Plantings that provide food and cover will attract small animals for observation purposes that might otherwise not be seen around the school building. Thought should also be given to the placement of plantings to improve the microclimate. Proper plantings can make classroom and recreational areas more comfortable throughout the year.

Technical assistance is normally available to every school system through the services of the district soil conservationist, game manager, and forester. The district soil conservationist is available to assist schools by making a soil map of the site. A soil map is very useful in selecting trees and shrubs to plant on the school ground. The soil conservationist might also be helpful in determining the suitability of the creation of a small pond on the site. The district game manager can offer technical assistance as to types of plantings and their placement for wildlife. The district forester could provide schools with information regarding the availability of free or inexpensive planting stock from the state nurseries. Few school systems avail themselves of the free services rendered by these federal and state employees.

In every subject matter there are important understandings and concepts that can be best taught on the school site. As an example, just recently a one acre shallow pond was created in the outdoor laboratory of our high school. Basic physical, chemical, and biological data of the pond were obtained by high school students. To determine information on water volume and depth contours, mapping skills acquired in math classes were utilized by students to make a hydrographic map of the pond. Chemical data of the water, such as dissolved oxygen, carbon dioxide, and alkalinity, were collected by applying techniques developed in chemisrty classes. The biology classes made a biological analysis of the water and bottom sediments. Students enrolled in conservation classes are presently compiling the data and developing a fish planting program.

The pond and surrounding land that comprise the outdoor laboratory on our high school site is used not only by science classes. Social studies classes use the outdoor lab oratory to discuss social concepts. The industrial arts department has constructed a sturdy dock and a barge for water sampling on the pond, as well as nesting houses, trail signs and sampling equipment used by students to carry out basic research. The mentally retarded classes have constructed wildlife shelter and feeding demonstrations and assume the responsibility of placing food in the feeding trays during the winter months. Art classes frequently use the laboratory for sketching and painting. Elementary and junior high school classes, that do not have adequate outdoor facilities on their own school sites, frequently use the outdoor laboratory for natural history, ecological, or conservation oriented field trips. Many community youth groups use the outdoor laboratory after school hours for field trips or to volunteer their services for work duties. Youth groups have been very helpful in maintaining trails in the laboratory, planting shrubs and trees, aud in maintaining the various habitates. The outdoor laboratory also serves as a natural area for family groups to enjoy.

Once an outdoor laboratory is established, it will probably be used the year around. In Ann Arbor the recreation department hires a naturalist during the summer months. This individual conducts informal outdoor nature programs for early elementary children and a formal field science program for late elementary and junior high school students at the high school outdoor laboratory. The public school system offers a seven week summer enrichment course in field biology and conservation at the high school. This class makes extensive use of the outdoor laboratory every day. Once established, outdoor laboratories will be used by individuals, youth groups, and classes throughout the year.

Once teachers experience the amount of learning that can be achieved and the excitement generated through the use of the school site, the utilization of the outdoor environment will become a way of instructing that will add a new dimension to the teacher's effectiveness. However, few teachers are trained in our colleges and universities in methods of using the natural environment to enhance instructional goals. For this reason an in-service training program might be necessary to maximize the use of the site that has been developed to extend instruction beyond the school building. The most effective type of in-service training is that which is taught in the natural environment. It is best to offer an in-service training program regularly through the school year. It is hoped that in the future our teacher training institutions will play a leading role in helping teachers to acquire the skill needed to effectively utilize the school site to enhance instructional programs. The higher institutions could also alert administrators to the many existing agencies at local, state, and national levels available to assist school officials in school site planning.

The school site can be used effectively and should be used to enhance instruction programs. School land can play a key role in helping our students increase their interest, awareness, and understanding of the natural environment. As a result of this greater awareness, and understanding of the environment, I strongly believe that students will take a more active interest in issues relating to man's environment. It is through this greater interest and understanding of the general public that progress can be made in solving some of our major resource issues of the present and the future.

How about an outdoor laboratory for your school and community?

