Throughout the U.S., decisions concerning land use and conservation are often carried out at the local level. Whether at the county level in southern and western states, or by municipalities in New England states, conservation efforts are often enacted by local volunteer boards and commissions. The University of Connecticut’s Natural Resources Conservation Academy (UConn NRCA) provides a direct assist to these on-the-ground conservation efforts. UConn NRCA uses an innovative leadership intergenerational partnership framework that supports the implementation of community environmental efforts. First, teen and adult community partners receive training in conservation science and geospatial technology during a hands-on field experience. Then each teen-adult partnership designs and implements a project that addresses a real community environmental need, leveraging their new technological and conservation toolkit.
Through our iterative experiences at improving this place-based environmental action program, we developed design principals and communication pillars that facilitate community and environmental impacts by teen-adult conservation partnerships. Furthermore, we present an approach to demonstrate collective environmental and community impact stemming from diverse citizen conservation efforts.
Results/Conclusions
Collectively, 232 community conservation projects have been carried out by UConn NRCA teen-adult partnerships. These intergenerational partnerships were formed by over 400 teen and adult community volunteers from 123 high schools, 138 community organizations, and 125 towns. Participant projects addressed a range of environmental topics and had diverse and significant environmental and community outcomes. We will show a few examples of diverse ecological projects to demonstrate how teen-adult partnerships are advancing conservation strategies in their local communities. Based off our programmatic experience, we outline four design principals and six communication pillars that are critical to facilitate teen-adult volunteer conservation efforts that make significant environmental and community impacts. Providing research-informed environmental training to conservation volunteers of all ages is essential, as land management decisions are largely carried out by volunteer-based commissions and land trusts. The guiding principles we propose will help enhance these citizen-driven community and environmental outcomes and contribute to environmental solutions.