Reflections on environmental history with a human face: Experiences from a new national park

Environmental History, Oct 2003 by Diamant, Rolf

AN EVOLVING PERSPECTIVE ON PARTNERSHIP

I HAVE LEARNED much about partnerships from my friend and mentor, Karen Wade, recently retired NPS intermountain regional director, Karen and her colleagues developed a rather unusual statement of ethics that resonates with my own values, and the philosophy I have tried to follow in my work: "The National Park Service is uniquely positioned as a citizen-centered agency to help voice the nation's conservation conscience. This conscience manifests itself as a conservation ethic with respect for land, our heritage, cultural diversity and human needs. This ethic reaches beyond the significance of any one unit of our system or the system itself. It lies in intrinsic values that help us understand whom we are as Americans and the systems that support and sustain us."22

In the past few years I have enjoyed the special opportunity to participate in several National Historic Landmark dedication ceremonies around Vermont, most recently for Shelburne Farms, in Shelburne. This is often a collateral duty for the superintendent of Vermont's only national park but a responsibility I enjoy. For the owners of the landmarks, these ceremonies are a moment to reflect on all they have accomplished with their hard work and stewardship. These are very much community celebrations. Near the end of each program comes the moment when the National Park Service representative stands up and presents the landmark plaque. With that plaque you are bestowing the nation's highest level of recognition for national significance and you are giving that plaque not to a single individual, but to a community. It is one of those rare moments when a celebration is both local and national. It is a day in your life you remember.

MBRNHP has tried to internalize this partnership ethic in the work we do. One example is our education program, "A Forest for Every Classroom." This program is characterized by its sustained commitment to helping classroom teachers and educators use woodlands as effective teaching environments for enhancing student environmental understanding, a sense of place, and decision-making and citizenship skills. In 2000, Shelburne Farms, the Conservation Study Institute, the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, the Green Mountain National Forest, and the Northeast Office of the National Wildlife Federation came together with a common vision: "If today's students are to become responsible environmental decision makers, they must understand their history and the local ecosystems in which they live and they must have educational opportunities based on real life issues that encourage them to practice citizenship in their own communities." Three years later this collaboration is stronger than ever, as is our partnership with the educators with whom we have been privileged to work.

Almost every public program offered at the park is, in fact, cosponsored with partnering organizations. The operating partnership between MBRNHP, the Billings Farm L Museum, and the Woodstock Foundation remains a bedrock relationship that continues to evolve and grow. This experience with partnerships also has been greatly expanded through MBRNHP's association with the Conservation Study Institute and its many national and international partners.