Water. Access .Vitality. Education. Stewardship.
Creating future stewards of Lake Champlain
The health of Lake Champlain is an increasingly important issue for the community over the last decades. The Community Sailing Center acknowledges that the water quality of Lake Champlain, Vermont’s greatest natural resource, is compromised and its improvement is vital to the community and organization. Recreation-based environmental education is one of the many opportunities available to bridge people’s understanding of their personal impacts to the Lake’s health.
The Community Sailing Center is launching a new experiential learning initiative for children and adults to enhance their connection to Lake Champlain. The WAVES initiative will inform youth and adults alike about the exciting ecosystems of the Lake Champlain Basin through interactive science lessons and recreation on the Lake. This type of hands-on learning and on-the-water activity will engage and empower people to become future stewards of Lake Champlain, improving its water quality by changing perceptions and behaviour.
The goals of the WAVES initiative are:
- To implement a five-week environmental education program that includes lessons on water quality, weather, aquatic flora and fauna, watersheds, and human impact on natural ecosystems.
- Educate adults and youth about scientific ideas and basic ecological components of Lake Champlain, lessons that are then reinforced for them by their recreational use of the lake.
- Include an environmental education component to each and every one of our programs in 2009.
The first step to improve the health of Lake Champlain and Vermont’s natural environments is to better understand both their biological workings and the considerable pleasure they can give us through responsible recreation. The WAVES initiative will demonstrate and implement this core value of the Community Sailing Center. The Youth Environmental Stewardship Program will develop the future stewards of the Lake.
