ecosystems that we have and also explore the institute’s wetland education programs. We are planning an evening open house for the public to meet the project participants, listen to team presentations about their exchange visits, and showcase the programs at each of the wetland centers in both the United States and Russia. You can learn more about the program on our website, wetlandsinstitute.org, or on Facebook by searching “Russia-USA Wetland Center Exchange Program.”
Sept. 19-20, 9:30am-4:30pm
Come witness an amazing spectacle of nature and see what makes the Cape May Peninsula one of the top birding destinations in the world! Activities include: • Live butterfly presentations and tagging • Guided nature walks focusing on birds, butterflies, dragonflies and bees • Guided back-bay boat and kayak tours • Fish, sea turtle, butterfly and bird crafts, migration-themed games and activities • Special autumn terrapin release • Live animal presentations by community partners • Native plant garden tours • And more! … and with Dmitry at Lake Bukino, Smolensk
complexes. It has recently opened five nature centers focused on combining local legends and traditions with scientific facts about nature. This theme of infusing wetland education programs with cultural traditions has emerged as an important distinction between Russian environmental-education programs and U.S. programs, and something that we are exploring as a best practice. The Baltic Fund for Nature, located in St. Petersburg, is a non-governmental organization focused on environmental education in the Baltic Sea basin. The Baltic Fund for Nature is paired with John Bunker Sands Wetland Center located in Seagoville, Texas. The Baltic Fund for Nature operates a mobile education network with “in the field” program delivery without a home-based nature center. A key natural area is Lake Ladoga, the largest lake in Europe which shares a water-source area with Finland. The Russian teams will visit their U.S. partners in October. Our partners from Smolensk will spend a week on Seven Mile Beach, exploring the institute and
Two-Day Ticket Price: Nonmember: $15 Adult, $10 Child Member: $13 Adult, $8 Child One-Day Ticket Price: Nonmember: $10 Adult, $8 Child, $30 Family Pack of 4 Member: $8 Adult, $6 Child, $25 Family Pack of 4
Russia-USA Wetland Center Exchange Program Open House Oct. 20, 6:30-8:30pm
Join us for a presentation on the “Russia-USA Wetland Center Exchange Program: Linking People and Wetlands” goals and objectives and summary of our teams’ visits to Russia. Meet and talk with our Russian partners and find out about their experience. Light refreshments will be provided. More information will be available at wetlandsinstiute.org/education. Dr. Lenore P. Tedesco is the Executive Director of The Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor. Tedesco has a Ph.D. in marine geology and geophysics from the University of Miami, and a bachelor’s degree in geology from Boston University. She joined The Wetlands Institute in October 2011. Prior to then, she had been a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at Indiana-Purdue University for 21 years. She has focused her research activities on coastal and wetland ecosystem dynamics and restoration. WWW.SEVENMILETIMES.COM