The plan's purpose is to provide refuge staff with a solid foundation for environmental education program development, implementation, and modification. (Other aspects of visitor services are not covered in the plan.) It describes background information such as identifying our existing audience, program appeal, and existing needs, wants and barriers. It targets potential program types, methods of delivery, participation and marketing, professional developoment of educators, educational resources, staffing and monetary considerations, partnerships and evaluation.

Implementation of the plan is already underway. The plan establishes biodiversity as our overall theme; habitat, wildlife and people as our main topics within that theme; a key message for each topic; and learner objectives for the Rhythms of the Refuge collection of field trip and classroom lessons.

Nine refuge staff and volunteer educators recently completed correlating those lessons to the Wisconsin Model Academic Standards in math, science, social studies, language arts, and environmental education. Now teachers will have added incentive and administrative support for using them, visiting the refuge for a field trip, or inviting Refuge staff to make a school visit.

Partnerships and potential for growth are highlighted in the plan. Blossoming opportunities include working with the Friends of Horicon NWR to disseminate Rhythms of the refuge once it is released along with Horicon NWR's video, the Refuge System video, and the Songs of the System music cd; expanding the Sense of Place project through the Horicon Marsh watershed and down through the Rock River basin; increasing service learning, career mentoring, and educational programming with Girl Scouts of the Milwaukee Area through Camp Silverbrook's "Going Places, Saving Spaces" summer camp; funding 10 inner city Milwaukee school field trips to the Refuge each year with help from America's Outdoors and Neighborhood House; establishing a distance education classroom in the visitor center in order to host on-site, live, electronic field trips and using several remote cameras and reaching geographically remote schools including incarcerated youth in Wisconsin's corrections system; and hosting a watershed exchange with students monitoring water quality in the Milwaukee and Rock River watersheds in partnership with the Center for Science Education at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

This plan was initiated in an effort to help field test a new environmental education curriculum and planning guide due to be released from the National Conservation Training Center in 2004 and originating from Diane Emmons in Region 6 of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The planning guide provides processes for refuge staff to either start an environmental education program or evaluate an existing one. As a result, refuge staff develop an environmental education plan for their station.

Eight employees and two volunteers contributed to the plan and correlation work as well as 16 working and retired local educators from 10 private and public schools, one day care, one home school association and one farm in eight different communities. In addition, one volunteer, one retired educator, and three individuals from the Neighborhood House in Milwaukee completed the task of correlating the lessons to the state standards. Nine different partners also contributed to the plan, including Marsh Haven Nature Center, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Aldo Leopold Foundation, Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, International Crane Foundation, University of Wisconsin-Extension, Cooperative Education Services Agency 6, Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, and America's Outdoors Center for Education, Recreation and Resources.