A CONSERVATIONIST'S APPRAISAL OF H.R. 14753

My name is John H. Merriam and I reside at Route No. 3, Pocatello, Idaho. I am presenting this statement in the dual capacity of a professional educator and as a conservationist. I am Chairman of the Department of Economics at Idaho State University and president of the Greater Sawtooth Preservation Council, a non-profit Idaho corporation concerned with the protection of Idaho's magnificant mountain wilderness areas. It is a pleasure to add my unqualified support to the bill which your committee is considering. I note with considerable pride that a co-sponsor of this legislation is Idaho's Second District Congressman, the Honorable Orval Hansen.

The problems of our endangered environment are unmistakably clear today. They fill the pages of nearly every national magazine and newspaper; we are told that the 1970's will be the "Age of Environment". If this be true, it is none too soon. The activities of April 22 (Earth Day) show the widespread support for the effort to salvage our environment from the destrictive forces we have set in motion against it. This is a movement almost unique in American political history, for it cuts across the boundaries of partisan politics. No political party has or should have a monopoly on concern for the quality of our environment. This issue involves nothing less than a fight for survival of the human race and a continuance of life upon our planet. At the moment we are losing that struggle.

One of the forces which prevents effective action is the force of ignorance. Two weeks ago an official of the State of Idaho stood before an audience at our university and told us that he was uncertain that any environmental problems existed. Such an experience is both shocking and instructive. I am the father of two small children. Like others of their generation, my children were born with strontium 90 in their bones and DDT in their tissues; some scientists predict that these children may never live to maturity. As a father and an educator, I am aghast at the ignorance of those who tell us that there is really no problem. The point of the story is not particularly to ridicule one of our state officials, but to illustrate that sublime ignorance of the state of our environment still exists, even in high places. And, when our civilization is set on a collision course with disaster, such ignorance cannot be tolerated. It is high time our schools and universities shouldered their responsibility to provide the knowledge required to first recognize and then solve the massive problem with which we are faced. This bill is an excellent one, for it will help provide the means to meet this awesome responsibility.

Investment in education is probably the best investment which our society can make, but the returns on this investment come only after a period of time. There are those among us in the academic community who contend that the time may have already run out. Even the more optimistic forecasters hold that the time remaining to revise our ways is terribly short. I am not certain that an investment in education, with its delayed payoff period, is a complete answer to our environmental problems. We must have stop-gap measures and we must have immediate crash programs to regain our environmental sanity and preserve human existence. In the long run-if indeed there is to be a long run-it will be education that wins the day. As indicated above, this bill is not the total answer to our problems, but it is a vitally necessary part of the prescription for recovery. As a conservationist, I have often been called a "flower sniffer" and "bird watcher". I admit to both of these unpardonable sins, but we must realize that the stakes today involve more than the chance to look at a beautiful sunrise or observe a wildflower. This bill will help with our environmental problems; I respectfully recommend its favorable consideration with all deliberate haste.

(Testimony by John H. Merriam, Chairman, Department of Economics, President, Greater Sawtooth Preservation Council.)

STATEMENT OF ROBB BRADY, EDITOR, THE POST-REGISTER, IDAHO FALLS, IDAHO

My name is Robb Brady. I am editor of The Post-Register newspaper in Idaho Falls, Idaho. I am here today to offer my support for the enactment of H.R. 14753 in the U.S. House of Representatives, the so-called Environmental Quality Education act.

It is a bill, in fact, which, coming after a long national enduring of environmental deterioration, faces a most critical challenge in righting past wrongs. While not exclusively, this bill addresses itself to the young in the cherished hope that they will do what an adult world has been all to complacent about. To me, one of the most significant contributions of the legislation would be in the training of teachers qualified to profile the importance of plant and life processes to man's environment. Quite plainly, there is nowhere near the teacher corps needed to teach the new awareness and the new values and the practical new ways to strike that compromise between what we need to live and what we need to live fully and healthfully. Such a corps must be trained.

In Idaho Falls, the worth of the objectives of this bill have already been signally demonstrated. In my home city, the Snake River Center for Improvement of Instruction has been utilizing funds under the Title III outdoor education program to teach elementary students the fundamentals of environment. It has shown, of course, not only the need of qualified teachers but the efficacy of the program as well. Outdoor education has a tremendous appeal to youngsters naturally and it appears to stimulate a student otherwise jaded by the rest of the curriculum. But, in motivation, it was the application of outdoor education in a volunteer program by Charles Clark, director of the outdoor education division of the Snake River Center, which underscoerd the importance of this program. It was a deft combination of outdoor recreation and outdoor educational experiences which tapped an interest resulting in the graduation of two of several dropouts. There is a magic to the outdoors for most youngsters and they identify with it. The outdoor education program as being utilized under Title III, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, expires this spring. The new act is the building block for a widespread and more penetrating continuation of this program.

