This experience has renewed and re-energized me, both personally and professionally. It has deeply broadened my understanding and I have a huge library of resources to share with my colleagues. The ultimate benefit has been the energy, enthusiasm, and knowledge that I was charged with, which is being transferred to my students."
participant, 2002

The Conservation Study Institute is working in a three-year collaboration with Shelburne Farms, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, Green Mountain National Forest, and the Northeast Natural Resource Center of the National Wildlife Federation to use the Mount Tom forest in Woodstock, Vermont, and the Green Mountain National Forest as teaching venues for place-based education focused on building knowledge of local resources and civic responsibility for environmental stewardship. This is a professional development program for Vermont teachers who seek to use public forest lands as an extension of their classrooms.

"Stewardship is about individually and collectively taking care of special places…. Only when the public has a greater sense of environmental stewardship in the big picture will national parks and the special landscapes of communities be held in perpetuity," observes Rolf Diamant, superintendent of the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park.