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Contacts: Diane Greenberg, (631) 344-2347 or Mona S. Rowe, (631) 344-5056

Brookhaven Lab Celebrates First Year of Open Space Stewardship Program

June 5, 2007

UPTON, NY -About 250 students, parents, teachers, land stewards, administrators and public officials attended a celebration at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory on May 24 to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Open Space Stewardship Program, a school-community-government partnership initiated by Brookhaven Lab's Office of Educational Programs.

Cutchogue East Elementary School students Elliot Lang (left) and Sam Shaffery studied the differences among several local trees on eastern Long Island and explained their poster to all who were interested, including Assemblyman Englebright, pictured with them. (Click image to download hi-res version.)

The program fosters respect for open spaces in students and helps them to learn about the scientific process through working with real-life data in the field. Further, the program may encourage students to choose careers in science and technology. Schools in the program are partnered with land stewards in their local communities, and students in grades K through 12 perform environmental research and stewardship activities on undeveloped land.

At the ceremony, New York State Assemblyman Steven Englebright, 4th District, said the 50,000 acres of undeveloped land that is preserved on Long Island is our "greatest treasure." He praised the Open Space Stewardship Program as a vehicle to protect these open spaces, and he suggested that the program should be a model for future initiatives in the state and the nation.

Nineteen Suffolk County school districts, mainly in Brookhaven Town and the East End, are participating in the Open Space Stewardship Program. Several students at the celebration gave oral presentations on their research, while others displayed posters on their projects.

Number: 07-63  |  BNL Media & Communications Office

One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE’s Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.

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