Water Resources Education Assessment - Navajo County Programs

Name of Program/ Location/ Point of Contact

Navajo County Cooperative Extension
Stephen J. Campbell, Asst. Agent, AG/NR
402 East Hopi Drive
Holbrook, Arizona 86025
Phone: (602) 524?6271
Fax: (602) 524?2416

Description of Programs

A. Environmental Education Program

A memorandum of understanding between local, state and federal agencies was put into effect three years ago for the purpose of initiating public outreach programs. One such "School to Work" program selected the Mineral Basin Education Project to achieve ecosystem management objectives through hands-on activities, creation of a permanent environmental demonstration site and field trips to study various aspects of the program. The community college encourages students to explore careers in natural resources such as Watershed Management, Stream and Fish Restoration, Riparian Habitats and Monitoring Streams.

B. Blue Ridge Natural Resources Working Group

This group is composed of a cross section of community members; local state and federal government representatives, environmentalists, ranchers, timber industry, business people, academics and others from the urban areas as well as cooperative extension agents working together to find solutions to local problems. Topics of interest are Forest Restoration, Fuel Reduction in the Urban Interface and Community Forest, Re-utilization of Restoration by?products, Watershed Improvement and Sustainable Natural Resources Stewardship. The Blue Ridge Demonstration Project is one the collaborative efforts of this group with the goal of sharing outcomes with those who could most benefit from the information.

C. Adopt-A-Watershed

An articulate, thematic, integrated science curriculum for grades K-12 using a local watershed as the living laboratory for making science directly applicable and relevant to student's lives. Twelve school districts in Navajo and Apache counties are working together on this project in addition to various federal, state and county agencies. One school district, Blue Ridge, has adopted this curriculum for the district.

D. A Leadership Institute

Trains educators in building their own community Adopt?A?Watershed programs. Training is also offered in GLOBE and River of Words programs.

Audience: The above programs serve the Navajo County communities. In addition the outcomes and implementation of these programs are being shared with other communities both in and outside Arizona.

Current Status: The University of Arizona Navajo County Cooperative Extension employs one agent working in partnership with many individuals and agencies to continue the programs as described. Much of the funding for these programs depends upon grants from local, state and federal agencies.

Impacts: Community leaders are developing solutions to social, environmental and economic problems by committing their time and energy in a cooperative effort with local, state and federal agencies. Public outreach and other education programs have fostered improvements in the community's stewardship of the county's natural resources.

Lessons Learned: Grassroots efforts are very important to the success of the programs. Patience is a key virtue in evaluating progress. Intuition in seeing how different parts of the community can work together effectively is helpful.

Curriculum/supplies list: Contact Steve Campbell