The special problem of school districts now participating in the Title III Program in Idaho will be to find some way of continuing this program until the proposed environmental act can apply.

But environment is not just a picnic experience. It is not just a trail outing. Environment must be learned. And we need to learn the basic process of nature, and in a cause and effect way. What happens to a fishery when a road is built alongside of a trout stream without thought to meanderings, soil drift into the river, and lack of cover. Why is winter range so vital to Idaho's big game and what is happening to Idaho's winter range? What happens when we dam a river without sufficient facilities for passage of migrating salmon? What happens to old and diseased timber in Idaho's forestlands? These are questions most relevant to Idaho and which has summoned a special interest among old and young alike the past few years. Idaho, as most states, has already found out how vital a wholesome environment is to its future. It is most practical, if not necessary, for Idaho to find ways to develop while still preserving her distinctive liveability. This is the special challenge of the state. Consequently, environment is not just an aesthetic consideration. It is one which will determine how wisely she handles her resources, how wisely she seats her industries, and what standards she applies and enforces in sustaining her unique liveability. Many Idahoans themselves have not awakened yet to the unique treasury we have in forest, lake and stream and the importance of both using and preserving in proper ecological balance. Idaho has a special stake in the Environmental Quality education act. It represents a late beginning but a most fortuitous one.

A recent report by the Intermountain Regional office of the U.S. Forest Service, I thought, put the problem and the challenge in perspective. Stated the report in part:

"The chain of life links together plants, insects, animals and even man himself. Each inhabitant of the earth interacts with the air, water and soil upon which survival depends. The nature of things includes both life and death.

National forests are living, changing communities where scenes cannot remain forever the same. There is a place and a time for grazing livestock, harvesting timber, mining minerals, for building dams, and campgrounds, roads,

trails and ski developments. Just as there is a time and place to defer grazing, refrain from harvesting trees, and do without reservoirs, roads, mines, trails, campgrounds and ski developments. Decisions must be based on what results in the greatest good for all".

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION THROUGH THE STATE EDUCATION AGENCY

(By Richard Kay, Science Consultant, Department of Education, Boise,

Idaho)

OUR PROBLEM

Western man, through his unexpressed philosophy of solipsism, wherein man, the only real being of value, possesses absolute control, has created an ethic that places him above the laws of nature. Man's attitudes, values, and behavior are attuned to the exploitation of the earth as though there are no consequences. This philosophy and these values must be changed if man is to survive. The magnitude of the task cannot be overstated. It is not simply a matter of understanding. No degree of scientific literacy nor application of the human mind to technological/ecological progress will solve the problem.

Environmental education attempts to change attitides and personal values. Its objectives are primarily affective and seek the development of a personal and a national environmental ethic. Instruction is interdisciplinary, having its conceptual base in the science of ecology. But being a problem of economics and the social sciences, it transcends all other artificial discipline boundaries. Human attitudes, values, and ethics are basic to the education program with the goals being primarily affective. The skills of inquiry and process of science must remain the major pedagogical techniques by which these affective objectives are achieved. The facts of environmental education arise in ecological principles, but science cannot mold man's social nature in a direction that will give an understanding of man's role in relationship to the earth on which he depends. The social, technological and educational problems which have become imperatives through the activities of an extractionist, affluent and prolific naked ape will be solved only if every segment of the society is directed to action on a broad based effective educational program. The economy or ethic which has brought us to this point of absolute committal for environmental education is based on a spiraling affluence which demands more affluence. This creates pressure for more and more use of our natural resources. The numerous resource management agencies, federal, state and local must either yield to this pressure or by educational and public information programs convince us of our folly. These reactionary efforts have attempted to sell "after the fact" the activities of the respective agencies.

