with the Soil Conservation Service where you have experts in watershed management, for instance, somehow there ought to be a way to use the county agent model in a way related to an environmental education program. Now, I don't know the exact mechanics but there is a great resource there. It is already in the field, accepted and understood. Now you need to tap their knowledge and expertise which is mostly out in the field. We are dealing all the time with streambank stabilization and soil problems and watershed problems. There ought to be some creative way to use all of this knowledge, understanding, and political acceptance in an environmental education program. Mr. WICK. I agree with you completely. The one place where this sometimes breaks down is that some agency people are not the best teachers. Senator NELSON. Pardon? Mr. WICK. Some agency people are not the best teachers, some are excellent teachers. Senator NELSON. Well, a good many teachers aren't any good either. But the point is the knowledge is there and the teacher needs their knowledge and many county agents can teach. If they really know their subject, they can teach a lot. They are all Federal employees. There ought to be some way to tie this into an environmental education program without just ignoring it and starting out brand new. Mr. WICK. Absolutely. I would like to suggest that Ernest McDonald, for instance, with the Forest Service in the Pacific Northwest, has developed tremendously successful scope and sequence charts for integration of education into a school system. He has done a beautiful job. Senator NELSON. In those places where you have a national forest, and a number of States do, you add another dimension. The forestry people who are involved with tree management and multipurpose use of the forests together with a great deal of knowledge about insects and their relationship to the forests. There ought to be some creative way to use all of that knowledge. Mr. WICK. I would like to suggest a simile, the way we have developed the National Sea Grant College and Program Act is that we have integrated the extension function into the Cooperative Extension Service for a number of reasons. Philosophically that is where it belongs, in my opinion. Senator NELSON. I didn't follow that. Mr. WICK. We have integrated the marine advisory program which is funded by the National Sea Grant College and Program Act. The sea-grant concept, of course, is very similar to the land-grant concept. Senator NELSON. You have integrated that into the general extension service? Mr. WICK. Right. We have another adult education program in Oregon called the Division of Continuing Education, but we have integrated the extension part of sea grant into the Cooperative Extension Service because we can use the logistical support of 36 county offices which are physically a part of the university. We don't expect the county agents to be marine specialists, but they can serve a tremendous role in aiding and abetting the program and as we move into the program they become used to what we can do to make their job more effective, too. Senator PELL (presiding). I apologize for being late. I was working on the continental shelf problem in Senator Metcalf's Commerce Committee subcommittee. Indeed, your own Senator, Senator Hatfield, made a very significant contribution this morning. We have at the University of Rhode Island a program similar to what you are doing. Every Saturday morning children from all parts of the State come to the lab for a tour. In this manner we try to get them interested in the ocean. I also congratulate you on your use of the county agents, which is exactly one of the ideas that we had here first while considering the Sea Grant College bill. As you may know, I was principal sponsor of the sea-grant college program; at that time we were trying to work out a parallel with the Land-Grant College Act. When I was in Japan a few weeks ago I noticed that they had actual county agents who lived in the community, had a high local acceptance and helped the fishermen not only on questions with regard to the movements of fish and other scientific problems, but also with such practical details as what oil to use in their fishing boats, how to repair their engines, and things of that sort. You are doing exactly what we had in mind to implement the act. I only wish that these two programs you are mounting, increasing the interests of the young and people as a whole, by bringing it to them and the development of county agents, were being done by all the colleges who are receiving funds under the Sea Grant Act. Mr. WICK. Thank you, Senator Pell, we certainly appreciate your leadership in the act. I think it is going to pay real dividends. I just wish we had the size of extension service that the Japanese have, which numbers several hundred, as I understand it, in the nation of Japan. Senator PELL. I have on other question. Do you have Government laboratories near you, near your college or university? Mr. WICK. Not yet. We are hoping to have some someday. We do have State agencies and we have one of two marine meteorologistsI think the other is at Rhode Island, from ESSA at our center. We have a person or two from the Federal Water Quality Administration. We work very closely with the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries in many instances and the Sport Fisheries and Wildlife. Senator PELL. I think one of your companions is in Japan. I know he took me around and showed me the Japanese fisheries. He really knew his stuff. I thank you very much for being here. I apologize for keeping you waiting but being as interested in the sea-grant college act as I am, I particularly wanted to hear you. (The prepared statement of Mr. Wick follows:) OSU Phone 867-3011 COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY Statement of William Q. Wick, Professor and Head, Oregon State Comments on S. 3151, Environmental Quality Education Act, before Mr. Chairman, Members of the Subcommittee, I am pleased to be with you today to testify in favor of S. 3151, the Environmental Quality Education Act. My name is William Q. Wick. I am Head of the Marine Advisory Program, a part of the Cooperative Extension Service of Oregon State University, and am headquartered on the Pacific Ocean Coast in Newport, Oregon. By training I am a Fisheries and Wildlife Ecologist and have filled a variety of work niches ranging from antelope trapping in Nevada to waterfowl management in Washington, combined with game law enforcement at both the state and federal levels. Since 1960 I have conducted Extension educational programs on natural resources and the environment on the Oregon Coast. In 1968 I became Head of the first, and currently the largest, marine extension education effort in the United States. The Marine Advisory Program receives primary funding from the National Sea Grant