The Pennsylvania Environmental Council and Lake Erie Allegheny Earth Force announced this week they will be launching an Earth Force environmental education initiative in the Northern Allegheny River region with an open house on April 22.

The open house and public information session from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. at the Earth Force’s new Meadville office, 301 Chestnut St., Meadville.

The project, called the Northern Allegheny River Conservation Literacy Project, will employ a problem-solving educational model that imparts scientific knowledge, addresses local conservation priorities, is rooted in scientific and policy research, and promotes sustainable solutions throughout the Northern Allegheny River watershed - one of the most ecologically significant regions in North America.

The work is being funded through a Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Wild Resources Conservation Program Environmental Education grant.

“The upper Allegheny region, including the world-renowned French Creek, is one of the most ecologically significant aquatic systems in Pennsylvania, and among the most biologically rich in the United States,” noted Mark Gorman, director of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council’s office in Meadville. “This project will utilize the Earth Force ownership and empowerment model of environmental education, which is an approach that has worked extremely well in other parts of the country, nurturing an environmental stewardship ethic that leads to real and effective conservation. This particular project will focus on conserving the region’s wealth of rare, threatened and endangered plants and animals - species that are abundant here, but missing or found only in low numbers elsewhere.”

The Earth Force Education Director, Margarita Dangel, be available during that period to talk individually with teachers, school administrators, students and others who might be interested in becoming involved in the Allegheny River Conservation Literacy Project.

For more information, visit the Pennsylvania Environmental Council and Lake Erie Allegheny Earth Force websites.

4/18/2008