Many excellent programs have been the result of these public information activities but the problem is more basic, more imperative and beyond the reach of these isolated efforts.

Colleges and universities which have taught conservation courses have been concerned only with the product of their academic departments. Forestry, wildlife, and range management colleges have looked with disdain on teacher training programs.

Preservation groups, beautification clubs, sports organizations, and many, many others have enlisted support, created programs and made demands on our environment and on our minds to further their own special interests.

Public school systems, being products of academic department oriented colleges, have not received an orientation that permits an interdisciplinary approach to any subject. The methods, materials, even the need for environmental education has not been considered. Pressures in pure science, pure English, and pure mathematics and purer and purer training have led exactly in the opposite direction from those essential to environmental education. The financial bind that schools have had to face has not been conducive to anything except basic curricular offerings. The responsibility for environmental education has neither been assigned nor assumed within our system of public education. The concept of a total educational facility has been ignored. School grounds are blacktopped and concreted. Education has become something that takes place with a captive group, within four walls. The out-of-doors is used only for P.E., recess, and fire drills. The involvement of the community is for bond elections, Christmas programs, and individual disciplinary actions.

The combination of multidirectional, fragmented, and undefined responsibility in environmental education has lead in a full circle to a beginning again.

INTRODUCTION

Environmental education is mankind's key to survival. F. Fraser Darling wrote: *** the strings of past philosophy trail round our feet, making us conservative from a sense of prudence rather than reason. Judaic monotheism put man and nature apart, an idea strengthened by Cartesian dualism of mind and matter. The older Dionysian intuition of wholeness was heresay, and the ancient Chinese comprehension of a universe of checks and balances and compensations, in which man was essentially a part and no more, was unknown and unscientific anyway. (7:299.)

The tools to survival through environmental education revolve around changes in man's basic philosophy. The development of a national environmental ethic with changes in personal value systems through environmental education can only be achieved if certain key attributes of the program are present.

Environmental education must involve every segment of the population. Programs with children should start as early as possible and be relevant to the child's real world. The affective goals are best brought about through direct experience with the environment. Environmental education programs should be built upon the conceptual tool-ecology. Environmental education is interdisciplinary in subject matter content and must be sequentially developed yet remain evolutionary without becoming revolutionary.

We cannot discard the research, curriculum development, and teacher training programs of the 60's. The research in how children learn, the design of programs building upon skills of inquiry, the teaching techniques of inductive learning plus the experience of educators in innovation and administration have all led us into a position prepared for action.

Crash programs designed to effect change and consisting of men and money require direction and leadership. The Environmental Educational Quality Act authorizing the Commissioner of Education to establish educational programs to encourage understanding of policies and support of activities designed to enhance environmental quality and maintain ecological balance can create this leadership. The National Advisory Committee on Environmental Education can give the necessary direction.

It has been pointed out that diverse programs among colleges, governmental agencies, isolated public school systems, private agencies, institutions or other organizations have had little effect and show little promise of achieving the desired goals. Pilot projects, curriculum reformed, or teacher training programs must be conducted within a context of direct action.

All projects should be assigned one central state level educational agency. This agency should develop the necessary leadership to coordinate all programs within the state. Agencies that have been involved in conservation education should be led into a well coordinated and cooperative program. Although most states have already started the move to remove barriers to effective communication and dissemination of information, the key action words-leadership, cooperation, coordination, communication, and dissemination-remain a knotty interface between ideas and action.

STATE PLAN

The State Department of Education should serve as the central coordinating and administrative body for environmental education. A permanent staff to deal with environmental education should be appointed to work with an advisory committee appointed by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction and consisting of representatives from state and federal agencies with a strong interest in environmental education. This advisory committee may be served by a broader, more representative steering committee from various other statewide groups active in conservation.

The state educational agency should then develop a state plan in environmental education. This plan (1) should be designed to influence change through research and evaluation of existing programs and setting of optimum standards for implementing environmental education; (2) should include provisions for curriculum revision K-12 and the implementation plus development of new curricula which are interdisciplinary in nature and based on local educational needs; and (3) should include provisions for teacher training, both pre- and in-service. These teacher training programs should be designed to implement desirable environmental education curricula and provide trained professionals for work in colleges, universities, and resource management agencies.