College and Program Act, with matching funds supplied by state, counties, and industries. Our Extension education program uses person-to-person contacts, workshops, and all forms of mass media to develop, among all citizens, an understanding of the ocean environment and to stimulate realistic development of the resources of the seas. Specific examples will be given later since most of our goals relate closely to the Environmental Quality Education Act. Today I will make comments on the following points: the need for environmental quality education; examples of environmental quality educational programs, specifically in the Northwest; constraints on effective environmental education; the need for marine environmental quality education; examples of current marine environmental quality education programs in Oregon; and a suggested course of action relating primarily to the marine environment. The Need for Environmental Quality Education Environmental quality education is needed now more than at any other time in history. It is a simple matter of survival. Undoubtedly many of Marine Resources Education Oregon State University, U. S. Department of Agriculture, National Science Foundation, and Oregon Counties Cooperating Page 2 of the best environmental minds in the country have discussed this need with you. Perhaps if all of our citizens would read Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac they would understand that man must live as a part of the environment and not attempt to be the master of it. As a new nation, we adopted the Abrahamic concept of ownership and dominion of the land and resources. We have mastered this philosophy and use (waste) more resources per capita than any other country. As we industrialized we grew away from the land and the sea. Food and clothing come from stores, not the earth. Whether the temperature is hot or cold--a switch of the button can change all of that. If the air is dirty--filter it. Somehow we must get back to a realization of where we came from. Fortunately our contemporary schools are training the thought processes of children--attempting to create an open mind to understand that facts today may not be facts tomorrow. There are still generations of us living, however, who are not used to this kind of thinking. The recent detergent dilemma is a case in point. Because we did not like sudsy drinking water we preached the need for bio-degradable detergents. Industry complied and now we find that a high phosphate problem is worse than the suds and that soap may be the best answer at that. From a recent environmental attitudes survey in Oregon it was suggested that we need laws, laws, and more laws--laws against air pollution, laws against water pollution, laws against non-returnable bottles. With a resource law enforcement background, I realize that paying tuition to the judge is one form of education, but there must be a better way. We do not teach by breaking heads, or learn by nodding heads to platitudes. But I do agree with the citizens of Oregon that pollution is our most important problem. Earth Day was an awakening experience for many of us from industry, government, and education. I spent the day in a high school and as the discussion heated up the questions approached the "nitty-gritty". For examples: Can we continue to chase the Gross National Product and even seriously consider environmental quality? If human survival is at stake, can our Democracy cope with the problem? The majority of these students indicated a firm belief in the zero population growth concept. A local pulp mill representative found that he could not get away with platitudes even with 14-year-olds. Examples of Environmental Quality Educational Programs The thrust toward enlightened environmental quality education is not entirely new. Some good work has been underway since the early part of the century. As a boy in Western Wisconsin, I was a faithful follower of "Deep River Jim and his Wilderness Trail Boys", slept out a hundred nights in the company of mosquitoes to earn a Boy Scout Camping merit badge, and learned that cooking eggs and bacon on a flat piece of limestone can be a Page 3 shattering experience. Millions of others have had like experiences in organizations such as Girl Scouts, Campfire Girls, and 4-H. There are leaders today such as Wilson Clark, Phyllis Busch, Matthew Brennan, the Bailey's of Tennessee, and others who have spent years in developing and teaching model programs for a variety of environmental quality problems. A number of states have taken steps toward environmental education such as the Skylands Manor project in New Jersey and the Oregon 4-H Education Center. In the Northwest we have had environmental education leadership from federal agencies such as the Forest Service, Soil Conservation Service, OSU's Federal Cooperative Extension Service and Department of Recreation, and state groups such as the Oregon Game Commission, plus leading teachers at all levels and some industrial groups. Ernest McDonald of the Forest Service, with the help of a strong committee, prepared "Conservation Scope and Sequence Charts" to integrate land resource studies into the present school curriculum. The Oregon Board of Education sponsors a blueribbon advisory committee on Conservation and Outdoor Education. Agencies, universities, and industries have devoted many hours teaching in outdoor schools, school forestry tours, helped students replant the "Tillamook Burn", and worked on other worthwhile environmental education programs. All of these efforts have been roads paved with good intentions. Unfortunately, time spent does not guarantee subjects learned and technical knowledge alone does not make a teacher. It is time to train teachers specifically in environmental education for more efficient learning by the students. The outdoor school concept deserves some comment since it is an immersion-type of learning experience and in my opinion is aimed at the best learning age, grades 4 through 6. In the outdoor school, children spend a week in the outdoors using their talents in mathematics, science, art, english, history, and other regular subjects in a coordinated attempt to understand the environment. After some pilot experiences, the outdoor school programs seem to be picking up tempo. The first few were hard to sell. Even now only a fraction of our children have this opportunity. I have scars to help me remember the accusations that outdoor schools were vacations, playthings, a waste of tax money, etc. But the schools are proving themselves. Money is still a limiting factor as are suitable camp areas for conducting the schools. An important secondary value is the training in environmental teaching received by college students who serve as counselors and teachers. Constraints on Effective Environmental Education There are constraints that affect attitudes and activities toward a |