Forestry Education

We believe that hands-on, community based environmental education is essential to help people understand issues and make informed choices. In addition to the information provided in the sustainable forestry section of this website, we also support forestry education through:

• The Forest Learning Center on Mount St. Helens, which is located just inside the blast zone. The center helps tell the unique story of the return of the forest on Mount St. Helens after the eruption in 1980, and provides other resources for learning about forestry practices and how trees grow.
• The Cool Springs Environmental Education Center, which is located along the Neuse River about six miles upriver from New Bern, NC. Its mission is to provide a real-world setting for hands-on learning about forestry, ecology and environmental issues.
• The Teachers on Summer Assignment program in North Carolina, which allows K-12 teachers to gain first-hand knowledge of environmental issues and to experience real-world applications of concepts they teach in the classroom.
• The Project Learning Tree® environmental education program, which is an award winning, multi-disciplinary environmental education program for educators and students in PreK-grade 12. It is one of the most widely used environmental education programs in the United States and abroad, and continues to set the standard for environmental education excellence.
  
  

  With a national office at the American Forest Foundation and local programs in all 50 states, PLT meets state and national education standards. Its curriculum materials provide the tools educators need to bring the environment into the classroom and their students into the environment. Topics range from forests, wildlife, and water, to community planning, waste management and energy.

  The PLT network of 3,000 grassroots volunteers and more than 120 state coordinators work with formal and informal educators, school staff, state agencies, foresters, businesses, civic organizations, museums, nature centers, and youth groups to provide professional development programs. To date, more than 500,000 educators are trained in using Project Learning Tree materials, reaching approximately 26 million students in the United States and abroad.